The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins is a perfect example of a modern body of work that displays characteristics of dystopian fiction. The books are set in a totalitarian world where the people have lost their free will and since of individuality. Their world consists of 12 districts controlled by the capital known as Panem within a post-apocalyptic setting. The capital controls them through fear and violence. Each district is forced to have a child fight to the death in a televised event known as the hunger games as punishment from a past rebellion. The citizens feel hopeless against the misjustice and the loss of their freedom. Survival and inequality are heavily explored within the series and are prime examples of dystopian fiction. Within the games the rules are bent on any whim the capital sees fit. Entertainment is used as a method of control and to manipulate the citizens in the capital’s favor. The media is used as propaganda to manipulate the citizens during the games. Reading the series makes you think about your own society and the implications of authority and control on humanity, which is a hallmark of dystopian fiction. It has a way of mirroring your own world in a futuristic dramatized fashion that hints on some of today’s truths and fears. As a reader it forces you to think on topics such as humanity, freedom, and morality. It centers on ethics, which will always be a present topic.  

My favorite reading of the semester I think would be “2BRO2B”.  I think this idea of population control seems like a far reach on what our world would come to, but is it really?  Dystopian fiction really makes you wonder if freedom is actually something we have or just an “idea” we are fed to believe. Propaganda is so relevant in today’s world, and it’s very scary how fast it shapes views. In “2BRO2B” the fact that 2 of the babies’ lives were so easily dismissed without any emotion or a moment’s thought was disturbing, but then again are we really that far away from that?  Dystopian fiction like this always proposes ethical questions.  Governments always use ethics as a tool to control and to manipulate its citizens. It’s the fastest way they divide a nation, look at how they use race, abortion, gun control, immigration, so on and so on.  They argue these points when they need control and they use propaganda to do it. I really like dystopian fiction because it pushes back and there is an underlying truth within its pages.