The golden gates open to reveal a morning sky. The stupendous words appear on the screen. Blue. Bold. Daring. LIONSGATE. Then the luminescent glow fades to black. I stare at the screen anxious, anticipating.
My heart stops in admiration as the familiar words flash across the screen. I know what lies ahead. My body shaking barely able to hold it in, I held my breath, and I waited. White words flash and fade across the blackness... until one phrase is left hanging. I read it twice before really taking it in. The true meaning is beyond just actions and words, it’s sick yet powerful. I find that power and emotion is hidden in the things we find most disgraceful.

This phrase in particular is so full of powerful that it practically leaps off the screen. The Hunger Games. The words stick with you for you know what they truly mean. Cincia Krane, the gamemaker in the movie, interrupts your train of thought with deranged words that fill me with both hope and disgust. As he sits in an interview with Caesar Flickerman, the master of ceremonies in the movie, and tells how The Hunger Games “knits us all together” and how it makes us “united” and “serves as a reminder of the rebellion” disturbing, yet fulfilling.

I begin to plot out the story in my mind. I know what happens next. I know what he does. I know. I can't forget. It’s like it is imprinted in my mind. Never to be forgotten. Yet I feel I have seen this type of thing before. This movie is the reason I know what I know, how I feel, and how I see the world. To you, it may just be a dumb recreation of the book. But to me, it is not too far away from real life to go unnoticed.

The Hunger Games is of extreme importance to my view of the world. When you are an expert, such as myself proven by a Hunger Games quiz I took, you think you know everything there's to know about The Hunger Games. However you are wrong, their are still many things people do not know about The Hunger Games. Like how real they are.

Think about war. Yes, I said war. In Afghanistan more twenty one year olds died than any other age, 244. Twenty one year old soldiers. Killed. The total amount of soldiers that died in Afghanistan was 1,780. In The Hunger Games the ages ranged from twelve-eighteen years old. Twenty Three tributes died. That is a lot of people, families, children missing parents, and now parents missing children. All of them, dead. In America, the state that the most soldiers come from is California. Most soldiers come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Just like in The Hunger Games with the Districts. The districts represent poor people, and starvation. The generals direct the wars, and we cheer when they win. Similar to the Gamemaker and the capitol. Are we no different from Panem? Is that our secret world? Maybe, maybe not. As I quote from Gale, “ It’s sick Katniss, you route for your favorites and are supposed to cry when they die! it’s just sick.” Are we any different.

Child soldiers are common in Africa. Child soldiers. Children being abducted from their homes and forced to fight. Gruesome and devastating memories will mark those children for their entire lives. No matter how short their lives may be. In February 2012, a report came out from CNN that children as young as ten years old are being abducted to become child soldiers in Somalia. Also, in Sierra Leone a former child soldier wrote about his life and said “Shooting was as common as drinking a glass of water.” Makes you think, doesn't it? The Hunger Games and real life are connected. An estimated 300,000 children are involved in conflicts around the world today. Many. Child soldiers.

193 Reality TV shows in America right now. All Competitive. Reality TV is something I frequently watch such as the X factor and other amazing shows. To the Capitol in The Hunger Games, each year their is another series of their favorite show. The Hunger Games. Reality Tv, is mostly about competition. You beat out other players, to win. The Hunger Games is the same way, just exaggerated. Reality Tv. Isn’t real reality is it? it’s just what the producers want people to see. What’s on the outside shouldn't really count, but it always does. Just the same in The Hunger Games. Even though these kids come from places where they are starving and filthy. They get all made up to meet sponsors. Made to look like the are from the capitol. The capitol’s image of what people are supposed to look like. Not theirs. The sponsors, In The Hunger Games are extremely critical as well. While you are in the arena you can get parachutes that Sponsors pay for. They only want to help you survive, if you have established yourself as a good killer. As Peeta and Katniss’s mentor Haymitch once said “ To get sponsors you have to get people to like you. When you're in the middle of the games, the difference between water, some matches, and and a knife can mean the difference between life and death.” This quote is impactful on Katniss and Peeta because it makes them think about how they are going to live, what is going to happen to them, and how they can have the best chance to survive. Reality Tv, shows like Survivor and others are not too far off from The Hunger Games. if you think about it. This could happen. I know you all think it can’t but what if it did? All these signs say we already have it in our system, The Hunger Games just shines light on it.

Only three kids out of twenty one did not watch the Hunger Games in my class. The Hunger Games has swept the nation. But do you know what The Hunger Games truly means? How much it affects us, how real it is. We have the foundations of Panem. If we are not Careful our world could fade into theirs. Just as if you think about it, has happened so many times before. How there is a monarch and the people revolt and fight for there freedom. The Hunger Games is on the line of reality and fiction, so are we. History repeats itself all the time. The Hunger Games is our insight to the future. We are not too far away. You may still think The Hunger Games is stupid, that it is just a dumb movie. But the real question is... is it really?