Throughout the first half of the book, I have always wondered if something happened before the start of The Hunger Games. I feel like I can create an accurate conclusion or assumption on what happened that led up to The Capitol have such hatred towards higher districts like 12 and 13 and such love for lower districts such as districts 1-4. In Suzanne Collins’s novel The Hunger Games, The Capitol has hatred towards the higher number districts based on previous events.

It can be debated that The Capitol despises District 12 because of previous events that led up to such hatred. Throughout the novel, many characters refer to a “rebellion”(Collins 5) which can be inferred happened before the first novel. As punishment for the rebellion the capitol takes “one girl and one boy from each district” and they fight to the death in something known as “The Hunger Games”(19). In the novel, Katniss describes District 12 in a very depressing tone. Things such as a chicken are described as “too expensive”. We can conclude from this that the cost of living in District 12 was very high. In The Hunger Games movie, District 12 is depicted in a very sorrowful and gloomy way. It looks as if a war occurred and the people look miserable and despondent due to their quality of life. In the first few chapters, Katniss and Gale go hunting in order to get food in order to survive. When they go hunting, they describe themselves as being cautious due to the consequences they can end up in. From this we can see that The Capitol wants District 12 to suffer and struggle to survive. Katniss describes a time where “[she] scared her mother to death”(6) because she would “blurt out things about The Capitol”(6). We can see from this that people, such as Katniss’s mother, who live in District 12 are afraid of what The Capitol can do to them. The 12th District have to suffer all this as punishment from the so called “rebellion”. From this, I came to question if the lower numbered districts participated in this “rebellion”?

From events in the novel, I can conclude that the lower numbered districts did not participate in the “rebellion”. Many punishments as result of the rebellion are felt by the lower districts such as “The Hunger Games”. It can be argued that all these punishments are implemented on the lower districts so that they are not tempted to rebel against The Capitol. The Capitol destroyed District 13 as a warning to all the other districts to never rebel. The Capitol give many luxuries and advantages to the lower districts because they prefer them. Thus, we can infer that they did not rebel. In the games there are competitors known as “the volunteers”(94) are the tributes from the lower district and “[they] have been fed and trained for this moment”(94) and this would be “against the rules”(94). The Capitol gives advantages in The Hunger Games to “the volunteers” thus the lower districts are loved by The Capitol because they are allowed to go against the rules of the games.

Overall, we can conclude that The Capitol despise District 12 and adore the lower numbered districts because the lower districts did not rebel and because The Capitol wants District 12 to suffer and struggle to survive, and they give wealth to the lower districts.