...The Hunger Games is a tale of what humans could possibly become in the future, if they failed to learn from their past history, choosing instead, to repeat it. There is a reinforcement of a culture of the Roman Empire, in particular, the Roman Gladiators. Being a Roman Gladiator is almost comparable to being a professional football sport player of today, in the sense that it was a sport of competition, as are the adolescents in the Hunger Games. In this futuristic science fiction book, young “gladiators”, or tributes, are volunteered to fight to the death representing their district, as did the Roman Gladiators from our history. Just as each tribute, gladiators were volunteered, or forced to fight and live that lifestyle until death. Each tribute, was volunteered to go and fight to the death; this reliving of a culture from hundreds of years shows the connection between the story Hunger Games, and the culture of the Roman Empire. In the story, there are 12 districts in the totalitarian government that once was the United States, of which two youths, otherwise known as a tribute, fight as gladiators once did until there is only one victor. This totalitarian regime has a strong resemblance to “The Myth of Theseus”, who was the son of both Aegeus, king of Athens, and of the god Poseidan, who both slept with his mother in the same night. The king of Crete, after defeating the Athenians in war, demanded that the Athenians send an annual tribute of seven of their handsomest...
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...CONTEXT Growing up, Suzanne Collins was a military brat. Her father was a career airman in the United States Air Force, as a result, Collins and her siblings—two older sisters and an older brother—moved around frequently, spending time in numerous locations in the eastern United States as well as in Europe. The military, in fact, played a leading role in the family’s history. Collins’s grandfather had served in World War I, her uncle served in World War II, and the year Collins turned six, her father left to serve his own tour in the Vietnam War. War, consequently, was a part of life for Collins, something very real and not just an abstract idea. While her father was gone, she would sometimes see video footage of the war zone on the news, and she recognized that her father was there fighting. Though her father returned after a year, Collins’s connection to war didn’t end. In addition to being a soldier, Collins’s father was also a military historian and a doctor of political science. That knowledge and experiences serving in the Air Force and fighting in Vietnam had a profound effect on his relationships with his children, and he made sure they learned what they could about war. While other girls’ fathers were telling them fairytales, Collins’s father educated her about military history. When the family was moved to Brussels, Belgium, for instance, her father educated her about the region’s violent history and took her on tours of the country’s historic battlefields. Eventually...
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