The Girl Who Was on Fire, essays by many authors (spoiler alert)

     I am a very slow reader, so I am still reading The Girl Who Was on Fire. Usually since I am such a slow reader, I notice things that fast readers wouldn't, because they are skimming the pages a little bit, but this book keeps on bringing up things from the Hunger Games, that I really never even noticed, which is very interesting.
     The main thing that stood out to me was the essay written by Lili Wilkinson, called " Someone to watch over me." This essay talks a lot about the similarities in the hunger games arena, and life in a city today. I never would have even thought to compare the two, considering the fact that the hunger games take place in the future, and it is in such a dystopian society that I didn't notice how it could be at all similar to present day. Even though the times seem so different, Suzanne Collins (the author of The Hunger Games,) lives in this time period, so she must have gotten her idea of the hunger games from her life now.
     In the hunger games, even though it is completely real, the contestants are being forced to kill each other, it becomes an all day, and all night television show, which basically shows every thing that is happening in the games. The "show" goes on twenty four hours every day, until the games have finished, (there is only one contestant left). This "show" is filmed by hundreds of hidden cameras all around the arena, the contestants know they are being watched, but they can't see the cameras. There is always a chance that they aren't being watched, but there is an even bigger chance, that they are.
     The essay talks about the present day cities, the subways and busses, the streets, restaurants, and even some schools, etc. have security cameras which pressures us to do the right thing, even though it's mostly out of fear. Now that I think about it the criminals in this society are not only bad people, if anything, they are extremely brave. When a person waits on a long line in a crowded store, or restaurant, it's most likely no one will notice if they don't pay, but they are scared of getting caught, so they pay. In the hunger games the contestants were sometimes scared of killing one another, because they were scared of people not liking them, specifically the friends and families of the people the killed, but I'm sure they are also pressured into killing one another, because they want to seem fierce, so that their families, friends, and specifically sponsors have faith in them; it is also good for them if the other contestants think that they kill a lot of people, because then it is much more likely that people won't mess with them.
     In conclusion, the hunger games are some what similar to life now, it now makes sense how Suzanne Collins came up with the idea of the hunger games. Maybe now that the similarities have been brought to people's attention, we can prevent anything like the hunger games from happening.