The reality TV and media in The Hunger Games Essay

The reality TV and media in The Hunger Games - Essay Example easure of the upper echelons of the society, is that representatives from each of the districts will participate in a competition for survival from which only one will emerge alive. On the surface level, the novel is a political criticism as those who rule the country are both the organizers of the game as well as its connoisseurs, who repress and exploit their people. However, a more significant aspect of the novel is Collins’ use of moral and emotional rhetoric to criticize the manner in which media and reality shows, as illustrated through the game, are exploiting the sentiments of an audience that sells themselves to cheap gimmicks. Katha Pollitt, a noted writer, opines that the work of Collins can be interpreted as an â€Å"indictment of reality television, in which a bored and cynical audience amuses itself watching desperate people destroy themselves† (Pollit par.2). In the novel, the people in the Capitol seek gory and gruesome entertainment by pitting the teenagers from the 12 districts to fight against one another in a battle of survival. Collins deftly deploys the strategy of the rhetoric of morality by challenging the propriety of a reality TV show, where the participants as pawns. To achieve this objective, she uses the voice of Peeta, a teenage boy from District 12, when and makes the character say that he wants to show the people in Capitol that they do not own him and that he is â€Å"more than just a piece in their Games† (Collins 142). By illustrating such sentiments of the character, Collins primarily wants to communicate to her audience that the people in governance, through the he lp of media and reality shows are in fact exploiting people. Thus, by using the rhetoric device of moral appropriateness, Collins reveals to her audience that the government in Capitol is exploiting their own people. Secondarily, she makes her character retort that he is not a mere piece in their games. By emphasizing the character’s sense of self-respect, the