Catching Fire Reaction Paper

Royce Adrian T. Tee 2013-71153

In addition to watching the movie, I have also read the book Catching Fire. With that I was able to spot some of the differences between the book and the movie, and I really loved the adaptation. However, from both of these media, if I were to say if it is Catching Fire or not, I wouldn't really agree that it is, mostly because of the themes of the plot.

Sure, I can agree that because the Hunger Games is set in the future, technology would be more advanced. This would explain how several phenomena within the Hunger Games happen, such as force fields and the use of the clock. However, the plot of Catching Fire is about the conflict between The Capitol and the rebellion. Does advanced science and technology actually have importance in this? I would say not, since the only use I see it is in the execution of the Hunger Games as well as transportation, but not in the fighting.

Hunger Games is also under what is called dystopian fiction. If a utopia is where everything is perfect and everyone is happy, then a dytopia is the opposite, wherein a societal structure oppresses people, in this case the Capitol. Part of dytopian fiction involves giving a reason to how it evolved from the past to its present condition, in this case the thirteen districts rebelling, which in this case could be said to be a commentary of the past, present and future of human society.

The presence of advanced science and technology in Catching Fire is there, but it is being misused. As said before, it is only in the Hunger Games and the transportation that this is present. However, though advanced, we do not see any indication of how this could have improved the lives of the people in the Districts. They are still poor, have little wealth, and still most likely use the same methods we use today for doing their work, so in this sense science and technology fails because it isn’t used to improve their lives. If there is an aspect where it does succeed, I would say maybe it is the transportation such as the large helicopters and trains, probably to transport the products of the different Districts to the Capitol.