Reflection on SIS Class

       During this semester we have covered a wide verity of things from which book we liked most in The Hunger Game series to the importance of gender roles in our society. I am glad that I got the chance to take this class while in college. If it was not for this class I would have missed out on a great series of books and movies. By reading this series of books and having open discussions during class and writing this blog I was able to see how the series can be related to every day life.

      I enjoyed having the guess speakers come in and share their knowledge in their field of study and related it to The Hunger Games. Thanks to Dr. Raley I have a better understanding of the importance of gender roles in every day life. For example I now understand why producers make commercials the way that they do. I can tell by watching the commercial now and see what audience they are trying to attract. Another guess speaker I enjoyed listening to was Mr. Sztajer, the Holocaust Survivor. Being able to hear his story on how he was able to survive the Holocaust helped me to understand more how hard it was for Katniss to survive not only the hunger games but also living in District 12 before she was part of the seventy-fourth games.

      This class was not particularly challenging for it just took up a lot of out of class time. Making sure I got each reading done before class so that I would be prepared for a possible quiz in class and completing the blogs on the weeks that we had one due. On top of preparing a final term paper based The Hunger Games and something in today's world.

Work cited:
http://www.dragoart.com/tuts/10222/1/1/how-to-draw-hunger-games,-the-hunger-games-logo.htm
http://dapolonia.com/jewish-amber-jewelry/728-jewish-star-pendent-and-pin-of-cognac-baltic-amber--59043568.html

   

Evil in The Hunger Games

   President Snow showed evil throughout the whole book series because he would makes is decisions based solely on his benefits. For example whenever someone would threaten on taking over his role as president he would have them killed and make it look like an accident. Another example is when he went to Katniss's house before she went on her victors tour to talk to her about making sure she proves to Penam she is truly in love with Peeta. He only had that talk with her because if Penam was not convinced with their love than it would show the Capital's weakness and an upraising could happen and destroy President Snow.

   Second person that could be viewed as evil is President Coin. She made the decision to safe Katniss instead of Peeta because she knew that Katniss would have more of an impact in the rebellion than Peeta would. Once district 13 had both Katniss and Peeta and they were going to war in Capital she put both of them in the same group even though Peeta believes Katniss is the enemy and wants to kill her. Coin made that decision because she wanted Katniss to die so she would be sure to become the president if the districts would win the war.

   Example of evil in the world would be a dictator. A dictator makes roles that make the people believe in him and worship him as a god. When things come down to a decision he will choose the option that will make him look better and that would benefit him the most.

work cited:
http://screenrant.com/hunger-games-imax-banner-character-images-sandy-155918/hunger-games-president-snow-image/
http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/President_Alma_Coin

Gender Relations in The Hunger Games

Gender roles are important when it come to writing a book or making a movie. If the characters do not play the proper roles than the book/movie will not catch the interest of certain viewers. For example in the Hunger Games Katniss character played a very dominate type of role with taking control of her family after her father died. Also, she would go hunting along side Gale. A lot of her traits are viewed as masculine traits in our society. So if it was not for her attractiveness and the struggles of the games a lot of men would probably not read or watch the movie since the main character was a girl who was viewed as a dominate girl. At the same rate if the book did not have the love triangle between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale than girls would not have been as interested either. So the author did a great job to connect with both gender roles. Another book series that did a similar thing as The Hunger Games was the Twilight series. There you had the love triangle between Bella, Edward, and Jacob. The fighting between the vampers and werewolf's is what drew in the male readers.

Some of the ways that the districts showed their gender roles was by their clothing. Within the districts there was not much difference in clothing since women and guys all work alongside one another. The real difference was showed from district to district and than the ultimate difference was that of the Capital. The capital was the one with all the fancy clothes with the different color wigs and changing in skin colors. While most of the districts had very few clothes that they wore the same clothes for work and throughout the rest of the day. The clothes ended up being stained and torn. Peeta being a baker and decorating the cakes goes against our gender roles because we few those types of jobs as a women job not for men to do. In a way some might say that Katniss's  and Peeta's roles should be switched based on our gender roles.



Work cited:
http://www.justjared.com/2011/07/29/josh-hutcherson-hugner-games-peeta/
http://www.j-14.com/posts/twilight-stars-where-are-they-now-50601/photos/twilight-main-76419
http://www.myhungergames.com/new-picture-of-katniss-peeta-and-gale

Music Importants in The Hunger Games

Music was a very important part in Katniss's life while she was growing up. It was something that she and her dad did while walking through the words to find food and while traveling to the lake to take a cooling swim. Katniss singing a song in grade school is what made Peeta fall in love with her and never able to let go of his love for her. Music can be used in multiple different ways. For instance it can be used to show your emotions about a particular situation. For example Katniss sang the song "The Valley Song" shortly before they bombed the tunnel and she felt bad for all the innocent people that were working in the tunnel. It reminded her to the day that she and her sister ran to the coal mine to check to see if their father was going to survive the mine collapsing. Unfortunately, their father did not survive so she does not wish to put that type of pain onto another family when the tunnel collapses.




The music in Appalachia held great importance as well. Music gave the people something to do to help pass the time while they traveled along the Appalachia trail to find find new land to call home and to set up their farms. Also, it gave them a good reason for neighbors to gather together to have some fun and to forget about the long week of work. This is similar to when Katniss and Peeta danced together in the capital at the party for their victor tour. They both knew how to dance well it gave them a chance to calm down and have a little time to themselves to talk and show that they still are the loving couple that won The Hunger Games.


Work cited:
http://rebloggy.com/post/sad-suicide-katniss-everdeen-mockingjay-the-hanging-tree/103599644497
http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/catching-fire/images/36047112/title/peeta-katniss-dancing-photo

Totalitarian Government

       A totalitarian government is one that has one person in charge of the whole nation and does not have to get his laws passed by anyone else. The person in charge mainly makes his laws based on his benefits instead of the better good of his/her people. Also, the people of the country do not have much freedom of speech or freedom to go out and obtain the job they most desire. Some countries even have a limit on how many kids they are allowed to have. 

      There are some countries still to this day that are rolled by a totalitarian. A lot of these countries are considered third world countries. Meaning that there are more people that are considered poor rather than being middle class or higher. These circumstances are very similar to those that took place in The Hunger Games. President Snow could be considered a totalitarian leader. He makes laws that benefits him and to keep his power as the leader of Panem. Also, the people of Panam are very poor in majority of the districts except for a select few people within the districts even in the “wealthy” districts.

     A problem with over coming a totalitarian government is that it takes a totalitarian leader on the rebellion side to control the rebellion to over come the government. So then if the rebellion wins the people are stuck with a different totalitarian leader so their not much better off. This is what could have happen in The Hunger Games if Katness was not wiser than her years. Katness desided to use her one arrow to kill President Coin instead of President Snow. If she did not do that then President Coin would have ran Panem similar to the way Snow did.

Comments on other blogs

Thomas:
              I like how he shared a lot of picture and little movie clips to show what he was talking about. His pictures are not just from the movie clips he also shared art that people made based on how they pictured the characters. I also agree with his statement about each book had its own important parts and that no one book stands above the other two.

McKenna:
                 First off I like how she has each blog separated from the rest. She has each blog portrayed by a picture that holds an important part in her blog content. I agree with the fact that having one narration through all the books was very important in telling the story. I liked the fact that she picked some books that show dystopian and compared it with the Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games Compared with The Condemned

            The Condemned and The Hunger Games have a lot of similarities and also multiple differences. Some of the differences are The Condemned takes only ten adult criminals to place into their island for the game. The criminals that they choose are already sentenced to death. However, the producer of the game has to pay the prison for the criminal he wants. Also, he hands pick the players based on there past crimes and how dangerous they are. Were The Hunger Games having 24 kids randomly picked to go into their games. In The Hunger Games their arena they play in is closed off so there is no escaping or getting to the game makers. Also, they have better control over the games for example they can bring players together if they start to drift away. Another difference is in The Condemned they only have thirty hours to find a winner.

            Some of the similarities are that there can only be one winner and that winner will receive a big prize with lots of money. There are care packages that are sent to some of the players to help them out and to make the game a little more interesting to the viewers. Also, Jack is similar to Katness in the fact that they go against the roles of the games. Jack goes in search of the main base so that he can call his wife to get help and give her money incase he dies. An interesting similarity is Jack’s wife watches the show in the town bar that Jack is from with a lot of his friends from the town. Jack’s town acts like district twelve gathering in the main square to watch the Hunger Games. Saige and Ewan teaming up is similar to the careers teaming up. They both a lot of skills in fighting and surviving plus the producer favorites them to win so he continues to send them care packages to help them win.  

work cited:

http://www.impawards.com/2007/condemned_ver4.html

http://www.thehungergamesexplorer.com/us/epk/hunger-games/

Favorite Hunger Game Book

I enjoyed reading The Hunger Game the most. If the first book was not as entertaining as it was I would not have been interested to finish the other two books. I enjoyed this book so much because it had a little bit of everything. In the beginning the readers were able to see the special connection Katniss and Gale share together. As the book continues I become more in love with Katniss as she always puts others needs and wants before her own. Also, the way she takes over being Prim’s mom while their mom is morning over her father’s death.

As the book continues I am introduced to some pretty awesome characters like Haymitch and his witty remarks. I enjoyed seeing the way Haymitch changed from the beginning of the book to the end of the hunger games. Once Katniss and Peeta stood up to Haymitch on the train he saw they meant business so he started to show his wittiness. I enjoyed reading about Haymitch and Katniss becoming one once the hunger games started. Although they did not get along the greatest before hand it was easy to see that they were thinking the same way. Katniss knew exactly what to do just by the timing of the gifts Haymitch sent or did not send to her.

My least favorite book was Mockingjay. The first two parts kind of dragged on and then the third part everything got thrown at the reader at once. It was much easier for me to stop at the end of a chapter. The other books it was much harder for me to but the book down. Also, I was not a fan of the ending of the book. The fact that Katniss pretty much changed her whole personality. By marrying Peeta and having kids. The whole time she had trust issues and stated that she never wanted to have kids.  

Work cited:

http://deadline.com/2012/06/hunger-games-crossing-400m-today-284230/

http://www.myhungergames.com/jennifer-lawrence-knew-she-was-meant-to-play-katniss/haymitch-katniss-600x400

Catching Fire book vs. The Movie

         The book goes into much greater details when President Snow came to visit Katniss at her new victor’s house. The book just did a much better job with explaining the sense of shock that President Snow made an unexpected visit to her home. Also, it showed how much Katniss’s mother was worried about the visit. Then throughout the whole meeting with President Snow one on one with Katniss the reader was able to get an inside look at Katniss’s thoughts during the interview.

         I do have to compliment the producers of the movie on the way that they portrayed the arena. I was able to notice that the arena was suppose to be a clock a lot sooner in the movie than what I did in the book. Also, I felt they did a much better job showing the challenges Katniss and Peeta had to over come in this arena than what they did in the first movie. The producers did a better job at fallowing along with the book.

         The book and movie explained the 75^th Quarter Quell in different ways. What I mean by that is the book described that the third Quarter Quell was planned when they first came up with the idea of the hunger games. However, as the text continued the reader was able to inquire that was not the case at all. In the movie it was more straight forward in the fact that the new head game maker and President Snow purposely made this Quarter Quell to get back at Katniss. They did this in hope that Katniss would die in the games and to extinguish the rebellion. 

         One aspect in both the movie and book that I did not completely agree with was the fact that the rebellion group kept their two biggest aspects to their plan out of the plan. As a reader I think that it would have been much smarter to at least let Peeta know about the plan to escape from the games. I feel this way because Peeta is so good with his words and his actions to help persuade others. However, I do agree with them not telling Katniss because she is having a hard enough time to be “in love” with Peeta. Telling her about the plan would have changed the way she acted in the games and would have sparked curiosity to President Snow that something might be up. 

The Hunger Game book vs. The Movie

One of the main differences that really caught my eye while I was watching the movie was how Katniss came in contact with the mockingjay pin. The book really shows the importance of the mockingjay pin by introducing us to it when Katniss and Gale go to deliver strawberries to the mayor’s house. Madge was wearing it when she answered the door. It was part of her reaping dress. Then Madge came into visit Katniss before she left for the capital and gave Katniss the pin as her one thing to take with her into the games from district 12.

However, in the movie it shows Katniss finding the pin in the hob. She asks the old lady how much and she tells Katniss to take it. Later, Cinna has to sneak the pin on Katniss under her game jacket so that she could take it with her into the games.

The book takes the time to show the real importance of the pin not only to Katniss but also the importance to her district. Also, the book tells the reader that is how Rue knows she was able to trust Katniss and team up with her in the games. The movie never shows that or implies that at all through out the whole movie.

A similarity between the book and movie was how they showed how much Katniss loves her little sister Prim. It all started when their father died in the coal mine and their mother left them mentally as well. It was all up to Katniss to provide food for not only for herself but also for Prim and their mom. Then both book and movie went into great detail when Katniss took Prim’s spot in the hunger games. As a reader and a viewer I could see and feel the love Katniss had for Prim so that she would possibly give up her own life to save her little sister’s. The thought of Prim was what kept Katniss fighting and trying to survive throughout the whole game. She had to hide her fright so that Prim could not see Katniss was scared. Katniss was determined to keep her promise she made with Prim that she was going to win the games and come home safely to her.   

Work cited 

Images: 

http://www.centives.net/S/category/snips/

http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/the-hunger-games/images/36320952/title/prim-katniss-photo