Revisiting Panem

In my last blog post about dystopian fiction, I'm going right back to probably my favorite dystopia, the fictional country of Panem, which is the country in Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy. If you have for some reason forgotten about the plot lines of these books, go ahead and watch the video below for a pretty comedic review of what happened! Don't worry, its only 3 minutes, so its a very quick review!

Now that you remember what happens in The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay, we can take a look at how some of my classmates have looked at Panem in regards to how those in power use popular culture, cultural hegemony, and the environment to manipulate the public.

In a majority of my classmates' blogs, they discussed the use of surveillance and a panoptic control over the citizens. Many commented that by using the things like the peacekeepers, the failed technology of the jabberjays, and even just cameras, the Capital has eyes everywhere. Kamryn's blog really placed these technological abilities of the Capital into the spotlight. With the knowledge that people in the Capital could always be watching, the districts are much more willing to follow the laws and strict guidelines. This willingness also comes from the constantly reminder of the carnage and destruction that is broadcasted regularly from the thought to be destroyed District 13.

A Panopticon Usually Includes Enclosed Spaces
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Along with the surveillance that the Districts undergo, many of the blog posts discussed the use of the walls or fences that surrounded the districts. Lauren's blog compared this to the reorganization of space in the 1800's as seen in O'Brien and Szeman's work. These divisions of space led to divisions in the community and the country as a whole. Teni's blog also looks at this division of space, but noted how it really began to separate the districts from one another. The Capital utilizes these separations to keep people in different districts away from each other. They also build up different cultures and have them focus on producing different goods that then support the Capital. Katniss sees a lot of these differences during her victor's tour through the districts. She sees how harsh things are in Rue's district, District 11. She sees the more lavish and well-off people living in District 1 and feels the influence that the Capital has on them when the little girl tells Katniss that she wants to do what she did and volunteer for the games. By creating such a vast separation, the districts have almost no opportunities to plan and even begin and uprising because they have almost no communications between them. Despite this problem, a resistance group does begin in the districts and it is not evident until the very end of Catching Fire that something is going to happen. 

Before I get into the rebellion and what my classmates thought about it, I want to discuss their thoughts about the uses of the Hunger Games themselves because a lot of them did mention the games themselves. In the clip below, you see the minute before Katniss and the other tributes begin the 74th Hunger Games. This time is filled with anxiety, adrenaline, and quick last minute decision. 

In many of my classmates blogs, they looked at the games themselves as the closest example to Connors' panopticon experiment. They are being watched all the time, but don't know when their actions are being shown to the entire country. While many tributes have disadvantages as a result of the environment in the games arena, Katniss has an advantage in the forest. Laura's blog looks at this in how some of the philosophers we read described the wilderness as a safe haven, but also the unknown. Most people in District 12 fear the woods because of the predators as well as punishment they could receive from the Capital. Katniss does not share this fear. The forest IS her safe haven and source of survival, so she knows she can use the woods in the arena to her benefit. 

In addition to the games themselves, the idea of the games were used to keep the people at bay. The games were punishment for the acts of rebellion committed that resulted in the destruction of District 13. The games become a part of the popular culture in Panem and the Capital places a grandeur around them. Not to mention, the games are every year AND streamed 24/7 in the districts, forcing all of the citizens of Panem to watch them. Teni points out that the children in the districts learn about the history and are taught to accept the games and that they are justified. However, in my opinion, if most of the children in District 12 and other severely oppressed districts are like Katniss, they will still have the belief that the games are disgusting and in no way justified, even if the Capital says they are. 

Katniss and the others on her team in the Capital during the Fight
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Now, I'm going to talk about the rebellion itself. The rebellion stemmed from the faction that was fed up enough and strong enough to begin a fight against the Capital. Coin's use of Katniss as the Mockingjay places Katniss into popular culture as a symbol of the growing resistance. However, were Coin's actions any better than President Snow's? Leah's blog was the only one that I saw that really went into the similarity of Coin and Snow's actions. Both were power hungry and I think she made an excellent point about the fact that being on the good or bad side does not dictate whether or not a person is good or bad. The intentions of the person once they have power are all that can say how the person and their morals are, good or bad. Coin made the decision to send in the bombs that not only blew up the children of the Capital, but also send in another fleet of bombs that killed people on her own side! All of these people were innocents and had nothing to do with the fight that was going on. Additionally, Coin wanted to hold a Hunger Games with the children of Capital officials. Many people in the districts joined the rebellion to end these evil games. Her idea and tactics made her no better than President Snow in anyway. 

Cornucopia in the 74th Hunger Games
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Now, I'm going to turn back to my original post about the popular culture of the Hunger Games. If you would like to review what I said, go ahead and click here to read it again! 

In my last blog, I really focused on the power structure and actions of the people in power. I focused on the fact the hierarchies really allowed for the Capital and even Coin to manipulate the public and people into doing what they want. One thing I did not account for though was the power of things in the manipulations of those in power. 

The many people in the districts, especially those who were poorer, needed food for their large families. However, in order to get extra food, only the children could obtain tesserae in exchange for adding their names more to the reaping for the Hunger Games. The Capital gives the food thing power. These small additions of something necessary for a family's survival then has the power to make a child enter into games where they could be killed or forced to kill others. Jane Bennett (2010) looks at how people can give things agency and when the people in the districts rely on these things, the Capital gives them more agency for them to use the things to their benefit. 

Every little thing in the games themselves has a lot of agency given to it by the capital and the tributes. Those are the weapons and supplies that the tributes need to fight and survive in the games. By limiting the amount of supplies, the game makers manipulate the tributes to fight for their survival. These items are doing nothing, but the things that they were made to do. However, the tributes place a heavy reliance on them, making them more powerful than they would be if there weren't any games to compete in. 

Overall, President Snow and Coin use everything around them in their manipulation. In Panem, surveillance is key in the control over the people, but also holding control over things that are necessary to living gives the Capital even more power. I noticed that my classmates looked a lot at the environment that the Capital could manipulate. If you add the idea of thing power to that, then you can see that the Capital controlled every little aspect of the lives of its citizens. Whether it be through random surveillance or with holding the things needed to survive daily life. 

*Author's Note - 

If you want to read any of the blogs from my classmates, all you have to do it click on their names and it'll take you right to their blogs! 

Work Cited

Bennett, Jane. 2010. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Duke University Press.

Collins, Suzanne. 2009. The Hunger Games. Scholastic.

Foucault, Michel. 2008. "Panopticism." Discipline & Punishment. Indiana University Press.

Lawrence, Francis (Director). (2013). Catching Fire. USA: Lionsgate. 

Lawrence, Francis (Director). (2014). Mockingjay – Part 1. USA: Lionsgate.

Lawrence, Francis (Director). (2014). Mockingjay – Part 2. USA: Lionsgate.

O’Brien, Susie & Imre Szeman. 2019. “History of Popular Culture.” Popular Culture: A User’sGuide. Langara College. 

The World of Dystopias

Dystopias have always interested me. Of course, growing up, I reading series like Divergent, The Hunger Games, and The Uglies, so in my mind, that is a different type of dystopia than The Road or Parable of the Sower. In the first three series, there is an overbearing government that has total control and an extremely oppressed society. The second two novels, there is nearly no government and every man is for himself. The people have no idea where it is actually better and go with a blind hope.

Panem's Capital and Districts
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The 5 Factions in Divergent
http://www.divergentlife.com/p/factions.html

For me, I prefer dystopias like the first three because there tends to be more action, adventure, bravery, and characters I could really relate to and look up to while growing up. Additionally, the situations in these universes seem like they could never happen in the world. They seem so far fetched and if there ever was a possibility of them happening, it would be way after my life time. They gave you worlds that you could imagine and fall into easily. The Hunger Games and Divergent movies take that world even further by making it real on the screen. As someone who has always been able to completely immerse myself in the worlds I read about, I thoroughly enjoyed being given a place that I could create in my imagination where there was also some happiness. The other kind are more real. Human life can be that savage and the world could easily fall into an anarchy at any moment if the situation is right. Additionally, by using the series tactic for the books, the stories can go even further. There can be more detail, explanation, and character development. Plus, by having this character development, the reader can grow with the characters as they wait for the next books to come out.

Warning for the Furture
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Dystopias also act as a warning for the current population. While it may take a read through or two to completely understand the warning, it is an important aspect. It can show what happens if government goes to far or if government fails. It can show what happens if the people allow for themselves to become suppressed and if people begin to think too individually when there are a lack of resources. There are so many possibilities for disaster when society strays too far outside of the nice, middle spot.

Symbol of The Hunger Games Trilogy
https://www.vippng.com/preview/iwTioih_the-hunger-games-wiki-all-hunger-games-books/

Of the books that we have read for this class, I have chosen to focus my project on The Hunger Games. This has always been one of my favorite dystopian worlds, so it just makes sense for me to pour creativity into the world that I've grown up imagining. In this class, we have learned that environment plays a big role in dystopias through Jane Bennett's (2010) Vibrant Matter. People can use the environment and the environment can completely shape a story and whether the characters succeed or fail. Therefore, I am going to focus on how the Capital utilizes the entire set up to stay in control and further more, how they brainwash the people of the Capital into not questioning and just blindly succumbing to President Snow's rule.

We learn that the people in the Capital can actually go to the arenas of previous games and either tour the arenas or role play as tributes in the games from that year. There have also been at least 75 years of games, so I'm going to look specifically at the games that we hear and know about, such as Finnick's games, Katniss and Peeta's first games, as well as the Quarter Quell. I am going to create a brochure that highlights the possibilities of people from the Capital to visit these arenas and promote the packages that they can buy in order to get the "Full Hunger Games Experience." There will be the possibilities to explore the arenas, play as your favorite tribute in a completely safe way, stay where the tributes stayed in the Capital, and even meet some of the tributes! It will be like an all exclusive vacation package for the people who live in the Capital.

74th Hunger Games Arena
https://www.deviantart.com/dnbcouture/art/74th-Hunger-Games-Arena-and-Activities-299235860

Through this, you will be able to see the craziness of the people who live in the Capital and feel the disgust that Katniss feels as she goes through her experience because who in their right mind would want to participate in something like this?

Work Cited 

Bennett, Jane. 2010. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Duke University Press.

Hope in Dystopian Environments

*Author's Note: I talk about three novels very generally without giving summaries because that would take up too much time. If you would like summaries of each novel before you read this blog post, click these links for each - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler - The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

When you think about how people interact and how the environment helps them in dystopias, you think about whether someone survives or dies. Jane Bennett (2010) talks about how we, as humans, need to stop making binaries because there is not always a black and white, whether it be male/female. mind/body, human/animal, reason/emotion, or so on. Each book we've read has shown this. In The Hunger Games, The Parable of the Sower, and The Road, you can see where these breakdown. In each novel, you can see where humans are animalistic. You have children killing each other in barbaric ways in The Hunger Games (Collins 2009). Then you have people eating others just to survive, whether it be killing someone or eating the bodies of the dead in both Parable of the Sower (Butler 1993) and The Road (McCarthy 2006). In normal human society, that is not how people are supposed to act.

What's Considered Animal Behavior When It Comes To Humans?
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Then you have the binary of reason/emotion. When Katniss wanted to survive, she played along with the love story that Haymith and Peeta set up for her, but sometimes she knew she was acting on reason and other times, she couldn't be so sure (Collins 2009). Were the emotions actually there? This is a place where there has to be gray between the the black and white.

It's the same with the male/female binaries in Parable of the Sower. Men and women contributed equally to the neighborhood. They all were on watch, many families had both parents working in some capacity. Then, when Lauren traveled, she went as a man. Yes, people were surprised when they found out that Lauren was actually a girl, but they didn't really question it. More often then not, they were surprised by how young she was (Butler 1993).

While all of these examples show how binaries can be incorrect, especially when environment is taken into consideration, I think there is something larger in the connections between the people an nature. Personally, I think that people living in dystopias tend to have more hope when there is still flourishing nature around and a place that can become a refuge. In these environments, both the people and nature gain more agency. Agency is the ability of something or someone to have an effect while an agent would be someone who acts (Bennett 2010). Both nature and people gain agency because people use nature and their environment to make stuff happen, which allows them to have an effect, and nature provides what is needed in order to give the people a positive edge most of the time. Now, this is not always the case. In all three novels, fire is considered nature and can be more destructive than helpful, but I am focusing on other elements, the more positive ones. Overall, the more nature there is, the more agency grows for nature and the characters.

Katniss in Her Safe Place
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In The Hunger Games, Katniss is surrounded by nature and it is by all means bountiful. Unlike the other novels, everything is still lush and growing. Katniss knows how to use this to her advantage in order to keep her safe and alive as well as acting like a refuge. Before Katniss even enters the games, she uses the woods to keep her family alive after her dad dies. She learns to hunt, harvest edible food, and even finds the plants that her mom can use in medicines and remedies so that the family can make some money beyond what Katniss makes by selling her catches of the day. The forest is the only thing that provides her family with the hope to survive. Then, when Katniss gets into the games, she feels relief and hope wash over her when she sees that there is a vast forest in the arena. Katniss knows that she will be able to use this survive and for the first time feels and hopes that she has a real chance of winning the games and returning to her family. Even with comfort and familiarity, the capital still tries to use nature in a negative way that would hurt or even kill Katniss and the other tributes. In the arena, they have the tracker jackers, the mockingjays, and nightlock berries. While others meet their ends as a result of these things, Katniss uses them to her advantage. She saves herself from the Career Pack by cutting down the Tracker Jacker nest. She uses the mockingjays to stay in contact with Rue while they're apart. And she keeps the nightlock berries in order to either end her and Peeta's misery/suffering or to get them out of a hard spot and make the capital look foolish. She really would have been okay with either outcome in my opinion. With all of these examples, Katniss thrived because of nature. This gave herself more agency as an agent and gave the stuff that seemed either harmless or unimportant agency as well (Collins 2009). Who knew that berries could have that large of an impact on a country?! 

From what I've seen in the book, with so much nature and wildlife around her, Katniss has a hope that other people do not and this hope is what drives her forward to get to the end of the games and back to her family.
                         

How I Imagine the Highway in the Parable of the Sower - Without the Cars of Course
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In Parable of the Sower, Lauren's first environment gives her and her town safety for some time. They have a wall and things still grow in the soil, so they have food and don't have to worry about going outside of the walls too much. However, when this is all taken away from them, Lauren is left aline and she is left with only the knowledge about nature and the outside world that she has read in books and heard about from her father. She uses this information to keep herself alive in a sense that she knows different things that she and her companions can eat on the roads as well as finds seeds that she can hopefully plant when they find a place to settle. The trees and nature that surrounds the road also acts as an oasis and place of safety while they travel. When they find the state parks or rest stops with secluded areas, they feel extra safe and all allow themselves to feel hopeful that they will find somewhere like that forever. Later, as their group grows, they begin to hunt and fish, which is nature providing for them to keep going. Lauren also sets off with the idea that things are much better in the north where there are fewer people, more jobs, and private places. All these prospects bring hope to Lauren and her group (Butler 1993). 

Additionally, Lauren brings together the ideas of EarthSeed. The entire philosophy is nature based and it shows how growth and change can be positive things. The philosophy is also one of the reasons that Lauren allows for the group she is traveling with to grow. While like a little cult, they become a confederate of bodies, which is complex bodies (humans would fall into this) that congregate with each other in the pursuit of enhancement of their body (Bennett 2010). As the group grows, they become stronger and more fortified. They have a sense of security and a sense of hope by being all together. Once they reach Bankole's land, they realize that it can become a safe place with all of them there. It is still prosperous, so they can grow crops and they can all take turns protecting by keeping watch. When they find this place and decide to stay, they have hope for a future where they can thrive here (Butler 1993). While nature itself does not seem as prosperous in this novel as in The Hunger Games, the ability for things to still grow goes hand in hand with the idea the people's hope grows when they have it around them. 

Images of Life in The Road for the Man and Boy
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In the last novel, The Road, that I would like to discuss, nature and the environment was almost completely destroyed. Everywhere the man and boy looked, there was desolation. The landscape was about as bleak as the outlook that the man has throughout the entire book. The man always told the boy that they were going south, but the man never had any hope that it was actually better there. Nothing really grew anywhere. However, in the few times that the man and boy had hope, the source came from the fact that they found something that nature provided them, like clean water, or apples, or mushrooms.  Even so, as nature died, so did the people. The boy and the man were small and starving and nearly all the people they met on the road were too. Additionally, when they did find trees that could provide shelter, they were normally already dead and falling over. There was no prosperity anywhere. This left the man with little hope and when he reassured the boy, he rarely believed what he was saying. All he wanted to do was get the boy somewhere better for a better life and that was about all he was able to do as an agent (McCarthy 2006). 

While all three of these stories definitely have a theme of survival, the environment helps the characters either gain or lose confidence and hope in their abilities to survive. Where there is more nature, hope tends to sit at a higher level and that can be seen as you go through each novel. While all of them have low points with little hope, some of the characters are able to pick themselves up and keep going. The increased levels of hope and nature create more agency throughout the stories and more of an effect can be made. 

Work Cited

Bennett, Jane. 2010. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Duke University Press.

Butler, Octavia. 1993. Parable of the Sower. Grand Central Publishing.

Collings, Suzanne. 2009. The Hunger Games. Scholastic. 

McCarthy, Cormac. 2006. The Road. Vintage Books.