Written by Flora Gilchrist
The fictional world of The Hunger Games was resurrected on our cinema screens on November 17, 2023. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is the fourth book in the series written by Suzanne Collins, adapted into a film by Lionsgate. The film is a prequel to the original Hunger Games series, focusing on the youth of antagonist Coriolanus Snow (played by Tom Blyth). The franchise is set in the fictional country of Panem, located in a futuristic war-torn North America. Despite this, there are many historical similarities and cultural references that can be drawn between the world of Panem and real historical events, thus prompting questions surrounding Collins’ intentions and the idea that fictional worlds parallel our own.
Firstly, an exploration into the setting and location of the franchise draws many parallels between fictional Panem and historical 18th and 19th century North America. Segregation, including racial discrimination, underpins the film and the franchise as a whole, symbolised through the division of the country into thirteen districts. Each district performs a certain role, outlined by the Capitol, ranging from crafting metals, machines, or consumer goods, in order to sustain the country; the Capitol operates as a dictatorship relying on the submission and subordination of the districts. Within District 11, located in Southern Panem, the population consists primarily of African Americans, whose role relates to the management of agriculture, including crop fields. Arguably, the composition of District 11 draws significant parallels to 18th century America and by extension, slavery. The heavy monitoring of District 11 by peacekeepers (Panem’s armed forces) further compounds this historical similarity, with scenes in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire depicting African Americans slaughtered for holding up three fingers and whistling, a symbol of rebellion. This alludes to the mistreatment of African Americans in the US in the past, especially during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade when the ‘Deep South’ relied on the exploitation of slaves to produce agricultural goods, including grains and sugar, to sustain economic prosperity. The heavy reliance on and ill treatment of African Americans both bolstered the South economically and maintained the racial hierarchy in the United States. This can be compared with the Hunger Games franchise, in which African Americans and poorer citizens are kept in a subordinate status and purposefully overworked. These parallels between fiction and history draw attention to Collin’s intentions: perhaps the franchise is a cautionary tale which aims to comment on real world issues such as segregation and the dangers of authoritarianism.
These themes of segregation and subordination are evident in the first few scenes of The Ballad of Songbird and Snakes where we see Snow, our future antagonist, attending the elite Academy in the heart of the Capitol. During the reaping ceremony, Academy students are given the task of transforming district citizens into fighting tributes for entertainment. This dehumanising task reveals the hierarchical system the Capitol relies on, whereby citizens of lower socioeconomic status are forced to be pawns in the wider plans of those with power and money. The mistreatment of district tributes reaches its peak when they are confined in a zoo enclosure, displayed for the pleasure of others. This theme of subordination can be compared with the inhumane conditions of western “human zoos” in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Imperial countries including Britain, France and the United States presented many indigenous peoples from different countries in zoos in order to reinforce their racial superiority. These groups of people were trapped, exoticized and forced to perform for a western audience. The most notable ‘exhibition’ was the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris, where France displayed their colonies through the recreation of mosques and pavilions, forcing humans to live in enclosures. This striking parallel shows Collin’s desire to comment on past events, indicating that the fictional narrative transcends itself and is a warning of the dangers of ruthless top-down systems.
As the film reaches its climax, the similarities between the arena and historical locations become increasingly apparent. The pinnacle of action materialises in the arena itself in which the helpless tributes are forced to fight to the death. The chosen location of the Games, an ancient amphitheatre, is telling, suggesting that the history of Panem is not so different from our own. Roman amphitheatres were grand public spaces used for gladiator fights, animal sacrifices, and executions. Amphitheatres were sites of entertainment, where many men died at the expense of a spectacle to please the audience. Many ‘gladiators’ were in fact slaves, criminals and those marginalised in society, which is very similar to the subordinate district citizens. By portraying the games in such a ruthless and brutal way, Collins alludes to our carnal nature and our most inner grotesque desire to seek entertainment from others’ misfortunes.
To conclude, while it is often dismissed as a young adult sci-fi film, this series has countless historical parallels. By exploring The Hunger Games series with references to historical events and themes, we are able to delve deeper into the underlying message of the franchise; that inequality and power relations affect us all, and that fiction is not so far from the truth. By looking deeper into the historical parallels of the film we can see that this fictional world is not so different from many real-world cultures and can be seen as a social commentary on class systems and hierarchies. Collins not only wrote a gripping science fiction series, but used a fictional world as a tool to comment on historical events and themes such as segregation and subordination that are still relevant today.
Featured image credit: “Hunger Games” by JeepersMedia is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Retrospect Journal 