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| OH SCANDALOUS! |
This is important NEWS? Although the text above is fictional and an exaggerated example of what a news report in America looks like; More often then not, I find myself coming across similar types of news reports being weaved into other more serious reports. Figures like Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian West, Caitlyn Jenner, and pretty much any successful person in the entertainment business becomes a household name from the most inappropriate place, the news. However, I would not be upset about this if there was actually a legit reason for their appearance on screen.
That is not the case most of the time...
With that said, when I began to fall deeper into novel called The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins, I was surprised to see this sense of manipulation and/or celebrity culture being utilized in the novel as well. A character by the name of Caesar Flickerman (The Hunger Games host) plays a huge role in distracting the people of Panem from the important revolts going on in their surrounding districts. His plan for keeping the people ignorant to the revolts was to entertain them with the lives of 'celebrity victors.' These celebrities are individuals who were crowned victors in pervious Hunger Games, and are now forced to once again face off against each other with only one allowed survivor... Sounds pretty twisted and gruesome right?.. Well, Caesar was so good at his job that the people stayed ignorant throughout the entire novel, and they ultimately enjoyed the gruesome battle... because it was.. so entertaining.. These are some quotes from Flickerman that showed his attempt at making the games eventful:
"Katniss Everdeen, you look fabulous! Doesn’t she?" (Collins).
"But, Katniss, on more serious note. I think we’re all here a little disappointed, more than a little disappointed, that a certain wedding did not take place. Aren’t we folks? Mm…alas. But, am I correct in assuming that this is the gown that you would have worn on that day, yes or no?" (Collins).
"I love it! I love it! Don’t you love it, folks?!" (Collins).
Caesar Flickerman was the messenger of the information, but not the creator of it. There were people behind the scenes, who assigned the topics for Flickerman to discuss on the show with hopes of distracting the general public from the events that mattered. I believe this novel mirrors a lot of what America is doing at the moment when it comes to reporting news that is not important. There are wars going on in the world as i write this paper, and I am not aggressively being informed about them. When on the other hand, last year the whole world witnessed Bruce Jenner win the Arthur Ashe Courage Award for becoming Caitlyn Jenner (Bruce became a women). With news being focused on irrelevant things, this makes me believe that just like in the novel Catching Fire, the government or an even higher power is trying to hide important information. Just like the revolts in the novel, legitimate details on the wars America participates in is very difficult to find. Unless you are provided with a good source, or have a first hand look at the action. For all we know, there may be a President Snow somewhere in the world, making sure Americans do not see the desperation, starvation, and impatience of our surrounding countries. If that is to be the case, we can definitely say that Suzanne Collins was trying to give us a warning.
Collins, Suzanne, and Elizabeth B. Parisi. Catching Fire. Print.
#5
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