My name is Cassie...

"On the surface, the film might simply be seen as a satirical look at our bloated culture of reality TV competitions such as Survivor, American Idol, Big Brother, The Bachelor, and Amazing Race. Certainly, the film does take aim at the phoniness of these programs that profess to show us “reality” even as they create fake drama and craft personas for each contestant through marketing and selective editing. In fact, the author of the book series, Suzanne Collins, has said she conceived of the storyline while flipping channels one night between reality TV programs and coverage of the Iraq war. While the former provided the skeletal structure for the story, it is certainly the latter that makes up the depth and breadth of the narrative. Even as the film depicts violent images of teens killing teens, it is clearly inviting us to hold up a mirror to our own culture of violence that continually asks our young to go to war in the name of honor, duty, and noble sacrifice. And therein lies the subversive nature of The Hunger Games, for the film challenges us to ask what sort of culture is willing to allow the sacrifice of youth for the sins, mistakes, and ambitions of adults."