Suzanne Collins, in her book The Hunger Games, juxtaposes the politics of the country of Panem with the modern day United States of America. In her book she explicitly touches on political, social, and cultural issues like unauthorized surveillance, class structure and poverty, and the use of media to control the masses. First off, makes comparisons with the Capitol and the NSA. The NSA uses CCTV, webcams, and other modern technology to spy on its citizens, the Capitol uses new technology as well specifically their design and use of Jabberjays that pick up noises and videos of people throughout the twelve districts. This is an absurd invasion of privacy and if the government is working correctly then it should not be worried about people rebelling. The second comparison that Collins makes deals with poverty and different advantages of regions. District 12 is one of the poorest districts in the country whereas District 1 is the richest. When getting ready for the Hunger Games, kids in District 1 have been training since their early childhoods because they did not have to work to help feed their families like their counterparts in District 12. This gives a great advantage to some kids over others just like in America where kids coming from certain regions have to overcome an extreme amount of obstacles to get to where they want to be in life. The last comparison that Collins makes between America and Panem is the use of media to control and corrupt the masses. The government picks and chooses what it shows on the screens to lead the people to the governments point of view. Even when the Districts start to rebel in the later books, the government shows its people that they are winning even when they are losing territory. Major news channels in the USA tend to tailor their news broadcasts to make people think that their view is correct even if that means giving false news.
