Manipulation In The Hunger Games Language Analysis

Within this passage arises the absolute power of the state to manipulate the individual into a spectacle as a recurring thematic trend. Specifically, while Katniss does not explicitly love Peeta, she is forced by the Capitol into the persona of the “star-crossed lover” in-order to entertain the audiences of the Hunger games and “give them something more to care about.” In this way, there exists a tension between real and false appearances. For instance, in-order to properly put on this performance or façade of love, Katniss attempts to rely on the real love felt by her parents and replicate this to satisfy how the state “supposes” she should act. This further indicates the overall loss of identity that occurs through this manipulation of appearances, Rather than being able to express her own emotions, Katniss is instead reduced into a simple archetype. As such, this creates a form of irony in that the Hunger Games are meant be a form of
In particular, by being able to deliver judgement from the sky of the arena, it creates an association to the heavens and so, God, the highest traditional power in the divine hierarchy. Thereby, communicating that like God, the Capitol is in a position of ultimate power while Katniss, Peeta, and the other tributes are simply forms to be shaped or “created” to the Capitol’s desired image. Thus, this passage can be seen to contribute to the rest of the novel as a whole in that it outlines Katniss’s struggle to accurately embody her individual identity against the interventions of the Capitol. Notably, the epitome of this struggle occurs at the end of the novel in the final scene at the Cornucopia in which Katniss faces the other tributes who, by being turned into Mutts, have lost all contact with their own humanity and only have their old eyes as a sign of their previous