Racial Factors And Stereotypes In The Hunger Games

Register to read the introduction… When the book opens we are given visualization into futuristic Appalachia, now known as District 12. It is nicknamed The Seam, a town of cinder streets with squat gray houses. The men and women are mostly coal miners. The district was recently stricken by a mining explosion which took the life of the main character, Katniss’s, father. With District 12 in a food shortage the main mean for food is illegal hunting done by Katniss, and her best friend, Gale. This comparison of the futuristic Appalachia is like modern day Appalachia in that the citizens' need for resources have created an atmosphere of helplessness that the main characters try to overcome in their fight for survival. Just as many people of Appalachia do today, the socioeconomic factors, parental influence, and the low quality of education provided to the people cause their interest in education to lessen (Stereotypes of Appalachia, 2011). The movie reinforces this factor into the reasons why people in Appalachia stay in poverty and are …show more content…
One writer was compelled at the suggestion to look up the definition of “hillbilly” in the dictionary. Hillbillies are “dumb-assed Americans who have babies with their siblings {or} pets, and call them names like ‘Mary-Beth’ (Starnes, 2007). What a depressing image that was painted. If people would open their eyes and look deep into this mountainous area they would truly see that many of the stereotypes of today are an old world school of thought that is not 100% true. Perhaps what it really comes down to is that we should start to examine our national sense of