District Privilege

          Catching Fire is a sequal to a story first presented in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It is a story that follows a heroic girl names Katniss Everdeen, who lives in a country called Panem, and her battle against all things that could go wrong in a society. By all things that could go wrong I mean a country set up by a horrible President who forces his people to fight to the death every year for entertainment. The president, Snow, also thinks that this will put the people in order and help them fear the Capitol so they never revolt but boy was he in for a surprise. Katniss showed the Captitol who is boss by not only winning the 74th Hunger Games but by letting there be two victors instead of the traditional one. She showed that the people are the ones in charge and that the Capitol cannot stay ruining lives forever. As Collins tells this great story she also incorporates many hidden meanings and lessong that she would like her readers to take with them. 
          What is the hidden meaning in Catching Fire? The allegory? Is it a moral one or political one? It's obvious that the allegory in Catching Fire pertains to a political message but we can also find many moral messages within. The political side of it is that the world of Panem represents everything wrong with society, it is the exact opposite of how a country/nation should be set up. Suzanne Colllins does a good job of bringing up comparisons between what is right and wrong in a country then applying it in the novel to Katniss's world. The only good outcome of nations that are set up like this is that the people come to realize for themselves what the right things to do is and they stand together to eliminate it. These nations are weak and we see that in the Hunger Games. President Snow could not fool the world into thinking he is doing a great job. Katniss proves that structures like these do not hold up and that if the people are given a droplet of hope of getting out of their current conditions they will take it and make it into an enormous tidal wave. These quotes from the book perfectly describe what I am talking about. The weakness of the Capitols structure when Katniss says "It must be very fragile if a handful of berries can bring it down." Also the unity that forms between the citizens of Panem and the feeling of hope that cannot be erased by fences and peacekeepers.

          Reading Catching Fire helps people to better analyze the quality of living that they are currently in. Is this the kind of environment I want to live in? Is our leader doing their best, truly, to help the place they swore to protect?  It advances their morals and sense of what is right and wrong. Isn't it wrong to let there be a lower class system? Isn’t it wrong to lets our neighbors starve while we enjoy glamourous meals and lavish lifestyle? Isn’t it the right think to do to give charity and be nice to one another? The people of Panem realize this when they are fighting the Capitol.

          Catching Fire also includes a lot of celebrity culture in it, although that may not be the best terminology for this topic because it applies to anyone who can fit in.  What I mean is that in Panem there are the districts closest to the Capitol and those districts are usually the wealthiest. They are the farthest from depression, economic inequality and violence yet they are the ones helping to cause it. A part of celebrity culture is ignoring people's strife because they are not in their position. And they love for things to stay the way they are because they are the ones on top. It's kind of like the concept of white privilege. Because those who are not a bad situation never really understand the pain of those in the situations so they never really want things to change.

This all adds to the political and moral allegory in Catching Fire. The world of Panem represents ignorance and privilege but it also presents lessons that can be applied to everyday life.

Kamelia A. Prompt 5.

Work Cited

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc, 2009. Print.

The Selfless Hero

After reading Catching Fire, I have noticed something that is talked about on the show Criminal Minds when they talk about a team of two suspects. There’s usually a dominant suspect and a submissive suspect. The dominant one is the one that takes charge of every action and the submissive one just follows along, occasionally taking charge in their “mission.” They are usually more vulnerable.

After hearing this description of a submissive person a bunch of times, I noticed that Peeta kind of fits that description. This description mainly reminded me of Peeta when he was in the games with Katniss. It seems like now he’s a lot more confident and ready to take charge than he was in the games. Obviously this isn’t Criminal Minds and Katniss and Peeta aren’t trying to play out some sort of murderous crime (the killings in the games don’t count here), but they kind of fit the description of that type of team.

Peeta is a character that is definitely underrated. His strengths weren’t as showcased as Katniss’ were. She has strengths that you can physically see, while Peeta has ones that he controls. When I say “ones that he controls” I mean that he needs to be the one to show us these strengths. If he doesn’t open up and show these strengths, then you’ll never see them unless you have an eye for seeing the little things in people. In this situation it would be hard to see them because you’re so focused on what Katniss is showing that Peeta gets pushed aside.

Peeta is extremely selfless, unlike Katniss. Yeah, that was kind of a harsh statement, but it’s true. Katniss only pretended to love Peeta so she could win the games and now she’s doing it again so her family and Gale don’t get killed by President Snow. Although she does start to sort of fall in love with Peeta, the whole relationship started as an act. All of Peeta’s actions, to our knowledge, thus far have been selfless. For example, he announces that he wants “the tributes’ families from District Eleven to receive one month of [their] winning every year for the duration of [their] lives” (Collins 59)

Another example of his selflessness is how he wants to save Katniss’ life when they go back to the games. He literally gives Katniss a locket with a mockingjay on it and with the pictures of her mom, Prim, and Gale in it. He’s basically telling Katniss that he wants her to have a future with Gale when he’s gone.

Peeta also has another trait to him that we really didn’t see the first time he was in the games. He is a great public speaker. When him and Katniss get to District 11 during the Victory Tour, he is able to say what he wants to say without intensely planning ahead and without using notecards. He knows how to thread sentences together in a special way that “can move a crowd – no, a country – to his side with the simple turn of a sentence” (Collins 338).

Along with his speaking, Peeta knows how to put on a show. When he goes for his interview at the Capitol before the games, he tells everyone that him and Katniss are married at heart and that she’s pregnant, which is obviously not true. He has that little bit of charm that convinces everyone that him and Katniss are extremely in love.

After reading this book and the first Hunger Games book, you can definitely see a growth in Peeta’s character. He has gone from this quiet baker boy that threw bread to Katniss to a man that has won the games and is able to speak and put on a show in front of people, like President Snow, who want him and Katniss to fail.

I think that Suzanne Collins wants us readers to think of Peeta as a selfless hero. He really doesn’t do much to save himself in this book. He really tries to save Katniss because he realizes that she has a future to live for. I think the moment that Peeta gives Katniss the locket is the moment when a lot of people, even Katniss, realizes that Peeta has given up, per say, on fighting to win the games. He would much rather have Katniss have a life rather than himself. In my opinion, I would say that Peeta is the most selfless character in this book.

-Emily C. Prompt 6

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc, 2009. Print.

Catching Fire relation to "White Man"

Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins tells a story about two young adults about their lives after they won the 74^th Hunger Games. They have to face many consequences based on their actions they did in the arena. Two winners at the Hungers Games was never seem before. Katniss and Peeta, the winners, were able to do this by faking a fake love and holding up the berries as a sign of rebellion. After being crowned the winners of The Hunger Games, Katniss has to face a series of problems such as convincing President Snow, the reaping, and the inequality of the districts.

"White Man" by Langston Hughes is a poem written to let readers comprehend that people in our society are being condition that race is the divider of inequality. That white man has all the power because they have the best jobs and take control of other countries or territory. But, this isn’t the case. Hughes wants to convince the reader that race is not the divider but Capitalist is the main cause of all the inequality. Hughes says, “I hear your name ain't really White Man… Is your name spelled C-A-P-I-T-A-L-I-S-T?” (Hughes line 19). Capitalist is causing all this injustice. In other words people who are wealthy causing this. Any race can have power as long as they have money.

CAPITALIST

Similar, The Capitol is the highest of all. But why does the Capitol have so much power? To start this off, I will give examples why the capital has so much power. First, the Capitol holds annual Hunger Games, which they reap 2 tributes, one male and one female, from each district to punish the citizens for their rebellion from the past Also, to remind citizens of consequences for rebelling against the absolute power of the Capitol. Furthermore, the Capitol hold Quarter Quells every twenty-five years. Collins explains, “It would call for a glorified version of the Games to make fresh the memory of those killed by the districts’ rebellion” (Collins 171). These games have the same purpose as the regular games but the have a tiny twist. For the seventy-five hunger games the capitol will send previous winners from each district which demonstrates that you can’t mess with the capitol because they are the highest of all. 

Does the capitol have wealth? Absolutely! The capitol has so much money they can eat everything at a party event. Octavia, one of Katniss helpers, says, “I’ve been in there twice already. Everyone does it, or else how would you have any fun at a feast?” (79). People in the Capitol have a surplus of food and can manage to have tons of food while people in the districts are starving to death. In District twelve they are so weak and live in a poverty society. They have zero power because Gale and Katniss explain that an uprising against the capitol in District twelve is near impossible because its all or nothing. Meaning that they will rise together as a whole against the capitol who is absolute powerful or they will be put down if only a portion rises up against them.

Moreover, Katniss has to convince the districts that her act in the games wasn’t defying the capitol but was deeply in love. President Snow goes to district twelve to meet up with Katniss and tell her what will happen if there is a rebellion against the Capitol. President goes all the way to twelve demonstrating that he has the power to go to other districts unlike the citizens of Panem who can’t leave their districts. President Snow is powerful because he controls the nation by making the districts work for the capitol. The Districts provide most of their products to the capitol such as coal and mining, fish, electronics, luxury items, weaponry, and livestock just to name a few. (147) The capitol forces the districts to do this.

Panem translates to “Bread and circuses”. It is a political strategy to keep the citizens satisfied with the current leaders by distracting them with cheap food and entertainment. This is exactly how this society is being control. Panem distracts their districts them from their surrounding because they are the highest of all. They have the money to control Panem. The citizens from the capitol have lots of money because they have the latest fashion trends and have fancy apartments.

In conclusion, I am convinced that capitalist have the power to control everything because they have the money to bring down the citizens. In Catching Fire, the Capitol has total control of the districts because they make the districts provide all their goods and services to them, they hold The Hunger Games, and make the districts weaker by making them live in terrible conditions.

Works Cited

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc, 2009. Print.

Prompt 3 Text-text

Violet Vs. Katniss

The novel “Catching Fire” builds a lot of perspectives on how strong and independent each character is in the hunger games such as the main character Katniss , as for in the novel “feed” M.T Anderson also promotes a strong and revolutionized character which also happens to be a female, violet. These are both strong woman that through the two different novels refused to go down without a fight. Backtracking in the novel feed where violet became a big interest in the book when she started dating the main character Titus and was so hooked on the fact that he was hooked onto his feed, violet is always trying to find a way to get Titus off of his feed, for example one time they went out and she was basically trying to trick the feed asking for things to buy that didn’t make sense just a bunch of nonsense, everything that fit her feeds description from clothes and personal items she may enjoy she completely went for the opposite confusing her feed and trying to prove a point to Titus. As for in the Hunger Games “Catching Fire” where Katniss Everdeen at age 16 takes a stand to take her sisters Prims spot in the 74^th hunger games is where her journey begins. From surviving in the first game from a head shot with a knife from her opponent clove which Katniss blocked, to making it through the game. Now to a more revolutionized and stronger character, I would have to pick Katniss.

1

  .     Katniss Everdeen’s biggest competitor is a male named Peeta, and she is still forced to overcome him if she wants to survive.

2.     She isn’t the sweetest girl but also isn’t as cruel as people portray her

3.     She hunts illegally just to feed her family to stay alive

4.     She volunteers as a tribute for her sister prim to save her life

The differences between the two characters Violet and Katniss are indeed that for one even though violet fought the feed and tried to stick to what she preached, it all fell through at the end of the novel when the feed hacked her and she went insane and slowly started dying, she tried to impact the people she cared most about to improvise to them that the feed is not needed at all times in fact she was trying to prove you can do so much more without it but from all she’s tried to prove took a down fall. As for Katniss a strong rebellious woman who will do anything for her family even kill if she has to has took a great pick over my decision on which character is more revolutionized. Katniss shows more improvement in her efforts to get across everyone what she wants will be what she gets. Katniss isn’t as reluctant as violet was with specific situations in the novel, Katniss simply went with it is what it is and keep it moving motto. She sets a prime example for all of District 12’s children, or females which is a big political view for all of the people watching and keeping up with all of Katniss moves especially since that this the 74^th hunger games will not be her last, “And if a girl from District Twelve of all places can defy the capitol and walk away unharmed, what is to prevent, say, an uprising” president snow pg.21. This quote is right when Katniss became the face of Panem after the game makers declare her and Peeta as dual victors. Jumping from novel to novel has shown more how such a wild card Katniss is, now what I mean by that is Katniss is not predictable at all you can never guess what’s next with her, but on the other side violet was more predictable because over and over again she was going about how to stay away from the feed cast all in basically the same way it was never unpredictable that’s why I believe violet didn’t make it through and that Katniss did because she never did anything the same she always kept her opponents, district 12, and her allies on their toes with every move she made.

Tatiana Smith

Work Cited

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. New York: Scholastic Inc, 2009. Print.