“Caged birds accept each other, but flight is what they long for”-Tennessee Williams. The Anthem, by Ayn Rand is a novel about the control and power the collective government has upon it’s citizens. In The Hunger Games by Suzzane Collins, the same idea is explored, they both draw strong parallels about the idea of how much control and power the authority has. The impotence of the collective results in the unwillingness of the government to come to a conclusion and take action on behalf of the society it governs, through the means of limiting freedoms, enforcing laws with harmful punishment and propaganda. Ultimately, the amount of control the authority has upon it’s citizens plays a tremendous role in both, The Anthem and The Hunger Games. …show more content…
“Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch – this is the Capitol’s way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy. How little chance we would stand of surviving another rebellion. Whatever words they use, the real message is clear. “Look how we take your children and sacrifice them and there’s nothing you can do. If you lift a finger, we will destroy every last one of you. Just as we did in District Thirteen” (Katniss, 76). The essential purpose which Katniss is conveying, is that The Hunger Games is a form of entertainment where deaths are televised to remind the tributes of how weak they are by the government. Therefore, the games are a means of control and limits the freedom of individuals. Additionally, due to the government’s oppression, it declines to disclose information on the ideas, expressions and actions of particular tributes they oppose, individuals are completely enslaved by the center of control, the Capitol. Evidently, the Capitol denies to provide information from one district to another, simply to keep them isolated from another. Resources such as food and medicine are also restricted from use from the districts and the tributes which shows a sign of empathetic expression. “I want to do something, right here, right now, to shame them, to make them accountable, to show the Capitol that whatever they do or force us to do …show more content…
The Capitol embodies the usage of propaganda through television to broadcast its messages. In order for the Capitol to control the thought processes of its residents, everyone is required to have a television set despite the financial position of it’s residents. The significance of possessing a television is that the government of Panem is able to control their perceptions through the use of propaganda. As stated, "When they're airing the Games or some important government message on television it is mandatory to watch" (Katniss, 74). Furthermore, Claudius Templesmith, the arena broadcaster only shows specific scenes and keeps other’s secret, such as the Capitol keeping the knowledge of different districts away from the mainstream media. "I wonder if the Game makers are blocking out our conversation, because even though the information seems harmless, they don't want people in different districts to know about one another" (Rue, 246). Even things as simple as conversations are discarded to conceal information to promote The Hunger Games and avoid causing a rebellion. Additionally, Caesar Flicker man, a reporter, is the person in charge of the interviews with particular tributes. During these interviews, tributes including Katniss are taught to speak a certain way so that the audience will sponsor them. “Being one of the star-crossed lovers from District 12—it’s an absolute requirement if I
“Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock,” Sherman Alexie, the author, depicts a very rare, but normal image of a Native American family. Victor, the narrator, father beat a National Guard solider during an anti-Vietnam war rally. The incident was documented, seeing that his father a Native American. In result of this incident, Victor’s father was imprisoned for two years. After being released from being imprisoned, the first thing his father did was go back to Woodstock, where he says he was he was the only Indian to see Jimi Hendrix’s famous performance of the “Star-Spangled Banner”.
In several ways the novella Anthem can be compared to the modern day communist dictatorship North Korea. Although they are similar in some places they are completely different in other ways. Ways they are able to be compared and contrasted are the forms of government, the state and mentality of the citizens, and development or progress as a civilization. Although it is often said that anywhere can be better than a certain place, such as people saying that school is the worst place that exists for a relatable example, there are various different factors that play into the overall condition of something that it can be extremely difficult to tell. To finish the previous thought, school can be hated because people are put up to endure hours upon
Lily Haghpassand English 9 September 20, 2017 In the book, “The Anthem”, the government has found a way to maintain peace and harmony in society by instilling fear into its constituents. The members of this society are taken from their parents at birth and thrown into a world where differences are frowned upon and sameness is put above all other things, brainwashing each child with the notion that everything the government says is true. When children are born, they are denied bonding time with their parents and placed in the “Home of Infants” with other children their age and the idea of sameness is stressed. By doing this, they take away the emotion of love, among other things, and in turn, create a society of seemingly identical individuals.
Both 1984 and Anthem have very oppressive governments, but their laws are completely different from one another. In 1984, the government is strange when it comes to rules, there is nothing that is illegal, the people are allowed to do whatever they want, but if they do anything or even look slightly suspicious, the “Thought Police” will kidnap, torture, and kill anybody who has gone against the government. The government believes that if people are allowed to have emotions, they will become angry at the government, and revolt, and that’s why emotions are illegal (I will call it illegal because even though there are no laws, doing certain things will get you in trouble, so to avoid confusion, I’m going to continue saying it’s “illegal”), including emotional attachments to other people. People having sex for the purposes of procreation is perfectly legal, but having sex because you love the
Moral Assessment of Anthem In Ayn Rand’s novel, Anthem, Equality lives in a communist society that believes everyone must work for and be exactly like one another. For much of the novel, he believes what the Council of Vocations tells him, despite his intelligence and independence. By the end of the book, he realizes that the idea that everyone is the same and must work for each other is flawed. He deserves to live his own life and enjoy himself.
Human nature seems to be totally different in the next novel. In The Hunger Games, a male and female are selected out of twelve districts every year to participate in the games. The point of the game is to be placed in an inescapable battlefield and fight to the death. If a character wins the games you receive money, food, a house, and prestige. Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark are a part of the annual game.
Katniss is very poor which makes training for the Hunger Games very difficult for her. Unlike her opponents in other districts who train their whole lives for the Games. However, overall she proves to the city and district that she is a tragic hero through her self-sacrifice that led to victory. The Hunger games as you all are in common with was created by a bias capitol.
In the book Anthem the societies work together and work as a unit to get everything done, compared to our society where we work as individuals and do things by ourselves. For insistence in Anthem there are multiple groups such as street sweepers or the scholars all of them have someone in charge and they make all the calls. Unlike in our society where we make calls for ourselves like when we go to bed and where we want go and spend our nights and what jobs we want to have. Some ways our societies differs are at the age of 15 all the boys are assigned to a task for the remainder of his life.
The twelve districts in theory should view the Hunger Games as the necessary tool that keeps Panem from uprising and self-destruction, however, the reception of the Games in the really poor districts clearly shows that the Capitol cannot reform them to think so. Statistically, the poor districts are always the most likely to lose one year’s competition because they lack resources to train tributes and their children are starving. Therefore, the response to the Hunger Games in the poor districts who are on the brink of starvation is the most dramatic. Citizens of districts such as 11 and 12 can only view the Games as injustice because once a child is chosen at the Reaping he or she is evidently doomed to die. There are rare exceptions as the
In the Hunger Games series, a dystopian future is set up. The government of Panem, The Capitol, holds the wealth of Panem giving it the power to control all districts. In order to enforce this theory, they created the Hunger Games. They suppressed the rights of the citizen’s of Panem and selected their children in order to fight each other do death for survival. These games were created to scare the people and show them who was in charge.
Firstly, The Capitol believes in a system that restricts the citizen 's freedom to ensure their supremacy on the public. For instance, when Katniss sneaks into the woods and comments about the situations of starvation
Unable or making it really difficult to manage life and feedstocks, while those living in the capitol are free with an easy going life. Such power is capable of controlling those living in the district, making them fight for power while they watch for personal entertainment, “This is the capitol's way of reminding us, now totally we are at their mercy”. Another example of the capitol's power is that “Each district must nominate one boy and one girl for this years annual hunger games; control over the people, denial is something impossible for those living in the district. The freedom of the people
Before the games, the Capitol builds up the names of the tributes before putting them into the arena. They have previews of every tribute, charming one on one interviews, and intense training sessions. The Capitol makes sure that every household is provided with a television or even on the streets so that people can always be watching, “The only time you can count on it is when they're airing the Games or some important government message on television that it's mandatory to watch” (Collins 80). By the Games being publicly televised and it makes the Hunger Games seem more of a sport and entertainment to
On the other hand, there is Capitol who has political control in the nation of panem. The story starts when each district must offer a male and female between the ages of 12-18 at a public reaping as a penance for their uprising. The tributes which are male and female shall be delivered to the Capitol and then transferred to a public arena where they will fight with other district until a lone victor remains. This tradition called the hunger games. The story centers was coming from poor district 12 where Katniss and Peeta as their tributes.
Katniss is not just saving her folks, but she also desire for her whole nation to be free from tyrannical oppression of government and poverty, stand up to the injustices around her. The story is futuristic where countries have been destroyed and replaced by 12 districts (13 districts before but were dissolved due to uprising) under the control of capitol. To measure its control, and for the entertainment of the capitol, they organize games each year for 24 helpless children, 2 of each district, have to fight to death in a arena filled with dangerous animals and cruel tactics to destroy them. The winner will be televised, tribute remain all in their lives tied to the capitol and its murderous president. The Hunger Games Trilogy chronicles Katniss as she sacrifices herself by taking the place of her twelve year old sister Prim, in the the 74th Hunger Games.