The film The Hunger Games

The film The Hunger Games, released in 2012 and based off the first book of a literary trilogy, has become a source of entertainment and intrigue among many Americans. Featuring a futuristic and dystopian United States, it has captured the imagination for some and kindled a intense obsession for others. While on the surface this movie might seem to simply be a story with a riveting plot line about young love, vicious combat, and survival, it is much more than that. As most films do, if one takes a closer look, The Hunger Games gives rise to multiple sociological patterns and themes. If one observes with an informed and critical eye, sociological issues that are embedded in the film are revealed. From this, one can draw cultural and sociological conclusions based on the way in which characters are portrayed, the setting is presented, and events unfold as the plot thickens. As I watched this film, I took note of four particular sociological themes that consistently presented themselves throughout the course of events: gender roles, race, class inequality, and class structure.
Gender roles, or "the expectations for behavior and attitudes that the culture defines as appropriate for women and men" (The Social Construction of Gender), are in some ways reinforced and in other ways challenged in this film. The first glimpse we get of a gender role being upheld is when Katniss interacts with her younger sister, Primrose. As most women in American society is expected to be, Katniss is nurturing toward Primrose by comforting her on The Reaping Day and giving her a mocking jay pin that represents a promise of protection to her. On the flip side of this, Katniss is also presented as a pillar of strength and courage. The fact that she is the ma...

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...one only by winning the Hunger Games makes me believe that this is a representation of how increasingly
Odegaard 6! difficult it is it move up socially and economically in today's society because of the widening gap between the rich and the poor (Aspects of Class in the US: An Introduction).
The Hunger Games is not simply a thrilling film that has gained the interest of people both young and old. It is a warning for the people of this nation to stop and examine the world in which they live and the social norms, rituals, and the economic and political system in which they participate. Greed and power have for too long driven and dictated the way in which Americans live their lives. If we are not careful, there is a possibility our society could end up the way that the futuristic society in The Hunger Games ended up. This movie is tale of caution that must be heeded.