Morality

Katniss and the others live in a world that was once North America, and the values in this world are eerily twisted. People are routinely dehumanized in this world, and the government is oppressive and omnipresent. In the Seam many people live in a state of fear, whether of starvation or sickness, and in other Districts people are commonly whipped or killed for trifling matters. The novel maintains a strong sense of right and wrong: the protagonist knows there is something seriously wrong with Panem, though she has been to busy helping her family survive to really ruminate on the problem. Pitting children against one another in a fight to the death is not simply a twisted entertainment for Panem—-it is a reminder to the Districts just how much the Capitol can control their lives. It is cruel to treat children's deaths as a game, and...