Alazemi 1

Abdulrahman Alazemi
Prof. Rebecca Lawson
English 113B
19 April 2015
A take on relationships in the Hunger Games
The hunger games is a book by Suzanne Collins based on the future. The book is set up
on this land called Panem, which is built on the ruins of North America after an apocalypse.
Panem is a land consisting of the Capitol which is built on the Rocky Mountains and twelve
districts which were formerly thirteen. The lead in the book is Katniss Everdeen and Peeta
Mellark. A revolt many years ago against the capitol, which was led by the thirteen districts,
which were defeated led to the creating of the Hunger Games. The hunger games were a
television show, which was reality based, which had two tributes, a boy and a girl from each
district, who volunteered or were chosen to participate in a game in which they had to kill each
other and there could be only one winner. This evil game was a punishment by the Capitol to the
people of the districts. Children from age 12-18 could volunteer or be chosen to participate in
these games in a ceremony called the reaping. Jeremy Adam Smith in a paper about the hunger
games wrote that The citizens of the Capitol brutally exploit the 12 districts of the country of
Panem, giving themselves a very high standard of living while deliberately keeping the rest in a
state of abject poverty. The movie and the book take pains to reveal how much this limits their
ability to empathize with the less fortunate (Smith).
Katniss, a simple girl from district 12, had a very strained relationship with her mother
after her father passed away. Her mother went into some kind of depression, which led to poverty
in the household consisting of her sister, Primrose Everdeen and her own self. They had no

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support system and their mother refused to work, so Katniss had to be the elder in the family for
a very long time and was very protective of her sister. Their mother had recovered and started her
work of gathering herbs and curing people, she was a nurse. But Katniss still held a grudge
against her mother for betraying them in their time of need. She was a strong girl who had
supported her family and she did not want her sister to suffer due to her mothers behavior. She
tells her mother You can't clock out and leave Prim on her own. There's no me now to keep you
both alive... You have to promise me you'll fight through it!" My voice has risen to a shout. In it
is all the anger, all the fear I felt at her abandonment. (p.43).
On the morning of the 74th Annual Hunger Games reaping ceremony, Primrose had to
participate as she had turned twelve that year, she was very scared that she would be chosen and
would not be able to survive as she had no skill as such that would keep her safe in an arena
where she has to fight for her life. When her name was chosen, she was terrified. But Katniss
volunteers as tribute instead of her own sister. She would not let her sister enter the hunger
games arena. She agreed to sacrifice her life for her sister. This shows such extreme love for
family, that someone would be ready to sacrifice their own life for the sake of their own family.
Hunger games teaches us that there are still people in the world that are so protective of their
family that they would not think twice before giving up their own life for them.
Katniss volunteers as tribute along with a boy called Peeta Mellark, who is also from
district twelve. Peeta has had feelings for Katniss for a very long time, feelings that she has been
completely unaware of. Peeta admits to those feelings for Katniss, but she cannot reciprocate
them as she already has feelings for her hunting buddy, Gale Hawthorne. Katniss and Gale had
been friends for years, and she even had romantic feelings for him, but Katniss has to play along
with Peetas feelings and pretend to reciprocate when she actually does not love him. Katniss had

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to play politics to get the viewers to like the happy star crossed lovers so that they would get
help and stuff from the contributors so they could survive in the arena. Katniss has to play
politics all the time and cannot admit to her feelings at all. Hunger games shows us how the
needs of the many, is more important than own personal gain. Katniss never fails to think of
everyone else. She never thinks of herself. Even though she has feelings for another person, she
pretends to love Peeta, just to keep him alive during the games.
Peeta is one of those people who would do anything for the person he loves. Peeta
teaches us throughout the hunger games, that no matter how much in danger his life was, he
never put Katnisss life in danger. He was selfless enough to only think of her during the entire
game, and put her life before his in every single situation. He would admit to loving her on a
reality television show so that people would love her and send her essential things in the arena to
survive. He would praise her on every platform so that she does not get harmed. He puts his own
life in danger and leads the other tributes astray so that they do not get to Katniss to kill her.
Time after time Peeta shows us and teaches us how he puts Katnisss life before his own.
Relationships are very complicated, on one hand we have a boy who loves a girl so much
that he would do anything for her, and on the other hand we have a girl who is in love with
another boy, but pretends to like the first boy just to help him out in a tough time. Katniss once
says A kind Peeta Mellark is far more dangerous to me than an unkind one. (p.59). The capitol
goes completely against Peeta and Katniss after they win the hunger games, so even though, after
the game is done Katniss does decide to tell Peeta that she was never in love with him, she cant.
She has to play along the whole time because she does not want to put his life in danger in any
way that she can. People do a lot of strange things for the person they love, but they also end up
loving the person they do strange things for. This is what hunger games teaches us.

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There are a lot of relationships in this story, between a sister and a sister. Between a girl
and a boy she loves and also between a girl and boy she does not love. A boy and girl he loves.
Between two people thrown together in a situation, both enemies and both choose not to be
enemies. Katniss helps a girl from district eleven called Rue. She reminded Katniss of her own
sister. And when Rue was killed, she buried Rue in flowers and sang to her. Even though she and
Rue were supposed to be enemies, Katniss showed so much compassion that it moved the entire
nation.
Hunger games teaches us that a relationship can be born anywhere and can stem from
anything. People do not have to be enemies unless they choose to be. Compassion comes a long
way and it can move the whole nation. A simple act of kindness can go a very long way in the
hearts and the minds of the people. Relationships can be built anywhere and its just love that
people need. Greed and excess of everything makes people forget what its like to be poor and
thats what happens to the people of the district. An article from wikieducator says
Dehumanization is the process of consistently devaluing and looking down on a group of people
over a period of time until these concepts are accepted as the norm within a society. People from
other groups (usually the ruling elite) will look on people from these other groups as lesser,
physically and/or mentally. (Par.20). And that is exactly how the capitol treats the people of the
districts. Katniss and her compassion causes a revolt and an uprising, which just shows how rare
love was every displayed like that.

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Works Cited

Adam Smith, Jeremy. The Berkley Blog. Five lessons in human goodness from the hunger
games. 2012. Web. 20th April 2015.
http://blogs.berkeley.edu/2012/04/25/five-lessons-in-human-goodness-from-the-hunger-games/

Collins, Suzanne. Hunger Games. United States: Scholastic. 2008. Print. 20 April 2015.

WikiEducator. The hunger games- Themes. 2012. Web. 20 April 2015.

http://wikieducator.org/English/ASHS_Year_12_-_The_Hunger_Games/Themes