“Hunger Games” is a movie released a month
ago. It portrays a world divided into twelve different districts, number
twelve being the poorest and number one the richest and more successful. A
couple of each district has to fight against the others until only one is
left. It seems as if all had equal opportunities, but the truth is that the
richest ones always win.
This is a dystopian world in which the
place you’re born determines your future, as if your life was already written
and you couldn’t change it.
In our society this is not as evident, but
do you think our environment defines our future? Are people who are born in a rich family more successful?
Hunger Games portrays perfectly the social determination conditioning everyone’s life. While it’s true that biological aspects are very influential, the environment in which you grow up can define your future. Unfortunately, discrimination continues ruling the world and so both money and race can, indeed, condition your life by limiting your objectives.
ReplyDeleteGenerally, rich families want their children to succeed by being globally recognised, however, I don’t consider them being more successful. Many people fight for what they aim for by exploiting both their intelligence and cunning and are able to broaden their horizons without the need of money.
Rich people may have their future written, which means, that achieving success should be easy for them, however, this leads to dependence. Because of the facilities that money establishes in life, rich families will always be successful, but it’s ambition, strength and independence what finally draws the pathway to unlimited success, and this three qualities can’t be bought.
People may have the impression that only rich families are successful but that’s because it’s what they aim for; by contrast, most citizens want to hide from fame and stay with their humility, however, this can’t always be a choice.
The environment you’ve grown in is what will eventually determine your perspective of life and the consequences it may lead to.
In one hand, I totally agree with the fact that richer people have more chances to be successful, because in our capitalist world, money can buy almost everything. This is why only for the fact of having money, many doors are wide open for you, whereas if you haven’t got money, they are completely closed. But this is capitalism, the richer become richer, and the poorer become poorer. It is like the law of nature; the strong survive, the weak die. Rich people are born strong and therefore have more chances to become what they want. On the other side of the coin, poor people are born weak, but this doesn’t mean that they will stay weak; it means that they have it much more difficult to become what they want. Every person can choose his future, because although it is true that rich and poor don’t have the same opportunities, the government provides a public sector that offers all the needs of population, at a very low price, so that everyone can afford it.
ReplyDeleteIt wouldn’t be honest to say that poor people haven’t got opportunities in life, because it is also clear that, with effort and determination, you can achieve your goals, the only request is to work hard and never give up; anyone can become anything. However, there is people who has never put any effort in nothing, but who have achieved their objectives only because they have always had money. Do you think this is fair? I personally don’t. A world where money makes so much difference can never be fair. Every individual has its abilities and can achieve whatever he wants, and the fact of reaching your objectives should be conditioned to our personal capacities and not to our money.
In conclusion, I think that our society is very unfair, because as the governments broadcast the idea of a perfect society based in effort and hard work, the truth is that despite this being very important, money can always make the difference.
DAVID VILALTA
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ReplyDeleteI could not agree more with Ana. It is clear that the movie portrays, in some way, an extreme version of the current organisation of our global society. Nowadays people born in for example, third world countries, have less chances of achieving success, due to the lack of resources, quality education and other social issues. This is also clear, but less official or extreme even inside countries. Depending on the area or neighbourhood where an individual is born, chances to achieve success can vary, as, again; resources and mindset aren’t the same, despite the facilities of free state schools and the obligation of children to go to school up to a certain age. There is also another aspect in achieving success which can determine who achieves it. In most cases, people coming from rich families who have studied in public schools have more chances to achieve higher status in jobs, due to the old boy network, which is the name given by sociologists to the social and business connections between graduated students from public elite schools or universities.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, while it is true that the fact of having been born in certain countries implies more possibilities of success in life, it could be argued that gradually possibilities are reaching more people, although there is still clear and vast inequality. The effect of globalisation has, in a way, demonstrated that all countries have some sort of function for the global society, which promotes education and global consciousness.
I hadn’t heard about this movie before, but the message it’s trying to get across is, in fact, true. Nowadays most people who are successful or known world-wide come from a wealthy family. Usually that’s because if their family is rich, they may have many contacts and influences which can help them make way through their life.
ReplyDeleteDespite hearing that most famous people such as signers or actors have had dreadful childhoods, because mysteriously they’ve all had, they have managed to get through all of the difficulties you might have to confront during your life. I personally believe that many of these celebrities have exaggerated or changed a bit their story in order to make a bigger impression towards their fans.
In this particular movie many people can realize that compared to their society, the fact that rich people always win, can be true. I think this is due to money. On one hand, poor people have to work harder to obtain what they want and may have to accept little jobs first so that they can live of what they earn. On the other hand, if you are rich you do not always agree to work in any position in a company, you aim high and have expectations which you can’t go beyond them.
In addition, usually rich people tend to be able to pay for a better education for their children and so they will possibly be better prepared towards the future.
Judith Aldabó
It is totally true that the richest people have more opportunities to succeed than a more poor one. This is because we live in a capitalism world where there's some people do everything to be at the top. Its is true that richer people are more kind of being success because they can afford a good school and a good university without working, only dealing with their studies while the more poor people need to go to a public school and sometimes they can't afford university and nowadays, with the updated prices to enter to an university it is much more difficult.
ReplyDeleteThat's why it's soo important the Education, because if you invest in that, you are making the same opportunities to everyone because all the people have the same rights to have an aim in their lives.
This film shows perfectly how someone who is nothing can be the best one. Let me explain, from my point of view, this could be considered as Darwinism because one has to fight to survive and the wick ones are the one who get behind and in consequence, die. But this girl has been given a clear example of overcoming, but she has been given a gift too, the ability she has with the arc, which we could say is an advantage which let her the opportunity to survive.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, we could say this film is criticizing our society because in it, the best ones are the ones who survive and the ones who don’t stay behind. After all, some people may argue that the arc could be what helps her to success which nowadays could be considered money for our society. On the other hand, people could say the hunger games film represents someone going through a difficult life and finally succeeding.
Although saying that if you have money you can success can be kind of classism, it might be true. But this does not mean that someone who doesn’t have money can’t success as this film has proven, so the conclusion could be: if you want something, go for it, no matter what gets it your way, just go.
Alejandra Séculi
The society that The Hunger Games portrays reflects in a way the capitalist society that we live in.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that environment can define our future, as someone born in the third world does not have the same opportunities in education as someone from a rich family, but in order to be successful, there are other tools which some people may lack, such as intelligence, self-reliance and independence.
People born in different situations and places, might be different if you look at opportunities and money, but, on the other hand, the place where you are born does not make someone more intelligent or a good person. For example, someone attending to a private school might have a handful of opportunities to be successful and might not use this as a tool for the future, whereas someone attending to a public school, despite having another type of education, might take advantage of school and put effort into it, and this might lead this person being really successful in life.
In my opinion, success means a different thing for everyone, so maybe achieving success for someone means a fail for another person. For someone, success may mean being happy in a small house with your family, and for others it may be living in a luxurious house and winning lots of money. It depends on what you believe is success, and on the type of life which you want to live.
It is sad but true that nowadays, as most people have already commented above, where we are born and how we are brought up with regards to money, has a great influence on our future life. Wealthy families can send their children to expensive schools where they’ll receive exceptional education and attention whereas children from miserably poor families or from undeveloped countries will most likely not receive any education whatsoever. Consequently, the educated individuals will have a greater chance than the poor uneducated of becoming known worldwide or being successful in other ways.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I don’t believe this to be a global embracing rule strictly applied to all humanity as there are many, many famous and successful beings in our world which had a pretty harsh, problematic or rough background but managed to fight their way through to get to where they are know.
So, going to the point, yes, I do believe in a vast amount of cases, our society is similar to the one portrayed by the film.
Lucas Drobnitzky
I agree with what you've said Lucas. I also think that it is sad and that it should be different, but let's face it...things don't change so easily and even less in our present world where capitalism and globalisation are the main ideals of society.
ReplyDeleteWe always talk about equality in rights but the truth is that whenever there is a problem money appears to be the best solution. What I'm trying to say is that rich families have far more chances to succeed in life by the means of money whereas poor families can hardly evolute because they aren't as competent as they need to be to achieve what they want due to their lack of education.
I'm not saying that families shouldn't be rich but I consider that everyone should be born with the same advantages and disadvantages so that if you try your best in life you reach high because of your capacities and not because of your money.
Luckily ,there has been known personalities that reached success coming from very humble situations and fair enough that's what maintins our society alive, because many people might succeed in terms of money but many others can succeed in hospitality, in happiness, in life.
Agus Nieto
Suzanne Collins' 'The Hunger Games' presents us with a dystopian society in which we have a country, called Panem, which is divided in 13 districts and a controlling body called the Capitol. This distribution is the result of a war which has occured in the past and is not mentioned in the book, and the price of losing the war is for each of the districts to have to send two 'tributes', a boy and a girl selected at random, to a televised deathmatch called 'The Hunger Games'.
ReplyDeleteThis is quite obviously barbaric, especially when we take into account that the children from the Capitol do not have to participate in this selection, and nor do the richest children from each district.
This is quite obviously a metaphor for real life, because it is obvious that people who are born into privileged families have more chance of success than children from humble backgrounds. Even though this may not seem completely fair, this is simply the way things are, and in our capitalist society it shows no sign of changing.
I'm not saying that it is impossible for these people to succeed, simply that it is a lot more difficult for them because they have less opportunities to do so. People like Oprah Winfrey and Lord Alan Sugar are examples of how anyone can rise to greatness, even if one comes from a poor background.
But, as Lucas has previously mentioned, in the vast amount of cases it is not so, and because of this we are faced with a society in which everyone is equal in rights, but not in opportunities. We are reminded of George Orwell's 'Animal Farm', in which he gives this same message in a very eloquent manner, saying "All men are equal, but some men are more equal than others"