The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, A Symbol of Hope in a Dying World

by Christopher Barr

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is a sequel to 2012’s The Hunger Games.  The film tells the story of a young woman, Katniss Everdeen, who is suffering from survivor’s guilt from her recent win at the 74^th annual Hunger Games.  These games are a spectacle hosted by totalitarian President Snow.   This President, rules over a nation in a post-apocalyptic world, where everything was killed off years ago and from under the rubble rose what was left of humanity.  He presides over a city called The Capital in a nation called Panem, the Capital is glorious, and it is where all the rich and powerful live in the lap of luxury.  On the outskirts of the city, over the heavily guarded walls are where the poor and impoverish live.  Their areas are broken up into 12 districts.  Katniss is a poor girl who lives with her little sister and mother in district 12.

The games goes as follows; 1 boy and 1 girl, 12 years or older are entered into a lottery and chosen at a ceremony called The Reaping, when they are chosen they are called Tributes and are brought, often kicking and screaming, to a training facility, only to be positioned in a gaming arena, where they are to grab a weapon and commence killing each other until there is only one left standing.  This is all televised for the citizens of the Capital to relish in while those in the districts root for their tributes to survive and come home safely.  The whole thing is sick but like the Gladiatorial days leading to the fall of the Roman Empire, you can’t put much past bored human beings with a lot of money on their hands and a population of slaves they can turn into entertainment.

The militarized forces that police the districts and protect the Capital are oddly enough called Peace-Keepers.  They are a group of knuckle dragging, one dimensional, blunt objects for President Snow to wield when lessons need to be taught to the people of the districts.  They perform torture and public executions for civil disobedience as well as maintain an official watchful guard over the people.  

Toward the beginning of the film President Snow pays Katniss a visit to remind her that she was victor over a game.  With her win, gave rise to a dissent that was troubling the President and he wanted to ensure that Katniss becomes a puppet for the state and not a beckon of hope for the people of the districts.  With her family and her district threatened with bloodshed by the Peace-Keepers, Katniss agrees to go along with the President’s propaganda campaign of compliance.

Katniss has become a beckon of hope for the district, just as the President feared.  Where Batman created himself to be a symbol for fear to the criminals of Gotham, Katniss became more than a person, she became a symbol.  The only difference between her and Batman, other than cowl and cape, is Batman is a hero and Katniss isn’t.  Batman meticulously orchestrated his image to be used as a tool for Gotham and Katniss inherited hers.  Katniss wants peace for her family and she wants food for them to eat, as all the districts are bordering on starvation.  Katniss doesn’t want to be in the spotlight or to be celebrated, she’s very much aware of how horribly sick the whole sensationalized Hunger Games are.

The show has a glorified host that adds commentary to the heathens watching the proceedings as they stay safely in their secured castles.  He provides them statistics on each fighter where odds-makers in Vegas would surely bet.  The elite population sees nothing wrong with this type of entertainment, scared children slaughtering each other.  This may be extreme but this is where we are in our society, with our first world technology and shallow blinded world views.  We are that future and Katniss is just a victim in a sick game, thankfully in her case she’s good with a bow and arrow.

Katniss and Peeta, her on again off again love interest and winning mate, are invited to a party in the Capital, among the elite to celebrate with them for winning the previous Hunger Games.  While walking by a long table smothered in the finest food, they are stopped by a man offering Peeta a shot of purplish liquid.  This man tells them that the purpose of the drink is to induce vomiting, so they can quickly empty their stomachs and thus have room now to indulge in more food.  Peeta, disturbed by this form of gluttony, righteously declined the offer and walked away.  This of course is squandering power and resources to the point hedonism.  These people are aware of the starvation in the districts outside the city walls.  But I think that’s why Katniss isn’t seeking enlightenment, I think she already possesses it despite herself, she sees the world for what it is, without illusions.

Why do we enjoying watching others suffer?  It might have something to do with it not being us.  There seems to be a curiosity about the body and its capabilities during violence, but with violence comes pain.  I think this is why we enjoy violence better from a distance.  We are animals and violent ones at that, but we are civilized and have sworn to give up or animalistic ways to live in cities and shop at malls.  But we still enjoy toying in and around death, it gives us a thrill, but it’s not for everyone.  Shockingly, intellectuals and free-thinking elevated people seem to be less interested in such things.  They seem to be more interested in furthering humanity on a more progressive path.  The problem with these progressive smart individuals is that they don’t make good politicians because they are not self-interested.  Politicians by their very nature are out for themselves in some form.  Certainly some care about the people but those politicians are usually killed or forced out of office by much more ravenous men that seek power and a solipsistic dream of celebrity.    And Politicians, for obvious reasons don’t like people that question their authority, it hurts their egos. 

Katniss questions authority, she dreams and she thinks on her own.  She’s curious and spontaneous as she lives her life and these are all attributes we could all only wish to possess.  But she is forced into a game to amuse detached, dissatisfied people that only wish to see her killed.  Katniss is in the unique position to see both sides of the societal coin, the poor and depraved and the well-to-do elite.  She is free for the most part to walk among them both, but is of course reminded of where she’s from.  She sees a society so decadent that it’s only wish is to eat itself to death, I feel that’s quite similar to American society, a place so far lost that they forgot where they even started from, a place so corrupt that the word no longer holds meaning.  But that’s the problem with a society unchecked; it is able to run amok without responsibility for its actions.  Katniss is truly trapped no matter what side of the coin she’s on, and that’s the real tragedy of this film.  A woman that only wishes to be a Mocking Jay and fly freely, is caged in an invisible dome like a rat.