Food is a source of control in the world of The Hunger Games. A part of the prize given to the winner of the Hunger Games is a gift of food to the winner's district. Katniss tells us, "All year, the Capitol will show the winning district gifts of grain and oil and even delicacies like sugar while the rest of us battle starvation". The reader most likely considers grain, oil, and sugar to be commonplace and boring, certainly not something worth fighting to the death over. However to the hunger-stricken districts of Panem it is a coveted prize.
It is interesting to consider why food is so scarce in this world. The specialization of district 11 is agriculture, so one would think they would have plenty of food for themselves. Presumably provide food for the rest of Panem. In actuality they are just as poor and hunger-stricken as district 12. Katniss is surprised that they are able to send her a single loaf of bread during the games. The Capitol on the other hand has an abundance of food and enjoys fine delicacies. We must conclude then that the food scarcity in the poorer districts is not due to a physical lack of food, but rather due to the Capitol intentionally limit the supply of food in order to maintain control.
The United States has a similar disparity of food scarcity and food abundance. According to an article from mississippitoday.org, "Mississippi still the hungriest state", approximately 20 percent of the state's population deals with food insecurity. Meanwhile, food waste is common in other parts of the United States, and most Americans have abundant access to food. This disparity is most likely not part of a tyrannical plan of the government, as it is in the world of The Hunger Games. But it is an important issue and more should be done to end this food scarcity. In a Guardian article from 4/6/20, “In the poorest county in America’s poorest state, a virus hits home: ‘Hunger is rampant’”, a Mississippi resident explains that emergency plans implemented by the state resulted in her receiving just $6 more a week in food benefits to help feed her family after losing her job due to the pandemic.
I agree that food is used as a source of control in the world of The Hunger Games. As you point out, the Capitol lives in excess while the districts, especially the poorer ones, deal with extreme food scarcity. The children even go so far as to enter their names into the reaping multiple times for “a meager year’s supply of grain and oil” (13). Katniss has her name in 20 times, and Gale 42 times (13). Meer children are forced to risk their lives in the hopes of having enough food to survive another year. But, there’s another side to the food scarcity in Panem. Food is used also as a power tool to keep the districts at odds with one another. The richer districts, 1 2, and 4, have enough food to train volunteers for the Hunger Games, and the consensus is that one of them will usually win the games (94). The slight privilege that these wealthy districts receive is enough to keep all of the districts from banding together. What would happen if all the kids entered the arena at the Hunger Games and refused to kill one another? Because there are tributes that know they can win, they do not consider banding together with other tributes, which only perpetuates the divide between the districts.
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