The Perils Of Obedience: Movie Analysis

The common misconception is that if the average person was told to harm someone, they would disobey. The majority of people claim that when asked if they would unlawfully kill someone because they were ordered to, they wouldn’t do it. However, some studies claim that this is actually very unlikely, that most people in this situation, would rather not disappoint the authority rather than follow their own morals. Even looking back on the Holocaust it’s seen that ordinary people are capable of killing and torturing others. The Stanley Milgram Experiment explained in The Perils of Obedience, shows how common people are willing to harm another for this reason. This also is displayed in the movie The Hunger Games, where the random people from the …show more content…
The night before the games started, when Katniss and Peeta are talking, Peeta exhibits his own hope. He makes it evident he doesn’t have any fear because he knows he is going to die anyway; but he hopes that he doesn’t conform to the version of him the Capitol desires. Many of the characters display this kind of disobedience in the likeliness and desire that they stay true to themselves. This even answers the question from earlier. Right off the bat when Finch Crossly (FoxFace) and Katniss run into each other after the games start, Katniss having a knife, has the opportunity to kill her. They both end up continuing to run off instead of making any attacks. This is also displayed through Rue and Katniss’s relationship; not only do they not make any attempts to kill, but they both go out of their way to protect each other. This same kind of disobedience was also seen in Milgram’s experiment when obedience levels greatly dropped off when delivered over telephone. From this it can be connected that when the authority figure is not directly there, there is less of a hope for the people to obey them. In the games, most of the willing career participants came from the inside districts that were much more connected with the Capitol in the first place. While the districts like where Katniss, Peeta, & Rue came from, have much less of conspicuous presence from the Capitol. Another thing to take into consideration is the findings of Solomon Asch. Through his experiments it’s observed how people have a tendency to just go along with the majority. In relation to the movie, there is a possibility that this could have also been some of the characters’ main influences on their choices. Asch brings up how people will tend to do whatever they are raised to do; such as a tribe of cannibals won’t see cannibalism as a sin. Whereas someone in the modern United States