“May the odds be ever in your favor.”
Spoiler alert: they’re not. Not in Panem, the dystopian setting of The Hunger Games, and not in the real world, either.
In the U.S., here’s how the odds stack up:
- 1 in 7 households don’t have enough to eat.
- 1 in 9 people live below the federal poverty line.
- 1 in 13 white people
- 1 in 11 Asian American people
- 1 in 6 African American people
- 1 in 6 Latino/Hispanic people
- 1 in 5 Native American people
- 1 in 5 people don’t graduate high school on time.
On a global scale:
- 1 in 12 people live on less than $2.15 a day.
- 1 in 10 people can’t read or write.
- 1 in 4 people don’t have safe drinking water.
- 1 in 10 people don’t have access to electricity.
- 1 in 11 people face hunger.
Suddenly, the odds of being chosen as tribute, or of winning the Hunger Games (1 in 24) don’t seem so distant.
It’s no surprise that Suzanne Collins’ inspiration for the bestselling series came in a very real-world moment: flipping channels. She was looking for something to watch and started flipping between game shows and news coverage of the Iraq War. And voila, The Hunger Games, with all of its extravagant inequalities, was born. Fifteen years after Katniss first took up her bow, its themes of inequality and rebellion still ring true.
Health Inequality Literally Kills
In Panem, your district decides how long you’ll live and how much pain you’ll endure. While Capitol citizens enjoy luxury healthcare and cosmetic procedures, people in the outer districts die from easily preventable injuries and illnesses.
Remember when Gale was brutally whipped in Catching Fire? Katniss has to beg for basic medical supplies. And when Peeta’s leg gets infected in the Games, the Capitol’s doctors amputate and fit him with a high-tech prosthetic — a service no one in District 12 could dream of.
In real life:
Many people in the United States and around the world don’t have access to basic healthcare. (And even if the healthcare is there, that doesn’t mean you can afford it). In the U.S., about 1 in 13 people don’t have insurance, and 1 in 4 adults has put off getting medical care because they can’t afford it. As a result of this and other factors, the life expectancy of a person in the US can vary by more than 20 years depending on your race and where you live.
Hunger as a Weapon
“Starvation’s not an uncommon fate in District 12,” Katniss tells us. Families rely on illegal hunting, black market trades, and dangerous jobs just to eat. Meanwhile, the Capitol regularly hosts luxurious banquets overflowing with food. This makes it clear that the problem isn’t lack of food: it’s that all the food is being hoarded by the wealthy.
In real life:
Unfortunately, starvation isn’t an uncommon fate in today’s world, either. Food insecurity affects over 47 million people in the U.S. alone, hitting Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic communities the hardest. That means many people, quite possibly your friends and neighbors, don’t know where their next meal is coming from.
And around the world, the situation is even worse. Over 730 million people around the world face chronic hunger. This is often a result of poverty or famine. But other times, it’s created by people and politics, just like in Panem. For example, Sudan is currently suffering from a major famine driven by ongoing war.
Who Controls Your Body?
If you’re chosen as a tribute, your body is no longer your own. You are immediately scrubbed, waxed, and styled for Capitol audiences. Then, you’re thrown into an arena and forced to fight to the death. If you survive, the Capitol elite can bid on your body for sex trafficking.
In real life:
In the 1800s, enslaved people were regularly whipped and raped. Some were used for medical experimentation, a practice that was later continued by the Nazis. In the United States, there were over 60,000 documented cases of forced sterilization, often targeting African Americans and people with disabilities. Today, many people from marginalized communities (including trans people) struggle to get basic healthcare. Sex trafficking is still a major problem. Meanwhile, the debate over abortion continues.
Mental Health Scars
Haymitch says there are no winners of the Hunger Games, just survivors. That’s because the survivors of the Hunger Games all suffer because of their time in the arena. Katniss and Peeta develop PTSD, experiencing recurring nightmares, panic attacks, and paranoia. Meanwhile, Haymitch turns to drinking, and Annie loses her mind.
In real life:
People in war zones suffer from the memories of what they have experienced. In the United States, 1 in 14 veterans experience PTSD. This disabling condition also affects people who have experienced sexual assault, abuse, or other forms of trauma.
And the trauma doesn’t have to be visible to leave a mark. Poverty and racism cause their own sort of trauma, leading to high levels of stress and mental health problems.
Suffering As Entertainment
A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes shows us how a gruesome ritual punishment becomes the most-watched television event of the year. It paints a disturbing picture of how easily death can become gamified. The recipe is simple: flashy costumes, dramatic interviews, emotionally charged sob stories, and an addicting gambling system.
In real life:
We’re constantly surrounded by images of violence in the media: footage of war and terrorist attacks, bodycam videos of active shooter situations and police brutality, photos of skeletal children caked in dirt. These stories jockey for headline space with increasingly brutal content. And most of this content focuses on marginalized communities, sensationalizing their struggles for the sake of a few ‘Likes’ on social media.
When Health is a Hidden Truth
The Capitol edits and controls what the districts see, including Snow’s addresses and propaganda reels. As Sunrise on the Reaping shows, it chooses exactly what to highlight on the big screen…and what to cut out completely.
In real life:
Access to information is a huge part of health. It impacts how we feel about our bodies, shapes behaviors like what we eat and whether we get enough exercise, and helps us decide when to go to the doctor. Imagine if we were still seeing ads about smoking being cool instead of PSAs about its dangers—lung cancer rates would be a lot higher.
But a lot of people don’t have access to life-saving information, whether it’s because they don’t have internet, can’t read well, or don’t speak English. And in some countries, the government limits what people can find online.
The Odds Are Rigged. But They Don’t Have To Be.
The world isn’t fair. For the most part, your health and quality of life depends on where you’re born, what you look like, and how much money you have.
It’s been this way for as long as people can remember. Often, a better world sounds like a fantasy. “And that’s part of our trouble,” Lenore Dove says in Sunrise on the Reaping. “Thinking things are inevitable. Not believing change is possible.”
Change is never easy. But when it comes to fighting for a better world, it’s worth it. The odds may seem bleak, even downright illogical. Yet humanity has already shown a talent for beating the odds, from sparking the first bonfire to walking on the moon to developing artificial intelligence. Who’s to say that we can’t beat the odds to build a happier, healthier world for all?
Hope, after all, is a kind of rebellion.
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If you liked this article, check out another of my blog posts for more health-related book content: No More Miracle Cures: Disability Representation in Middle-Grade Lit.
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