Month: February 2019

When the Hunger Games came out with the film adaption of the novel, box office were in the 700 millions, and the positive ratings were sky high. However, despite the amazing cinematography and action in the movie, the Hunger Games still faced its fair share of public criticism.

On Twitter, hateful comments towards the representation of Rue as a young black girl flooded the social platform. The racist audience mentioned opinions explaining their disappointment and an underlying disgust towards the portrayal of Rue in the film.

When I first read the news article compilation of the comments made, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The book had clear descriptions of Rue that hinted towards the race and color of her skin. From the description of her having “dark brown skin and eyes” and that agriculture district she comes from, it is easy to relate history with the connotative message Collins is trying to portray. Collins does a great job tackling relevant problems that plague society through her dystopian novel. From social hierarchy and the evergrowing wealth gap to hidden slavery, Collins is teaching an overarching lesson about the flaws in our government and authoritative figures through a hero’s journey and inner thoughts.

Book to film adaption will always continue to face criticism for casting certain individuals for the book’s roles. However, if race is the reason for this negative feedback towards a movie, then it is society that is in the wrong. The Harry Potter and the Cursed Child movie adaptation faced a similar problem.

From Rowling herself, she “had a bunch of racists telling me that because Hermione ‘turned white’ – that is, lost colour from her face after a shock – that she must be a white woman, which I have a great deal of difficulty with. But [she] decided not to get too agitated about it and simply state quite firmly that Hermione can be a black woman with [her] absolute blessing and enthusiasm.” The anger from these “fans” is stemming from a racist undertone, not the desire for an accurate portrayal from book to film. Despite how progressive we claim our society to be, it is clear in times of controversy do we see the unjust perspectives that still exist to this day.

Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunger Games,” begins the tale of Katniss Everdeen following the format of the hero’s journey, making it clear who the hero of our story is.

Her status quo is the first few chapters of the book, explaining the background and hierarchy of the districts. When the day of the Reaping comes, Katniss’s act of volunteering becomes her call to action, albeit is her sacrifice to save her sister, as opposed to an actual call. She receives assistance from the people of her own district through a three finger salute, and is given a Mockingjay pin, which becomes her symbol later on in the story. When her times comes to board the train to enter the Capitol, the scene marks her departure into the special world that marks the beginning of her journey to becoming a hero.

“The Hunger Games” is a uniquely interesting book that does a great job following the format of the hero’s journey. Depending on how closely you see the scenes of the book, different points of the story can stand in for the different points of the cycle. One could argue that Cinna and Haymitch is the assistance that Katniss receives and entering the arena is her departure to the special world. However, given the first six chapters, the current standing of what scene matches what point still stands.

Although it has been a while since the last time I read “The Hunger Games,” and it surprised me how easily I was able to fit the format of the cycle into the story. It almost makes me disappointed in the plot of “The Hunger Games,” because I remember it being such a popularized and seemingly revolution book. I would think that the plot would jump around at the points of the hero cycle to make it more interesting. Ever since the popularity of “The Hunger Games,” more novels continued to be published that focus on the dystopic, hierarchal world, such as books like “Divergent.”

Chapter 13 in the craft of research emphasizes the importance of citation when making drafts, as well as different approaches one could take to ensuring the correct citation. Correctly referencing your sources are integral in keeping your arguments valid and strong, as well as providing tantamount support for your essay.

This week I would like to focus on citations and finding sources. In class, we have already learned about the trust Project and how reliable they are in upholding a standard to the truth to those affiliated with the project.

A fine example is my personal research presentation I had to do for my business 70 class. For my current event presentation about Sprint suing AT&T over 5G advertisement , it was crucial for me to find sources that were reliable, not only when providing my background information but also as research to predict the future outcome of the lawsuit.

In my presentation, I made sure to include many citations by mentioning the websites I obtained my information from as well as mentioning the author’s credentials. In fact, researching the authors actually helped with learning more about the topic because I was able to insight into the lawsuit through different perspectives.

Overall, for any research paper, I believe it is more important to focus on sources to create a well-rounded argument. instead of settling on a topic and searching for certain evidence to prove your point (which may skew source accountability). locating multiple sources to compare and contrast accuracy allows for an arguement that will have the best points of evidence.