Desperate Housewives

Chillin like a villian with my home dogs. Drizzy p aka bring the money home aka make it rain on my hoes. Anyway, I am actually at the library with manseerat, hannah and adrianna, trying to work on a research for AP Bio. Manseerat told me that my blog is boring and asked me to talk about my favorite tv show. so... I will talk about DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES! I couldn't watch the series finale last night because I was doing my homework (being the good Sikhi girl i am...). But these are the things I expect to happen:
1. Bri is going to win her trial by having Gaby talk about Alejandro being her dad, and she's giong to fall for her lawyer (obviosly...)
2. Lynette and Tom are going to be back together! their separation was sooo temporary, and i didn't really like his new gf anyways :p
3. susan's daughter's going to have a KID!! byt she's not gonna move out of Wysteria Lane...somehow...:p
4. And finally, Gaby is gonna live happily ever after :)

Book Review: The Hunger games

Summary:

The rules of the Hunger Games are simple. In punishment for the uprising, each of the twelve districts must provide one girl and one boy, called tributes, to participate. The twenty-four tributes will be imprisoned in a vast outdoor arena that could hold anything from a burning desert to a frozen wasteland. Over a period of several weeks, the competitors must fight to the death. The last tribute standing wins. – The Hunger Games

North America has changed. The nation of Panem has taken center stage where an authoritative government rules from a shining capital surrounded by twelve districts. The people living in these districts are under the complete control of a cruel government which uses the annual Hunger Games to keep them in line. Katniss Everdeed is a sixteen year old girl living in the twelfth district – a region where coal is the primary industry and starvation is always a threat. When the lottery system chooses Katniss’s younger sister, Prim, to participate in the deadly Hunger Games, Katniss does the unthinkable … she volunteers herself in her sister’s place. Katniss is joined by the soft-spoken son of the district’s bakery, a boy named Peeta whose generosity once saved Katniss and her family from death. As the two travel to the capital and are prepped for the competition, their connection to each other evolves into a tentative friendship. But nothing can truly prepare Peeta and Katniss for the violence, fear and cruelty of the game where participants must use all their survival skills to kill or be killed.

The Hunger Games is a thrilling mash-up of great dystopian novels like 1984 or Brave New World and the current reality television scene. Think George Orwell meets Survivor and hangs out with Gladiator. According to author Suzanne Collins, she “was channel surfing between reality TV programming and actual war coverage” when she got the idea for the story. We believe it. Bringing to the fore issues such as power, identity, celebrity, and politics, the novel manages to comment on both the dangers of totalitarian government and the perils of living in a celebrity-obsessed culture where reality shows make entertainment out of the grist of everyday lives.

Theme: Who has the power?

Well, the main source of power in The Hunger Games is clear: the totalitarian government of the Capitol. Because the Capitol holds most of the country of Panem’s wealth, the government there is able to control the people in all of the districts across Panem. The Hunger Games, then, are the ultimate display of the government’s power and were designed to warn the populace against rebellion. In the Hunger Games, the citizens of Panem become nothing more than pawns in an elaborate game of life or death. Since only one teenage contestant, or "tribute," can win, the tributes are forced to kill teens from the other districts and one from their own district. It's all symbolic of how the Capitol prevents the people in the districts from joining forces and rebelling – the Games keep the people of the districts divided and fighting among themselves. Worst of all, the government broadcasts the event live on television, reinforcing the idea that the tributes are giving their lives for little more than the entertainment of the Capitol.

Let’s not forget, though, that this book is also about ways to resist the kind of power that the Capitol represents. While the people of Panem might not have the Capitol’s money, they do have other ways of fighting back. Remember when District 12 gives Katniss their salute? Or when Katniss covers Rue’s dead body in flowers? These symbolic gestures call attention to the fact that there are actual people in the Hunger Games – real live humans, not just game pieces. In that sense, these small moments of defiance can be very powerful.

Setting: Panem is the name of the country where Katniss lives with her family, a country that – after a series of vague disasters – rose from the ashes of North America. Droughts, storms, fires, war: it's all pretty post-apocalyptic. We learn the history of Panem, and the Hunger Games, and the thirteen districts in the first chapter from the mayor. The uprising of the Districts is known as the "Dark Days". After the destruction of District 13, the Treaty of Treason was signed to end the conflict, and the Hunger Games were instituted to remind the districts that the uprising must never be repeated.

Suzanne Collins has said that Panem is supposed to be like ancient Rome: "Panem itself comes from the Latin expression 'Panem et Circenses' which translates into 'Bread and Circuses'". This term refers to the techniques used by the Roman Empire to keep the masses happy and docile by keeping their bellies full and their minds entertained.

District 12

District 12 is a very poor coal-mining district located in the region formerly known as Appalachia. Katniss and her family live in the poor section of District 12, the Seam, where the coal-miners live and work. There is also the Hob, the black market. The district is surrounded by a sometimes-electrified fence from woodlands.

Stephen King calls District 12 "the Chicago Cubs of the postapocalypse world", meaning that they almost never win the Hunger Games. The poverty of District 12 is often contrasted with the wealth of the Capitol.

The Capitol

Speaking of which, the Capitol is a shining city of wealth and grandeur city located where the Rockies used to be. The people of the Capitol are shallow, speak in a funny, affected accent and value surface appearances, plastic surgery, and entertainment. Being one of the richer districts, they also view the Games as television entertainment. Katniss, of course, despises the place.

Today’s society is clearly reveled though the reality on the television and one cannot look away from violence. Collins creates a story which elevates this disturbing phenomenon to a compulsive level, where death is the ultimate consequence for a bad decision. On many levels, this is a distressing novel. Children of Panem are displayed as hostages to allow government control over the people. I thought the idea of a twelve or thirteen year old being forced to fight to the death in front of a television audience is horrifying. And yet, Collins allows for her characters to make their own moral decisions in spite of callousness. And this might be the strength of the book – that despite a rigid authority, individual selection and potential self-respect is still possible.

The Hunger Games does not just give its readers a quick, captivating plot, but it also provides them with a protagonist in which they can see their personal resemblance. I loved that Collins chose a young woman as her main character to attract the young audience. The fact that Katniss is not a stereotypical girl – she is strong, morally aware, athletic, and smart, brings uniqueness in the book. Since, literature contains many examples of feeble women characters, The Hunger Games shows that talented and skilled women characters are viable.

I don’t read a lot of young adult fiction, much less dystopic or futuristic novels, but when I first saw it on Yahoo news one day, I decided to give it a try. And I am glad I did. The Hunger Games is proving to be an excellent book club pick, generating much discussion.

-waheguru