           Many individuals believe that the storylines in movies and books such as Divergent or The Purge where things are very twisted in the world could never actually happen, but thinking more deeply about The Hunger Games, the idea does not seem so far-fetched. Although the morphed idea of society in this movie seems beyond unrealistic, some things tend to be more related to our world than people may think. Every day, people talk about the struggles of our country and the way we function as a whole. People worry about our future after looking at our countries issues, especially about our power and control laws. Through The Hunger Games movie directed by Gary Ross and written by Suzanne Collins, we see how this series of events foreshadows the United States’ future using key themes of government control and power struggle. Both the director and writer of this movie whether with purpose or not, used parts of this movie like the drawing for the games and the peace keepers to compare to our everyday lives and possible future.

           Throughout the whole movie, the major conflict between the poor districts and the overtaking capitol is obviously presented through revolts and control. These “districts” are forced to come together in order to be randomly chosen to compete in a live streamed competition where there is one survivor, and the rest die. Many people would relate this to the war draft that used to have sons, fathers and brothers involuntarily signed up and thrown into a war that they may not want to participate in. Whether this was a good or bad thing is not the question, but rather if history could repeat itself once again and randomly assign people to a death sentence, just like the Hunger Games. Each district could be represented by a state from which a certain amount of people are chosen. The director of each capitol uses a huge ceremony and ecstatic announcers to create this “joy” of the hunger games when in reality extreme fear is being instilled into all of the districts. Men who were chosen for the war would await at the suspense of getting that letter in the mail telling them they were about to enter a deadly war. Although the motive behind each “war” was different, the idea of throwing people into a life threatening situation is enough to have anyone look down upon it. To this day, the draft still exists for men once they turn eighteen, yet it has not been instilled for years. The fear of the draft coming back into action for a future way scares most people as much as it scares the people of the districts before they are drawn. 

After the tributes from each district are chosen, “Peace Keepers” are sent to the districts to make sure nobody is rebelling or breaking rules. These peace keepers are supposed to instill fairness and keep everyone safe, yet are causing chaos and brutally beating and killing innocent people of the northern side. The reason for the Hunger Games itself is the fact that the north government collapsed and went to war with the capitol, resulting in a capitol win and overtaking everything in the north.  That scenario relates to The Civil war, which was a fight between two sides within the country that dealt with very different views when it came to slavery and the treatment of African Americans. Every day in the news, there is another African American shot and killed or beaten by police officers who are suppose to be “protecting” people just like that of the peace keepers in the hunger games. Not all, but in most shooting cases of African Americans happen in southern states, which is the side that lost and has bitterness. This relation and constant grudge is something both the capitol and the districts have against each other, leading to endless death. Chaos and protests in these cities have caused major problems and havoc for the cities officials. Similar revolts are happening in cities recently like Ferguson and Charlotte that have had huge and dangerous revolts after African Americans being killed my police officers. In the later movies, once the districts have had enough of the peace keepers’ ways, they decide to rebel and attack the capital and all of the peace keepers. Charlotte, Baltimore, and Ferguson are all cities that have similar problems as the districts with the control of city officials such as cops, and backlash at the city by looting and destroying it. 

Another very recent comparison made is the recent two thousand and sixteen presidential election where we have two rather not ideal candidates. Both candidates are power hungry and aggressive in their moves as president, which is that similar to president snow and his extremeness as a leader. The way this country is headed with these two candidates could lead to something very similar to that of a leader like President Snow, who just completely dictates and has complete control over all the districts and cities without anyone else in office. Not only does this have a scare for this country’s future but also will affect the balance of power in our system even more, leading to a corrupt government like that of the hunger games and their twisted ways. 

          A power struggle is something every city, state and country goes through, but with these main characters and instances, Ross and Collins are able to perfectly portray how the U.S struggles. Most people in the districts know that if a young girl, like Katniss, was to volunteer and go into the Hunger Games that she would most likely die and not be able to stand her ground. Throughout the whole movie and games, Katniss struggles to prove that she is strong and worthy of this. For example, at one part of the movie, she perfectly aims her arrow right next to all the government officials who refused to pay any attention to her skills. This can be related to the modern day struggle that women still have in this country when competing for army or navy seal positions. Men and even some woman, every day, say how men are physically stronger, which means they are much more capable. Katniss and woman all around the country everyday prove that it is not all about strength and speed, but intelligence and drive. For instance, Katniss did the unthinkable and was a woman from a poor town who won the Hunger Games. Not only does this relate back to women’s rights but the struggle still after years of fighting to prove that the two are equal. If the country was to go into another war soon, especially with such a strong force like ISIS, thousands of women would volunteer to fight, but if this constant idea of putting down women and girls stays then we will have nobody to fight. The idea of women’s rights still being a problem in the future is something scary and should be unrealistic whereas women in the army and like Katniss prove the country wrong every day.

           With examples of the drawing of the hunger games, peace keepers, president snow and prejudice against Katniss Ross and Collins were able to portray an entertaining and dramatic movie while slightly foreshadowing concerns this country holds now and for the future. Movies every day now are based off of real world experiences and how people handle them. While some might say that The Hunger Games is an extreme version of reality and would never actually happen, some of the things have already happened. By masking it with examples and details that seem unrealistic, the movie shows us versions of history in a less aggressive way. Therefore, The Hunger Games is ultimately a visual text that has displayed possible future and past events while incorporating entertainment and unrealistic objects.