The Hunger Games - Government Oppression

Entertainment for Control

The hunger games themselves are not just a way to show how much power the capitol has or as punishment for the rebellion that happened 74 years ago. It is also a way to control the population using children killing each other as entertainment because competitors from each district fight each other making people hate the other districts for killing their own and making sure they would not want to work together in rebellion. Entertainment is an easy way to control such a large population because most people are very poor and have no way to entertain themselves, free entertainment is a real gift to them and something they can look forward too even though it is something that would seem sickening to people in todays society. The violent nature of the games will not effect some of the population of Panem as much because it has become normalized in their mind. It is an easy way for the Capitol to entertain the violent members of the twelve districts but also send a message that rebelling will only cause danger to you and that they are not above sending children to fight each other to death to make sure the districts are under their control.

Punishment

Corporal Punishment is deliberately inflicting pain of physical harm to another person as punishment for an offense or for the purpose of disciplining a wrongdoer. It can include things such as being canned, whipping,public beating and death sentence such as electric chair,hanging and lethal injection.

In the book The hunger games corporal punishment is used as a way to enforce the harsh and sometimes bizarre laws that the capitol have to keep there citizens in order. For incidence the main character Katniss Everdeen is constantly hunting for food outside the walls of her district this is a crime punishable by a public whipping. In district 12 (katniss district) peace keepers turn a blind eye to hunting and minor due to the poor state of starvation most the district lives in. In district 11 Rue tells Katniss about a person who took some of the crops while they worked (as this is what district 11's purposes is) and he was punished with a public whipping.

The Capitol use corporal punishment to keep the morale of all districts low and unwilling to step out of line. Anyone who looks like they may conspire against the capitol is punished for all to see so no one will re-try there act of rebellion. The capitol must constantly enforce there laws as they would be highly outnumbered should the districts band together and rebel. People who try to escape from the capitol or try and conspire get there tongue cut off and our turned into a "avox" a slave for the capitol who is only responds when spoken to and must wait hand and foot on the citizens of the Capitol. The Capitol use these harsh punishments on a regular basis to make sure the are feared across the whole of the country and that on man stands against them.

Differences Between Districts

Making sure the districts are different is another way to control the districts and making sure none are strong alone and that they cannot work together as well. For example district 12 has the coal resources but cannot themselves use it and are starved so they are always tired and hungry never able to rebel because their lack of resources and strength, also district 11 had lots of food but were unable to have it because if they were caught they where whipped publicly and so had no resources at all and therefore unable to rebel as they would surely be crushed under the might of the capitol. They also who feel helpless because all their intake is controlled by the Capitol who can either give or not give so being good and not being bad ensures they will survive, barely.

By restricting the raw materials used for weapons and any form of military resistance by controlling resources in all the districts they can be sure of superiority and dominance over all the districts even though they are the smaller population. Just because they have the smaller population doesn't mean they can't control by being smart about the way they control becuase a slightly unhappy population who has somethings to live for is easier to control a completely unhappy population who have not much at all to live for.