SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN THE DESIGN SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT Name: Fong Wen Ying Cynthia

Student ID: 0320499

Films selected: The Hunger Games & Divergent

Word count: 914 words

English II (ELG 30605)

Written Assignment 1: Compare-Contrast Essay

Lecturer: Cassandra Wijesuria

Submission date: April 8th, 2015

 

The Hunger Games Divergent Settings:

(Panem, D12, Capitol)

• Vague disasters • Post-apocalyptic place • 12 different society • ‘May the odds be ever in your

favor.’

(Dystopia)

• City crumbling/ruining • Giant fence • 5 different society • ‘Faction before blood.’

Characters:

• President Snow & Janine Matthews want them (Katniss & Tris) killed • Main characters who emerges as a leader and grieves for the losses

she has suffered as a result of war. • The main guy is subjected to some treatment, which makes him think

that his female love interest is his enemy. (Peeta is implanted with fake memories & Four is injected with simulation serum)

Moral Values:

• strong-willed in temperament (Katniss never lets anything get her down, Tris determined to be able to do what the other Dauntless initiates)

• bold and daring despite being just girls (Katniss shot an arrow near the Gamemakers & when Tris volunteered to be the first to jump)

Science fiction is a genre of fiction involving imaginative content with futuristic settings; futuristic technology that sometimes involves space travel meeting aliens, time travel to change history. Within these alien situations, real human concerns and issues, this makes the popularity of sci-fi two-fold: we are thrilled by the imaginative worlds. This is why I find The Hunger Games and Divergent special. These movies do not include those typical space travel, time travel with sophisticated technology but instead, a rather down casted theme was presented here. These two movies have various similarities as well as characteristic that sometimes even make me wonder if our future world would turn out like that too. These two movies took place at an unspecified point in the future where vague disasters caused Panem and Dystopia to be surrounded with giant fence like a post-apocalyptic place. The world outside of Panem and Dystopia is ruined, leaving buildings that once stood tall to crumble. Every year in Panem, a male and a female from each of the divided 12 districts are chosen during reaping. Within that world, the Hunger Games is an annually televised bloodbath in which 24 children from outside the Capitol fight to the death in penance for the rebellion of their forebears against the Capitol’s command. As for Divergent, everyone must choose a faction out of 5, which are the Dauntless (military), Amity (peacemakers), Erudite (the intelligent), Candor (lawyers) and the Abnegation (the selfless) once they enter adulthood and commit to it for life. I find the motto, “may the odds be ever in your favor” which basically means, I wish you the best chances of winning always from The Hunger Games and “faction before blood” – prioritize your faction over your family from Divergent, are both rather heartless and inhuman. The fact that both the rulers of Panem and Dystopia, President Snow and Jeanine Matthews, are after the main characters in the movies is really hard to deny that the storyline is similar. In The Hunger Games, President Snow feels threatened because Katniss made a fool out of the Capitol twice when she decorated Rue’s body, showing a softer side to the Hunger Games that not all the participants are in it for blood but because they were chosen and trying to survive and also when Katniss pulled out the poisoned night lock berries to have a double suicide with Peeta, forcing President Snow to change the rules making them both winners. The main reason this is disturbing for him is because these are acts of rebelling against the Capitol showing that Katniss can change the rules. In Divergent, Jeanine wants Tris killed because she and the boy she fell in love with, Four, are Divergent and only they can stop Jeanine’s plan to kill all the Abnegation leaders to not let the cat out of the bag and to also rule Dystopia all on her own. Although Katniss and Tris are just sixteen year-old girls, I admire how iron willed in spirit Katniss is that not a thing could get into her way even if she knew the odds were against her, while others would just sit back and die. When Clove was about to kill her; instead of wimping out and pleading for her life, she kept her eyes wide open and spat in Clove’s face. She is not only

brave but also intelligent: in the beginning of the Hunger Games she chose not to charge into the bloodbath like many others instead, she ran to the opposite direction and grabbed a bag of supplies then ran into the forest, and not to mention how daring she was to shoot an arrow near one of the Gamemaker’s head to catch their attention. On the other hand though, Tris has the same inspiring determination as well, she was willing to do whatever the other Dauntless members initiate especially from the scene where she volunteered to be the first jumper. We cannot deny that all the Jabberjays and Initiates (The Hunger Games and Divergent fans) are ‘fan-girling’ over the love between Katniss and Peeta and the low-profile relationship between Tris and Four. However, I bet no one realize how similar this two couples are because the lover boys were subjected to some treatment, which makes them think that Katniss or Tris is their enemy. Peeta was hijacked with fake memories of Katniss being a threat to him. Hijacking is a type of memory alteration and fear conditioning method developed by the Capitol for torture. When Katniss knew that Peeta was saved from the Capitol, she wasted no time to look for him. The moment she was about to embrace Peeta, his hands were locked tight around her neck, trying to strangle her. Same goes for Four, Jeanine specially programmed a different scenario into the mind of Four, injected with the serum though he is still conscious but is not in control of his own body. Yet, the serum was unable to take over the permanently because he was neutralized immediately after hearing Tris’ voice. Science fiction often explores the potential upshot of not only scientific but other innovations as well, hence sci-fi is also known as ‘literature of ideas’. Just like what Issac Asimov, an author and a professor of biochemistry, once said, ‘Science fiction is an existential metaphor…’ Who knows Panem and Dystopia will be the only two cities remaining in the future and The Hunger Games is the only way to survive in the future world?                          

References:

• Aminian, K. (2012, May 8). The Skrapits Games. Retrieved March 25, 2015, from http://theskrapitsgames.blogspot.com/2012/05/why-does-president-snow-feel-threatened.html

• Cardieri, N. (2012, December 11). Dystopian Fiction: 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2015, from http://room116dystopianfiction.blogspot.com/2012/12/characters-katniss-from-hunger-games.html

• Isaac Asimov Quotes :: Quoteland :: Quotations by Author. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2015, from http://www.quoteland.com/author/Isaac-Asimov-Quotes/380/

• May the odds be ever in your favour: The language of The Hunger Games | OxfordWords blog. (2012, September 5). Retrieved March 26, 2015, from http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/09/the-language-of-the-hunger-games/