Peter Lynch
Professor Fisk
ENG101
September 26, 2017
Essay Assignment #1 Close Reading of a Text
1) The goodbye scenes after Katniss volunteers for Prim at the Reaping (Pages 34-40). In
this passage Katniss is given the opportunity to say goodbye to a select few number of
people (Prim and her Mother, The Baker who is Peeta’s father, Mage the Mayor’s
daughter, and Gale) before she must leave for the games at the Capital. These short yet
informative interactions between Katniss and these select few people allow you to
interpret and look into the book deeper. It makes you think about why each person was
chosen to talk to Katniss before they left, yet also you have to dig deeper and look at
what exactly was said in each interaction.
2) I believe that there are two central claims or arguments of The Hunger Games. One
central claim would be the Class organization system of Panem, the country of Panem is
built around extreme class division. One of those classes being the districts who cannot
ever contact other districts and each one is forced into a specific industry job. The Capitol
uses Class as one of its main tools to keep all of the citizens of Panem apart and limit the
chance at another rebellion. The second central claim actually has to do with the Class
system, that being the idea of Rebellion or Revolution. A majority of Panem’s controlling
governmental structure is intended to keep the districts from uniting together and causing
a second rebellion. The Capitol created a system to keep the population of Panem
separated from one another and distracted.
3) During the goodbye scene between Katniss and Prim you notice that both the sisters
represent a survival strategy, Katniss’s being violent and Prim’s being nonviolent. This is