Greetings, and welcome to Earthling Cinema. I am your host, Garyx Wormuloid. This week's artifact is The Hunger Games,
starring Hollywood savior Jennifer Lawrence, or "J.Lo" for short.
The Hunger Games takes place in a dystopian society called Panem. Acting as obvious corollaries to the twelve countries of 21st century Earth. In order
to keep these districts at bay, the Panamanian government makes children fight to the death
in something called a Battle Royale, which, when translated from the original Japanese,
means "Hunger Games."
Our protagonist is Katniss Everdeen of District 12, three districts better than the shantytowns
of District 9. Katniss volunteers in place of her good-for-nothing sister and meets a
small boy named Peeta. They are escorted to the Capitol by a talking bag of potpourri
and a former Hunger Games winner named Hey-Arnold, who help them get sponsorship deals with big
companies like Nike and FarmersOnly.com.
Once the Games get underway, everyone settles in and starts killing each other as promised.
Katniss decides she doesn't want to get killed, so she hides in a tree. Unfortunately, someone
else already thought of that. Unfortunately, it's a nice girl named Rue, who teams up with
Katniss to unleash a bunch of scary bugs. But that's the thing about friendship: almost
immediately one of the friends dies.
Just for kicks, the boys in the control room change the rules so two people can win if
they're from the same district, so Katniss and Peeta come up with a plan to let everyone
else get eaten by wolf-monkeys. But -- psych! -- the rules get changed again, there can
only be one winner. Katniss and Peeta threaten to pull a Romeo and Juilliard, so the bad
guys give up, and the game ends in the most satisfying way possible: a tie. It's the same
reason Americans loved soccer so much.
One of the most filling motifs in The Hunger Games is bread. Their nation is called "Panem,"
which is the Latin word for bread. Similarly, Earth had a restaurant called Panera Bread,
so that seems like it relates somehow. Peeta is the son of a baker man, yes he is, and
his name is a homophone of "pita" -- no homo -- which is what humans called pancakes.
Bread serves as a metaphor for the contrast between the elite and the subjugated.
Katniss and her ilk see bread as a rare source of
nourishment, the only thing standing between them and starvation. Conversely, the settings
associated with the Capitol are laden with cakes, cupcakes, and various other sugary
carbs. The government exists in a constant state of extravagance, excess, and indulgence.
It's like, hello, whatever happened to cheat days? No, I'm asking you, Karen. What happened
to them?
As evidenced by their lack of menu options, the citizens are powerless. The tributes are
seen as subhuman, rated on a numeric scale that determines their value, which, cosmically
speaking, is basically negligible. They are implanted with trackers in their arms, much
in the same way Americans did to their dogs to keep them from running off to join the
circus.
It is Katniss who finally pulls a power switcheroo. The Capitol is able to exert control over
the districts by depriving them of base-level subsistence and refusing to give out the WiFi
password. However, the Capitol's need for spectacle and excess allows Katniss to exert
control over THEM. By faking the romance with Peeta and threatening to commit double suicide,
she seduces her overlords with the sensationalist entertainment they so desperately crave.
The Hunger Games represent the media landscape of 21st century America, where reality TV
was king and clickbait was the lovable court jester. Not even traditional news coverage
was safe, often being subjected to the same exaggeration that caused reality television
to sap all meaning from the word "reality". And television.
In the world of the Capitol, how things APPEAR matters more than how they ARE, so Katniss
is forced act inauthentically in order to survive. Her "producers" give her excessive
makeup, new clothes, and a spicy rebrand. But ultimately, it is Katniss' most authentic
moments -- burying Rue in flowers, refusing to fight Peeta, becoming a mass murderer -- that
inspire others to strive for independence and take back their reality.
We would all do well to follow Katniss' lead, unless the situation is REALLY dire, in which
case why bother.
Earthling Cinema, I'm Garyx Wormuloid.