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Ben L

22 Oct. 2014
Film Journal: Capitalism in Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Karl Marx believed that there are four stages of history: Feudalism, Capitalism,
Socialism, and Communism. Our society is currently the second, capitalism. Marx
believes that there are only two types of people in a capitalistic societythe bourgeoisie
and the proletariats. The bourgeoisie are the ruling class, while the proletariats are the
working class. Marx believes that keep the working class in order, the ruling class must
give them a false dream to strive for. In our society, this is the American Dream. Marx
also believes that when the ruling class introduces new ideas they are natural and
invisible. An example of this in our world would be the laws we follow.
In Hunger Games: Catching Fire, its is quite clear that Katniss and everyone
within district twelve are the proletariats, while president snow and the first district are
the bourgeoisie. Since the capital is the bourgeoisie, their ideas govern the rest of the
society. This makes those in the first capital the superstructure, and the people
providing the lifestyle through hard labor, the twelfth district, the base.
The capital keeps the twelfth district from rebelling by telling them that if they
work hard and succeed in the Hunger Games, then they will live a great, wealthy life.
This is a common theme by the superstructure in all of capitalismthat is, telling the
base that as long as they work hard everything will be great. I believe that the film was
trying to draw a parallel between the Hunger Games in the films universe to the
American Dream in ours. It is trying to get the viewer to realize that for one person to
succeed in the Hunger Games, other must fail (and die), just as in our society, if one is
to experience profit, another must experience deficit.
Karl Marx also believes that the ideas that the ruling class sets forth function in a
way that is natural and invisible. This means that the ideas that may seem ridiculous
otherwise could seem totally natural if set forth by the ruling class. In Hunger Games:

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Catching Fire, and example of this would be the game itself. The working class accepts
the ideas that the capital set forth because it seems like they are totally natural.
In addition to the beliefs that Karl Marx had about how communism works, he
also predicted how it would end. He believed that the only way for Capitalism, the
second step in history, to advance to the third step, socialism, was a revolution by the
working class against the ruling class. This is actually what the film Hunger Games:
Catching Fire is about. We see the working class, mainly district twelve, getting tired of
following the rules that the capital puts upon them. At the end of the film it is revealed
that a revolution is already in the works and Katniss is the integral part of it.
Louis Althusser was, like Marx, a genius in defining what capitalism is and how it
works. He found that control continued in four ways: Through RSA (Repressive State
Apparatuses), ISAs (ideological state Apparatuses), ideology, and through forcing
people to be subjects. His theories are proven throughout the film, Hunger Games:
Catching Fire.
RSAs, or repressive state apparatuses, are ways to control the public through
fear of violence. Example of this would be police enforcing the law through the
understood threat that if it is not followed, you will be imprisoned or possibly killed. In
Hunger Games: Catching Fire, an example of an RSA would be when the police killed
an old man for doing Katniss three finger sign. He instilled fear in everyone in the
crowd, and also showed that doing the rebellious sign is unacceptable.
ISAs (ideological state apparatuses), on the other hand, are ways to control the
public through ideas. Examples of this would be a school making a child pledge each
morning to his/her country. An example of this in the film would be Caesars talk show.
In it, he tells the country what the current state of affairs are as if what going on is
natural and normal, thus controlling him/her into doing what he/she thinks is normal.
Ideology is defined by Althusser as an imaginary reality. It is any idea that is only
true because people say that it is. In Hunger Games: Catching Fire the most apparent
ideology is the district system. The people in district twelve are less than the people in
district one for no other reason than that they are told so. This ideology in the film also
correlates to todays society and forces the viewer to wonder about our current class
system and if it is any different than the one presented in the film.

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Althussers final theory on control in capitalism is that ideology interpolates
people into subjects. This means that, by calling upon a normal person, ideology can
control them by making them its subject. An example of this in Hunger Games:
Catching Fire is how the hunger games force people into going into the game simply
because thats the way it is.
Hunger Games: Catching Fire truly is an amazing depiction of capitalism getting
out of control and a revolution beginning. Marx and Althussers deconstructions of
capitalism also allow the viewer to draw shocking correlations of the films society and
ours. Other films that tackle capitalism and all its problems seem to focus on the
hardships of poverty alone, unlike this film, which explores corruption and suffering
throughout the classes. It is this direction of the film that gives it its charm and makes it
stand out among other films dealing with capitalism.