Free The Unofficial Hunger Games Companion by Lois H. Gresh

always that it was Peeta’s bread that first gave her hope ( The Hunger Games , 32).
    But let’s return to bread and circuses, which in ancient Rome, meant a form of entertainment that instead could have been called blood and carcasses. The same holds true in the world of The Hunger Games, that the Capitol’s form of entertainment boils down to a thirst for blood and carcasses.
    Let’s face it: There are people, too many people, who enjoy watching others suffer. Throughout history, human death has fascinated the morbid, the bloodthirsty, the power hungry, and those who need to feel superior. The Salem witch hunt was responsible for the torturous deaths of too many, as were the Crusades. How many people have been hung and beheaded throughout the ages and throughout the world? Why do people go underground to gamble on deadly dog fights and chicken fights? To this day, witnesses sit in booths to watch the electrocution of condemned criminals. There must be some reason why violently provocative movies, video games, and anime are so popular. The resurgence of dystopian post-apocalyptic literature itself, such as The Hunger Games series and countless zombie apocalypse novels written by countless authors, point to a current obsession with death, violence, and the ultimate destruction of everything good. Do people find relief in violence and the brutal deaths of others, whether humans and animals, because it reminds them that they are still alive and doing well? This is the classic reason given for the popularity of horror literature, that by reading about frightening things, we “get it out of our systems” and we’re relieved that in our own daily lives, we’re relatively fine compared to the horrors of what we’ve just read.
    Even as Katniss battles evil and eventually overcomes the government, it’s hard to say that anyone truly “wins” in the world of The Hunger Games. By the time Mockingjay swings down to its closing chapters, Katniss is a suicidal drug addict numb to violence and death.
    Throughout history, invading nations have subjugated, enslaved, killed, and tortured those they conquered. All societies kill: in necessary and unnecessary wars; by slaughtering animals in humane and inhumane ways; by hunting; by executing criminals and other “deviants”; and by the weapon of poverty, which kills people by starvation, malnutrition, and environment.
    While we delve more into these subjects later (see the upcoming chapters about torture, evil, and killer kids), for now, as we think about ancient Rome and its arenas and gladiators, we can draw direct parallels to what happens in The Hunger Games. Ancient Rome was one of the most extreme examples of a culture whose entertainment was based on human battles to the death. In their arenas, the Romans killed far more people than the Capitol does in the entire series of The Hunger Games, and they did it with efficiency and bizarre variety. Sure, the Maya and Aztecs of Mesoamerica tortured and slaughtered unbelievable numbers of people, but the key differences may be that: (1) the Maya and Aztecs killed for religious and spiritual reasons whereas the ancient Romans killed for entertainment, and (2) the Romans used sports arenas .
    In Rome’s amphitheaters and circuses, vast crowds feasted, drank, and partied while watching the gladiatorial combats, all sorts of blood shows, animal sacrifices, and even ritualized executions. Very similar, wouldn’t you say, to the Hunger Games with its arenas, its deadly combat, its blood shows, and its animal-human battles? And certainly, the people in the Capitol feast, drink, and party while watching these bloodbaths. In an interview with USA Today , Suzanne Collins points out that had television existed in ancient Rome, the gladiators would have been pop stars. She says, “It was mass, popular entertainment. If you take away the audience, what do you have?” 2
    It’s telling that the names given to people in the Capitol are Roman