E
empther
Guest
All right. I’ll describe Penam.
From the book:
It is twelve population centers spread out in a line from Appalachia, dipping down to the Gulf of Mexico for fishing, and back up to the Capitol. Each district is only a few miles wide and surrounded by vast unpopulated wildernesses.
But the twelve Districts are not all there is on North America. In fact, there are two thousand or more districts all over North America. The people of Penam know nothing about all the rest of North America. There’s no way for them to find out; they can’t leave their village.
Even the people of the Capital don’t know there is anything else except Penam. Only President Snow and a few advisors know.
All the hundreds of Districts controlled by the Capitol get television coverage of the Hunger Games. The people in these other districts only know that the 24 tributes come from twelve other Districts, but the people don’t know where the districts are, or how many districts there are in all. ( Having two tributes from each district would result in hundreds of kids in the Games, telling all the people how large the country is. This might lead to rebellion. The “divide and conquer” rule applies here. ) The threat of being added to the list of districts that yield tributes to the Games keeps all the other districts subdued.
One Capitol could not control the entire continent and keep all the human and material resources needed secret. There is more than one Capitol. Each controls several hundred Districts. There are in effect a dozen countries on the continent, all with similar dictatorships. They cooperate with each other to keep the population under control.
A vast train system covers the continent. There has to be some exchange of goods from one region to another because no single region can maintain high technology, but the trains travel through the wilderness between districts, and people on the trains learn nothing about the rest of North American civilization other then their own districts.
President Snow worries that if there is a rebellion in Penam and the people take over the Capitol, the truth about North America’s vast population will get out to everybody,
and everything will change.
The key to keeping the whole system together it the “divide and conquer” strategy. Keep the people separated in small groups ignorant of each other and they can’t organize. You keep them under control.
From the book:
- District 12, Katniss’s District, has 8,000 people. Everybody seems to live close enough together so that everyone knows everyone, and they can all gather together for the “reaping” in a short time. Nobody is allowed to go anywhere; electric fences keep them in the village. District 12 cannot be more than five miles wide.
- In the second book, District 11 is described as being much larger. But since District 12 seems to provide all the coal for the whole country, the overall population can’t be in the millions.
- But there is a 250 mph high speed train that takes Katniss from District 12 in Appalachia to the Capitol in the Rocky Mountains. There is also television. These technologies require huge industrial bases to support. Columnist George Will pointed out that it requires a vast industrial complex with thousands of people trained in thousands of skills to make and maintain everything needed to manufacture a pencil.
- The Capitol is a huge city, possibly having millions of people. The people are idle rich, who produce nothing. The wealth can’t begin to be supplied by the twelve districts who have almost nothing.
- In the book, Katniss mentions that one year the Hunger Games were held in an Arctic region where the tributes quickly froze to death. Another year they were held in a desert where the tributes quickly died of thirst.
It is twelve population centers spread out in a line from Appalachia, dipping down to the Gulf of Mexico for fishing, and back up to the Capitol. Each district is only a few miles wide and surrounded by vast unpopulated wildernesses.
But the twelve Districts are not all there is on North America. In fact, there are two thousand or more districts all over North America. The people of Penam know nothing about all the rest of North America. There’s no way for them to find out; they can’t leave their village.
Even the people of the Capital don’t know there is anything else except Penam. Only President Snow and a few advisors know.
All the hundreds of Districts controlled by the Capitol get television coverage of the Hunger Games. The people in these other districts only know that the 24 tributes come from twelve other Districts, but the people don’t know where the districts are, or how many districts there are in all. ( Having two tributes from each district would result in hundreds of kids in the Games, telling all the people how large the country is. This might lead to rebellion. The “divide and conquer” rule applies here. ) The threat of being added to the list of districts that yield tributes to the Games keeps all the other districts subdued.
One Capitol could not control the entire continent and keep all the human and material resources needed secret. There is more than one Capitol. Each controls several hundred Districts. There are in effect a dozen countries on the continent, all with similar dictatorships. They cooperate with each other to keep the population under control.
A vast train system covers the continent. There has to be some exchange of goods from one region to another because no single region can maintain high technology, but the trains travel through the wilderness between districts, and people on the trains learn nothing about the rest of North American civilization other then their own districts.
President Snow worries that if there is a rebellion in Penam and the people take over the Capitol, the truth about North America’s vast population will get out to everybody,
and everything will change.
The key to keeping the whole system together it the “divide and conquer” strategy. Keep the people separated in small groups ignorant of each other and they can’t organize. You keep them under control.
