Poverty In The Hunger Games

The dystopia presents problems faced in reality in a way that allows readers of all backgrounds to connect to struggles faced by the protagonist. Collins chooses to highlight specifically the cyclical nature of poverty and the government’s abuse of power. Poverty is represented in two ways in the novel, both literally by depicting actual poverty and lack of necessary supplies, and figuratively through the Hunger Games and explanation of the predicted winners. Quite literally, Katniss and her family live in a state of poverty. The depiction of the bed with the “rough canvas cover” and the description of District 12 with its “squat gray houses” and “abandoned warehouse” gives the reader the impression that Katniss is not wealthy by any definition

Yet, this only depicts what poverty is; the Hunger Games figuratively depict the cyclical nature of poverty. Every year twenty-four tributes are chosen at random, two from each of the twelve districts to compete in the Hunger Games; yet in the wealthier districts, some children chose to train and later, volunteer to compete. Since these children have an advantage – training – they are more likely to win and gain recognition amongst their district (Collins 94); the new generation of children of competing age then look up to the past victors of their district and want to train to compete and win like them. Meanwhile, those in the poorer districts who do not train are more likely to lose; having so few victors to train the new tributes hinders their progress and likelihood to win. This cycle continues because those who are prepared for the task will do better than those unprepared; once a district has an advantage, it hard for those without the same resources to compete with them. This can be extended to poverty; people who have money are able to invest and make more while those with little are only able to cover the basic survival