Wednesday, December 4, 2013

2013-71244
STS THY 
Reaction Paper for Catching Fire

I can say that Catching Fire is a science fiction movie. The force field covering the arena in the Games—how they can be seen (as told by Wiress), their "chinks in the armor", and how Beetee harnessed lightning, with Katniss directing this lightning right into the field's weak spot—truly shows elements of science fiction. I also think Panem's technology (particularly the Capitol's) adds to that.

Panem's society is a dystopia. Somehow it shows that something went wrong along history—how society started from self-government to little communities, to monarchies then to today's governments...then came the apocalypse, and Panem was formed, with an all-powerful Capitol oppressing the 12 Districts (District 13 was "destroyed" prior to the start of the Games). Since we won't really know what the future of the world will be, let's just hope that society improves for the better and not degenerate into something like Panem.

Science and technology succeeded in the Capitol viewpoint. They used science and technology to get what they wanted, at the expense of the Districts. However, in the 13 Districts, this was used against them: to impoverish them, to reduce them to subservience to the Capitol, to get their resources extorted, and to develop antagonism between the districts themselves. As a society, they failed too because of said reasons. 

But now that District 13 has made itself known (at least to some of the tributes), it seems that they're finally learning to use science and technology to fight back—and to eventually create a new society far better than what the Capitol had made.


No comments:

Post a Comment