Catching Fire: Reaction Paper

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is marketed as belonging to the genre of Young Adult (YA) because it is targetting an angst-driven audience who can relate to the grim setting and action-packed story of Katniss Everdeen and the Tributes. Even so, it is also undeniably a work of science fiction which integrates technological advancement with the plot of the story: A fight to the death, along with computer-generated baboons makes a box-office hit. Take the movie's futuristic helicopter, the hovercraft, as an example. Better yet, think about the cool hologram computer system which assigns and produces threats and challenges to the teenage Tributes.

Actually, the movie's concept can be taken as an extension of the sci-fi protest films prevalent in the 70's and 80's (see Blade Runner). What I found interesting about Catching Fire is that I cannot have questioned its post-apocalyptic logic vis-a-vis a knowledge of what has happened before and what's happening around the world right now. Dictatorship? Nothing new. Poverty? Nah. A dizzying swirl of gadgets, mode of transport, attire, and televised reality shows? You get the idea.

A word about the elite: They are always the benefactors and beneficiaries of technological advancement. They have the money to produce and buy them. This is true for the futuristic Capitol in Hunger Games. This could also be true for us, in real life. There is no middle class in the Hunger Games. The dichotomy is only between the poor, working-class people of the 12 (or 13?) districts and the elite residents of the Capitol with their technology and funky hair 'do. Definitely, The Hunger Games franchise revolves around a post-apocalyptic world where we see an advanced level of technology and social standards. But this is only visible in the Capitol. The 13 districts are poverty-stricken, and scarcely anything can be associated with the “progressive”domain of the select few who reside in Panem's capital. Meaning, only a small percentage of people actually benefit from Panem's technology. Who are they? The elite. The 1%.

The Hunger Games is televised for the amusement of the rich people at the Capitol but for the horror of those watching their home-grown “heroes” back at their respective districts. When we inspect the role of science and technology in the Hunger Games, it offers us a bleak view of what technological progress can mean at a time of tyrannical pressures of the Capitol (personified by President Snow) to the almost-hopeless workers from the districts. Since we can only catch a glimpse of the 13 districts through their Tributes, what we know about them is mostly implied. We know that each district has its own industry because the Tributes wore costumes according to what their district produces. But the people from the districts are like the working-class of present-day countries in miniature, like how cheap laborers in China manufacture iPhones of today.

Verdict

 “Progress” in Panem's tech and society: Fail.