The Games

The Hunger Games

Assignments / Activities:

• 1. On Monday (10/25) view the interviews with Suzanne Collins and answer the questions on the "CollinsInterviews.pdf" file attached a the bottom of this page.

  2. On Tuesday (10/26) meet with reading groups. Do chpt 1 quiz, discuss chpt 2, and make plan for connection during the week.

  3. On Tuesday (11/2) meet with reading groups. Review chpt 3 to 9 and discuss items of your choice (suggestions are below)

  4. [Q] = HG Character Facebook page. Electronic or paper version. Due Monday 11/15

  5. Hunger Games Vocabulary (Reading Group G-doc). Due Tuesday 11/16

  6. Hunger Games Essay: Write a well organized and properly formatted 5 paragraph essay about one theme in The Hunger Games.

     1. Get the 5 paragraph graphic organizer sheet

     2. Discuss, as a class, what are some possible themes in HG

     3. Write down some thoughts, topics, and possible themes (in any form) on the back of the organizer

     4. Choose your theme and enter it into the form below. Read my comments a little while later

     5. Fill in the graphic organizer form (by Friday 10/19) and let me scan a copy

     6. Over Thanksgiving vacation, write your rough draft (use the graphic organizer) and post it onto your site (make a "games" page under reading).

     7. Peer and parent edit your rough draft multiple times, keeping copies.

     8. Revise your draft into a final copy. The most recent version should be posted on your site (see step 6)

     9. Turn in your final paper, a hand-edited draft, and the graphic organizer by Friday 12/3

Sample Student Essay:

A Dictator's Guide to Controlling the Districts

In The Hunger Games, North America, now broken into twelve districts, is ruled by the

Capitol. It uses oppression, poverty, and hunger to control these districts. The Capitol is well

supplied by the districts, and its citizens live prosperous lives, in contrast to the districts. In

addition, to prevent a rebellion like one that happened roughly seventy-five years before the start

of the book, the Capitol uses the Hunger Games, a bloody fight to the death involving one boy

and one girl from each district, to remind the districts that they are powerless. These methods are

used rather effectively to keep the districts in line.

Oppression is used by the Capitol to control the districts in several forms. The most

obvious form of oppression is the peacekeepers. While in District 12 they do not enforce the laws

very severely, in other districts laws are to be obeyed down to the smallest detail, with severe

punishments for those who disregard them. These laws are partly to prevent rebellion, and partly

to keep the districts poor and hungry. Another way that the Capitol uses oppression to control the

districts is the Hunger Games. The forced removal of the districts’ children psychologically

affects their families, and shows them that since it is so easy for the Capitol to take their children

and force them to kill each other, if they try to rebel they will be crushed. The Capitol ensures

this effect by forcing everyone to watch the Hunger Games. Oppression is the most direct and

noticeable way the Capitol keeps the districts in its iron fist.

While poverty is a less blatant way of controlling the districts, everybody knows that it

exists. This can be seen on a national scale in Panem and on a smaller district level scale in

District 12. In Panem, there are a few districts where competing in the Hunger Games is

considered an honor. These districts, called the career districts, are well of, suck ups to the

capitol, and most of the Hunger Games’ victors come from these districts. In contrast, the other

nine districts are poorer and getting sent to the Hunger Games is considered a death sentence.

Hence, the career districts are hated by the rest of the districts, which keeps them divided and

therefore weak. In the non-career districts like District 12, a similar division occurs, but it is not

as intense. In these districts there are two social classes: the merchant class, which includes

families that work as butchers and bakers, and live in the main town area, and the working class,

which generally follows the district industry, and lives in a slum or poor housing. The working

class is much poorer than the merchant class, which causes their kids to enter for the tesserae,

which allows them to get a supply of grain and oil for their families, but enters their name in for

each family member. This causes a bit of resentment of the merchant class, because they do not

have to take the tesserae. Division like this, caused by poverty, if not completely obvious at first,

is still a very effective way of making sure that the districts are in the control of the Capitol.

The last and most indirect method the Capitol uses to control the districts is hunger.

Caused by poverty, this weakens the working class and kills many. These deaths are not officially

caused by hunger, but everyone knows it is. Hunger weakens the members of Panem’s society

most likely to rebel: the working class, who understandably dislike their situation. Without

enough food in their bellies, the would-be rebels would be weak and destroyed easily. It also

distracts from time that could be spent planning on an uprising, as people with starving families

would devote a lot of time trying to feed their family, rather than letting them starve and plotting

a rebellion. Hunger, while the least obvious method of controlling the districts, is just as effective

as the others when it comes to preventing rebellion.

Thanks to oppression, poverty, and hunger, the districts are firmly in the grasp of the

capitol. As a result, the districts are forced to comply with the Capitol’s laws and the Hunger

Games. Without outside intervention, rebellion would be futile. Who knows what lies in store for

the nation of Panem.

Essay Topic Proposals and My Responses: