“Foucault’s (1975) Discipline and Punish, discuss how surveillance and discipline are necessary; and that regulatory power is used to control and organise societies and nation-state”. A constant surveillance on people, locating threats and enforcing the law to maintain order. I argue that the Hunger Games plot and Foucault’s (1975) Discipline and Punish does show relation as it surveillance and broadcasts the blood bath game nationwide from the Capitol to the whole 12 district. For Capitol the game is looked as a form of entertainment used to make it seem like honouring the sacrifices that were made to have a safe and harmonious place to live. However, for all 12 districts, it is a form punishment to keep the discipline intact and for past rebellious acts reminding the districts Capitol is the one with power. The Hunger Games (Part 1) takes place in Panem, located at North America which has 12 districts and from each district one male and one female is chosen to participate in a death match, the age range of 12 to 18 years old. The victor lives rest of his/her life in no worries of every …show more content…
As Capital is in absolute control, the citizens of the districts no longer resist their power because it provides them with security and resources to live off. They even self-monitor each other to prevent any mishaps from occurring and conflict from arising making sure everyone does what the Capital asks of them. They censor their thoughts and speak carefully to not bring out a controversial topic that can limit their resources or even worse torture and be sentenced to death as a form of punishment. In contrast, while all 12 Districts fear not having any resources, Capital wastes its resources without thinking twice. The rich are fortunate to have a silver spoon on their mouth while the poor work day and night just so they can fill their and families empty stomach embracing humiliation and
Foucault and Nietzsche challenge the hidden purposes of historians in their search for origins, demonstrating that an accurate understanding of history rectifies one of any beliefs of moral origins. In this paper, I will elaborate what Foucault thinks an accurate understanding of history regarding punishment truly is. I am going to clarify this concept by focusing on the first chapter of Foucault’s book, Discipline and Punish.
Dunn, George A., Nicolas Michaud, and Dereck Coatney. The Hunger games and philosophy: A critique of pure treason. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2012. page 179.
Suzanne Collins has, through her writings, used great imagery to expose the meaningful side of ‘The Hunger Games’, the side that is not all about what takes place in the arena. The Capitol’s rule over the districts, the reality-show part of the Hunger Games and the Mockingjay pin are all fragments of deeper meanings that create the basis of all that the story is. Suzanne Collins has depicted the country of Panem as a place overruled by a large city, known as the Capitol. The Hunger Games is apparently a means to keep peace and a fair punishment for the rebellion of the districts, where district 13 was obliterated in the mess. However, Collins has spun this interpretation around and unveiled a different perspective – that The Hunger Games is
Among the books discussed over the duration of the course, the most recurrent theme has been the dominance of power relationships and the construction of institutions driven by power. The framework for these socially ingrained power relationships that has been transformed over time has been laid out by Michel Foucault in his book Discipline and Punish. According to Foucault, power is everywhere, dispersed in institutions and spread through discourses. The state functions on a number of dispositions which are hierarchical, naturalized and are the modes of power for the power elite. The result of this social and economic control is observed in nations and across nations through the beauty myth, the prison system, the creation of informal systems or the overarching cultural hegemony and attempted reform of the non-western world. The key to the success of this has been through the misrecognition of the constructed systems of power which are instated through very fundamental mediums that they are not questioned. These structures of control by the state are adopted and reproduced from the base of the familiar, through arrangements and dispositions that pose themselves as natural, as they are embodied and programmed in the play of language, in common sense, and in all what is socially taken for granted. In this essay I will examine these above mentioned structures of the power and how these models are used to discipline individuals and states.
Throughout Catching Fire, the reader sees many examples of an increase in violence. Collins doesn’t tell her reader she’s indicating violence; instead she invites the reader to feel the pain and emotion of the violent acts through hate, betrayal, fear, and despair that may be seen throughout the book. The reader’s blood will boil as Collins unreels the idea of Dominant Violence. The setting of Catching Fire is during the future of a postmodern city of America called Panem. Panem is the Capitol city which has absolute control over twelve Districts they violently subdue. Panem demands the yearly sacrifice from each of the twelve district of two innocent tributes that must fight to the death in a survival of the fittest like game called “The Hunger Games.” These teenage scapegoats keep the d...
The contest within The Hunger Games is rooted deep in the film's backstory, in which the nation of Panem was rocked by a civil war. Twelve oppressed Districts rose up against an oppressive Capitol, and the end result of this civil war was a Capitol victory (Hunger Games). In response to the rebellion of its outer provinces, the government of Panem decreed the creation of the Hunger Games, in which each District would send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to fight in a battle to the death, until only one Victor emerged supreme, who would then, “be showered with glory”, by the Capitol, in order to show the mercy and kindness of their overlords (Hunger Games).... ... middle of paper ...
In Discipline & Punish, Michel Foucault criticizes the penal system in which discipline and punishment have shifted from corporal to the mind and soul. Foucault argues that the implementation of prisons over torture has not made it more humane for the criminal, it has, however, transition the punishment from the body to the soul. While the reader holds the very eloquently title book, Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the Prison, Foucault’s argument is feed to the reader long before the first chapter is read. “The Birth of the Prison” indicates that the evolution of punishment is imminent. While Foucault narrates a public execution that took place in France of 1757, The reader is forced to recognize Foucault argument at a subconscious level.
The Hunger Games was a critically acclaimed movie when it came out; however, some critics would argue that the movie can be sometimes too violent for its intended audience. In this essay I would dissert Brian Bethune’s essay “Dystopia Now” in order to find its weaknesses and compare the movie Battle Royale with his essay.
Complete governmental control develops as an apparent theme of both 1984 and The Hunger Games. 1984 uses the concept of big brother for the sole purpose of instilling a dependence on the government for every aspect in the citizens’ lives. Similarly, the capitol of Panem in The Hunger Games censors information from the people so that any idea of revolution will be instantaneously
The Hunger Games that follows, the term that defines a dystopian fiction. One main belief that defines Dystopian society is the development into a “hierarchical society” (“Dystopia”). A hierarchical society plays a big part in the story that outline the whole plot. For example, Capitol is wealthier than all the districts. Some districts are more privileged than others. The Careers, being tributes from districts one to three, are prepared and trained for years before the games. However, this is illegal, but because of the support towards District two from the Capitol, they are let off, along with District one and District four, the other richer districts. In this cas...
The Hunger Games, directed by Gary Ross, was released in 2012. The film is about a young girl who lives in one of the twelve districts of the Capitol of Panem. To keep these districts from resorting to war like past times, the capitol now forces one girl and one boy to fight to the death until only one remains. Jennifer Lawrence, staring as Katniss Everdeen, has been chosen to represent district 12. The film uses many different elements to display all the emotional and physical struggles Katniss must endure while participating in the games.
In a not-too-distant, some 74 years, into the future the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 13 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games; these children are referred to as tributes (Collins, 2008). The Games are meant to be viewed as entertainment, but every citizen knows their purpose, as brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts. The televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eradicate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. The main character throughout the series is a 16-year-old girl from District 12 named Katniss Everdeen.
Various countries that have unstable governments mirror the same types of social structures. The regimes of North Korea, Sudan, and Somalia has great disparity between their respective social classes. The poor in these countries have very little compared to the rich, and the reason behind much of this is the inadequate or over-enforcement of the laws of the land. These recent occurrences influenced author Suzanne Collins to compose a dystopian novel derived from the oligarchical structure of these variety of sovereign states. The Hunger Games suggests that the hierarchical manner in which social classes are organized is determined by the governmental decisions.
The city of Panem is a society which is divided into two major groups; the 12 districts and the Capitol. These 12 districts all serve under an autocratic political state known as The Capitol. The Capitol represent the bourgeoisie and the 12 districts the proletariats. There is endless conflict between both classes. This is seen when the district rebelled against the Capitol and failed. The Capitol uses the fact that they failed to oppress them more.
The Hunger Games- “a futuristic dystopian society [Panem] where an overpowering government controls the lives and resources in twelve different districts” (The Hunger Games). The overpowering government lives in the Capitol of Panem and from there controls the citizens of the twelve districts through propaganda and other means. The Capitol has all of the economic and political power in Panem; they have complete control. The leader of the capitol is the harsh, dictator-like figure, President Snow. President Snow’s methods for keeping order in the districts are through Peacekeepers and the annual Hunger Games. The Peacekeepers are an army that monitors each district. Any sign of rebellion, and the Peacekeepers take care of it, usually by killing the rebel in some way. The annual Hunger Games are used to remind all of the citizens of Panem about the uprising in the now obliterated District 13. The Hunger Games, in a way, brainwashes all of the citizens, but a select few such as Katniss Everdeen, to believe that an uprising would be horrible and is not necessary and that the Capitol does what is best for all of the citizens. In