The Hunger Games (Chapters 1-5)

This week's reading was the first five chapters of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. For those of you who don't know, The Hunger Games is a book about a girl named Katniss Everdeen. Katniss is a 16 year old girl who lives in a place called District 12. North America has collapsed and in its place rose Panem, a new country consisting of 13 districts of impoverished people. Each district is sectioned off and guarded by tall gates. The people in these districts (especially 12) are filled with poor people who can barely feed their families. 

As an act of power, the Capitol (the main power of Panem) puts on an event every year called The Hunger Games. These games ask for two "tributes" from each district. Tributes are kids from age 12-18 and are picked at random. The tributes are sent away to the Capitol and forced to participate in a "fight to the death". The last tribute standing wins his/her life and fame across the districts. 

After reading these first few chapters, and having watched the movies, I couldn't imagine a world like this. They're pitting children against each other for their entertainment. It doesn't matter if they just turned twelve and can barely hold their own, they still have to fight for their survival. This reminds me a lot of third world countries in our world currently. Even though no one is forcing the kids to fight, most of them have to learn to survive on what they have. Poverty is high and kids starve everyday due to a lack of resources. Even some countries are forcing their kids to fight. A few years ago we had the "Kony 2012" ordeal where a ravenous leader was making the children become soldiers. Some places don't seem too far off from the idea of this book, and that frightens me.