A nation divided not only by physical boundaries, but by a socioeconomic divide finds itself in a gruesome fight for survival year after year. While the classes toil below them, the head of Government and the richest of society find themselves in a position of comfort and power. This is the world presented by Suzanne Collins in The Hunger Games. Panem is a country that has been separated with into a very distinct structure of Districts. Each District has its own purpose and level on the structure of socioeconomic class, the highest level being one and the lowest being twelve. A defining feature of these Districts is how accessible things like health care and food are, and the quality of these things. The higher your District is on the ladder, the more access you have to the things you need. This occurrence isn’t just happenstance, it is a system that was devised by the Capitol that continues in order to maintain obedience and division. This world presented by Collins is not too far into the realm of fiction. The Contemporary American Social System is almost a perfect reflection of the system presented by Panem. Health Care, food, and other necessities are inaccessible to many Americans, just as they are to the residents of the lower districts. The way these things are regulated today hasn’t quite reached the extent seen in The Hunger Games, but we are slowly working our way towards the same level of control. In her novel, The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins uses the accessibility of food and health care to separate the districts of Panem along socioeconomic lines to criticize the social systems of Contemporary America.
Throughout the novel, we are given various depictions of consumption of many different things. The way food, health care, and other forms of consumption present themselves in The Hunger Games is just as important as the actual necessity of the item to each individual. Perhaps the most important commodity to the residents of Panem, and more specifically District 12, is Health Care. In his article, “Folk Healers and Medical Miracles: Images of Health and Health Care in The Hunger Games”, Robert Hackey says “Few readers … recognize the critical role of health care in Colins’s trilogy” (Hackey 776). The survival of Katniss in her everyday life revolves around her understanding of Appalachian folk remedies, and both tributes from District 12 come to rely on folk medicine as well as miraculous modern medicines. The residents of the Seam have come to rely on folk remedies as their main form of health care. According to Hackey, this is because “health care choices for residents of the Seam … are circumscribed by their abject poverty and powerlessness” (Hackey 778). Even with such a heavy reliance on folk medicine, modern medicines must be used in the Seam when remedies don’t make the cut. In The Hunger Games, Katniss gives pills to Peeta to reduce his fever. She says “I dig through the first-aid kit … and find pills that reduce your temperature. My mother actually breaks down and buys these on occasion when her home remedies fail” (Collins 255). Though times like this occur where folk medicine just won’t cut it, it is safe to rely on these remedies when situations like Katniss’s run-in with the Tracker-Jackers occurs. After she has suffered many severe Tracker-Jacker stings, Katniss forms an Alliance with her fellow tribute Rue. In this same moment, Rue says she can fix Katniss’s stings. Rue then proceeds to pull out some leaves which Katniss says are like the ones her mother uses. Rue chews up these leaves and presses them on Katniss’s knee(Collins 200). Katniss receives instantaneous relief upon the application of the leaves. She says “It’s as if the leaves are actually leaching the pain right out of the sting” (Collins 201). Treatments like this aren’t unusual to the residents of poorer districts like 11 and 12, they are also common in contemporary Southern Appalachia. According to Hackey, a remedy exactly like this one seen in The Hunger Games takes place. Hackey says “tobacco juice obtained from a dab of snuff … taken directly from the mouth was applied to an insect bite or sting” (Hackey 780). The use of these remedies is a way of life for Katniss and Rue, as well as for the current residents of Appalachia. Their presence in The Hunger Games isn’t just a survival factor, it is a connection between the tributes and their everyday lives.
Food is another important commodity to the residents of Panem, especially to those with limited access to sustenance such as those who live in the Seam. On the importance of food, Lori Parks and Jennifer Yamashiro say in their article, “Consumed: Food in The Hunger Games”:
Food. Food. Food. The pages of Collins’ novel … are filled with visceral examples of hunger and desperation, the acquisition of food, its preparation, consumption or abandonment, and abundance. In District 12, the paucity of monthly government grain and oil rations leads to supplemental, illegal practices such as hunting, gathering, and trading on the black market. (Parks, Yamashiro 138)
With such little access to food for the residents of District 12, the abundance of food comes as a shock to Katniss. This is visible in the first meeting with her stylist Cinna. Katniss observes Cinna “request” the food when he “presses a button on the side of table” which causes the table to open up to allow a second tabletop full of food to rise from below (Collins 65). Katniss then tries to imagine what it would take to gather all of the ingredients for the meal in front of her at home and says to herself “what must it be like, I wonder, to live in a world where food appears at the press of a button?” (Collins 65). This is such a stark difference in lifestyle for Katniss. She has dedicated her entire life to hunting and gathering in order to provide for herself and her family. This has taken so much control of her personality that she can’t even imagine what she would do with her time if she didn’t have to scavenge for food (Collins 65). Right away, Katniss has encountered a barrier that prevents her from connecting with the residents of The Capitol. The abundance of food Katniss encounters is just one of the factors that cause residents of poor districts to separate themselves from those who live in The Capitol and richer districts.
The accessibility and quality of certain commodities are restricted in different districts, this shows us the way in which the government of Panem keeps each district confined within the social and geographic barriers set upon them. One of the most social aspects of human life is the way we interact with food. Parks and Yamashiro say “Food is able to both connect and divide people on a social level” (Parks, Yamashiro 140). This statement is proven in The Hunger Games through the different levels of consumption each district can partake in, ranging from starvation to gluttony. The effects of accessibility to food shows itself when Katniss is analyzing the other tributes during training. Upon seeing the other tributes Katniss says that her “heart sinks” and “almost all of the boys and at least half of the girls are bigger than I am, even though many of the tributes have never been fed properly. You can see it in their bones, their skin, the hollow look in their eyes” (Collins 94). Katniss, being from the poorest district, has had the least amount of readily available food. This causes her to be at a disadvantage to the rest, even though others also have not been properly fed. The tributes from the wealthier districts, often referred to as “careers”, have the greatest advantage over Katniss and the other poor tributes. Katniss says that each Career Tribute “must have fifty to a hundred pounds on [her]” (Collins 94-95). The access to food that Career Tributes have doesn’t only cause a distancing between rich and poor districts based on ability, there is also an inherent jealousy that separates them. There is even a divide between the residents of different poor districts. When Katniss allies with Rue during the Games and they eat their first meal together, Katniss is surprised when Rue says that she has “never had a whole leg [of groosling] to herself before” (Collins 202). In response to this, Katniss says “I’d have thought … you’d have a bit more to eat than us ... since you grow the food” (Collins 202). Since there is no communication between districts, Katniss automatically assumes that Rue has more access to food since District 11 produces it. After Rue tells Katniss that they are punished if they take food, she asks if the residents of District 12 are able to take all the coal they want. To this Katniss replies “no … just what we buy and whatever we track in on our boots” (Collins 203). The lack of communication between these two districts has created enough of a barrier. But, since the residents assume the living situations of each other, there is a greater divide caused by the jealous that has been created through each other’s assumptions.
The way that the accessibility to Health Care is regulated shows how the weakness of poor districts is favorable to The Capitol. The way Health Care is distributed in Panem is almost identical to the contemporary American health care system. In his article, Hackey says “in the contemporary American health care system, the availability of life-saving treatments depends on a patient’s ability to pay” (Hackey 783). When Katniss finds Peeta, she knows that any remedy she could concoct will not be enough to heal him and he needs something stronger than the ointment she received for her burns. She knows she will have to work hard to impress sponsors who will provide the medicine Peeta needs. A single kiss gives the tributes from district 12 a pot of broth, food that was desperately needed for Peeta (Collins 261). After many more efforts to show her “undying love” for Peeta, her work finally pays off when a “feast” is called in order to give each district the thing they so desperately need (Collins 274). Katniss retrieves her gift from the Feast and returns to find that it is medicine for Peeta. The injection Katniss gives Peeta works wonders, causing “almost all the swelling” in Peeta’s leg to be gone (Collins 291). Katniss had to work hard to please the sponsors of The Hunger Games in order to receive the medicine Peeta needed. This is similar to the systems in Contemporary America where “moral judgments shape … the dispensation of social welfare benefits” (Hackey 783). In both Panem and the United States, quality health care is only given to those who are deemed worthy of it. If one can’t afford a certain medication, they simply won’t get it. The quality of health care, once it is accessed, also varies depending on one’s social standing. The modern medicine in Panem has an ability not only to heal, but to restore. This is evident after the Hunger Games have come to an end. When Katniss wakes in a medical facility that is contained within the Training Center, she notices that “the scars from the burns are less prominent” (Collins 348). She has also regained her hearing (Collins 349). Perhaps the most extensive form of restoration by modern medicine in The Hunger Games comes with Peeta’s new leg. Katniss describes the leg as a “metal-and-plastic device that has replaced his flesh” (Collins 369). This is also where folk medicines and modern medicines collide. Because Katniss had used a tourniquet to prevent Peeta from bleeding out, Peeta lost his leg in exchange for his life. If this situation had occurred back in District 12, Peeta would forever be without his leg. But, since it occurred under the control of the Capitol, he had access to the medical technologies needed to give him a new, fully functional leg (Collins 369). The access to health care in District 12 is very limited. There was even an instance where the professional health care provider for the district turned away a patient because of his likelihood of death. This patient was treated by Katniss’s mother using her traditional medical knowledge, but he had died anyway (Collins 178-179). Because District 12 is so far from the Capitol and so poor, it just isn’t worth it for them to allow any kind of modern medicines to them. Once again separating the wealthy from the poor.
A social divide can be found arising between the districts of Panem and the classes in contemporary America, both being caused by the favoring of upper classes/districts and the neglect of lower ones. Hackey discusses how unaware the Capitol and wealthier districts are of the conditions suffered by poor districts by comparing them to those discussed in Michael Harrington’s The Other America. Hackey says “The same lack of awareness and concern for the condition of the poor described by Harrington exists in Panem, where the residents of the outlying districts are as ‘socially invisible’ to the pampered residents of the Capitol as the rural poor of the 1960s” (Hackey 780-781). Hackey then continues to say “in District 12, low wages, limited rations, and a high rate of occupational injuries placed many families at risk of malnutrition or even starvation” (Hackey 781). This occurrence can be seen in contemporary America where “rates of poverty, preventable illnesses and deaths, and avoidable hospitalizations remain much higher in Appalachia and other poor rural communities” (Hackey 781). The residents of both the Seam and Southern Appalachia are simply too poor to afford modern medicines. The deciding factors to how accessible health care is, are affordability and availability. Because of this, Hackey says, those who live in District 12 “rely upon traditional fold medicine … for with few exceptions, pharmaceuticals, surgery, and other forms of medical care are typically neither accessible nor affordable” (Hackey 777). The lower districts of Panem and the lower classes of Contemporary America are rejected the same quality of health care provided to the upper class because it is financially out of their reach. This inequality can also be found in the accessibility of food.
For the lower districts of Panem and the lower classes of America, food is one of the most necessary commodities that cannot be easily accessed. According to Parks and Yamashiro “The Hunger Games tap into the way that food is encoded within a society. Historically the roots of hierarchal power can be traced to the domestication of animals and agriculture” (Parks, Yamashiro 139). The control of food in Panem and America has been removed from the people who produce it. This can be seen in the contemporary food production system as well as District 11. Recall the discussion between Katniss and Rue during the Games. When Katniss assumes that the residents of District 11 can eat all the food they wish, Rue corrects. According to Rue, if you eat the crops, “They whip you and make everyone else watch” (Collins 202). Even though District 11 is the agricultural center of Panem that produces food for the rest of Panem, they still do not have access to proper sustenance because it is not granted to them. If one cannot access a proper amount of food, they will become too weak, physically and mentally, to improve their situation.
There is more than just a battle between tributes happening in The Hunger Games. There is a battle for life happening within the lower Districts of Panem. This battle is not a work of fiction, it is a retelling of the fight that is happening in the American lower class. The most necessary commodities to human life, Food and Health Care, are inaccessible to the poor residents of both countries. The self-reliance that can be found in Southern-Appalachia, both in contemporary times and the future presented by Suzanne Collins, is not just a way of life that has survived out of tradition, it is a necessity. By having their interaction with food restricted, the residents of Panem are also restricted socially due to an altered lifestyle. This altered lifestyle has led to a segregation between classes. With this segregation comes both physical and mental weakness due to a lack of resources. Without access to proper food and quality health care, it is impossible for the least fortunate of both Panem and America to climb the social ladder and leave their current situation. Poor working and living conditions have lead to a deplorable lifestyle among the lower class. A lifestyle that is intolerable, but also inescapable. Suzanne Collins created the world of Panem as a fictional future America, but the world she has created is not too far from the very real America that we live in today. Collins isn’t just criticizing the social systems of today, she is warning us of things to come. Her predictions have already started to become true; should our leaders be allowed to run wild with their regulation of social welfare, our very nation could turn into the dystopia that so many have come to fear. 


















Works Cited
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. Scholastic Inc., 2008.
Hackey, Robert B. “Folk Healers and Medical Miracles: Images of Health and Health Care in The Hunger Games.” The Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 48, no. 4, Aug. 2015, pp. 776- 788. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/jpcu.12224.
Parks, Lori L., Jennifer P. Yamashiro. “Consumed: Food in The Hunger Games.” European Journal of American Culture, vol. 34, no. 2, June 2015, pp. 137-150. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1386/ejac.34.2.137_1.

The Hungry Games:

Consumption and Class Structure in The Hunger Games

By: Aaron Fletcher