I've only seen the movie, and have yet to read the books. But I have to say the world did seem a little one-note and unexplained to me also, though I hope that more will be made clear in the books.
Clearly the Reaping is stacked. It clearly serves the powers in charge to have the poorest (and thus the ones with less to lose) be the most intimidated. I think that it must have been set up to be deliberately unfair: the ones who might be thought most likely to violently revolt would be those who are the most desperate. By stacking the Reaping and making it most likely that the poor kids will be picked, they repress those people and make them too fearful to revolt. That's probably why the "reminder" film every year as well. Plus, I think that at the topmost echelons of Power in that world, there is an element of sadism that enjoys seeing the poorest people beaten down. Kind of like certain people in our own world think that people are poor because they deserve to be poor, and by extension, they deserve to be kicked around as well...
The part that doesn't ring true for me is the way each District is a stereotype of only one commodity. Everyone in District 12 is part of a coal-mining economy. (This includes the shop owners and people like Peeta's parents who are bakers, because they cater to the people of the District.) Yet if exchange and communications between Districts is forbidden, where do the other commodities come from? Also it doesn't address the issue of how coal will run out--if it is being relied on so heavily, wouldn't it be making the global warming worse? Perhaps that's also addressed in the book, but I have to say I wondered about it.
But the issue that caught my own attention is the whole idea of the Games--they are clearly an extreme extension of the current craze for reality shows like "Survivor", in which people are aggressively eliminated one by one. It's not the first time that theme's been dealt with in the movies: "The Running Man" and "Truman" also show what using "real" people for "entertainment" could lead to. I think the idea of the Games is a fascinating and yet repulsive extrapolation of a trend, and very very disturbing.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2012-09-22 01:54 am (UTC)Clearly the Reaping is stacked. It clearly serves the powers in charge to have the poorest (and thus the ones with less to lose) be the most intimidated. I think that it must have been set up to be deliberately unfair: the ones who might be thought most likely to violently revolt would be those who are the most desperate. By stacking the Reaping and making it most likely that the poor kids will be picked, they repress those people and make them too fearful to revolt. That's probably why the "reminder" film every year as well. Plus, I think that at the topmost echelons of Power in that world, there is an element of sadism that enjoys seeing the poorest people beaten down. Kind of like certain people in our own world think that people are poor because they deserve to be poor, and by extension, they deserve to be kicked around as well...
The part that doesn't ring true for me is the way each District is a stereotype of only one commodity. Everyone in District 12 is part of a coal-mining economy. (This includes the shop owners and people like Peeta's parents who are bakers, because they cater to the people of the District.) Yet if exchange and communications between Districts is forbidden, where do the other commodities come from? Also it doesn't address the issue of how coal will run out--if it is being relied on so heavily, wouldn't it be making the global warming worse? Perhaps that's also addressed in the book, but I have to say I wondered about it.
But the issue that caught my own attention is the whole idea of the Games--they are clearly an extreme extension of the current craze for reality shows like "Survivor", in which people are aggressively eliminated one by one. It's not the first time that theme's been dealt with in the movies: "The Running Man" and "Truman" also show what using "real" people for "entertainment" could lead to. I think the idea of the Games is a fascinating and yet repulsive extrapolation of a trend, and very very disturbing.
As it should be.