While we Mundie Moms would do everything we can to protect our children, even if that meant leaving behind our homes, family and friends, the parents in the Hunger Games didn't necessarily have those same options. The parent's role is a very different one in the Hunger Games series. While parents may love their children, many of them seem to accept that the Capitol controls what their children do, not them. The parent's rule seems so limited, or maybe they just allowed it to be that way.
In accepting the Capitol as their ruler, they in some ways, gave up their parental rights. Regardless of how a parent wants to raise their child, or wants them to do, the Capitol makes the final decision. Parent's don't even have a choice when their child is the one entering the games. They seem to accept that, that is their child's fate. If that were my child, I'd be going Shadowhunter on someone. But, where do you go and what do you do when you're from one of the poorest districts?
This is the case for District 11.
Being a district of Agriculture, you would think we'd be a rich, thriving district, but we're not. We're one of the poorest. Though we work along side our children in the orchards and the fields, the Capitol controls what we do. We don't even have enough food to feed our children. Most of what we grow is sent to the Capitol. It's a helpless feeling, watching our children labor such long hours, at such young ages.
Sometimes our children are so hungry that they may eat what they are picking, but if they are caught, they are shot. Do you know how hard that is? We can't even protect our children on our own land! The guards are ruthless, but maybe that's a good thing. It prepares our children for what they may face if they're one of the chosen ones to enter the games.
Rue and Thresh gave us hope and their lives weren't lost for nothing. While our parenting rights may be limited, our children are our hope. They can change the outcome of the Capitol's rule, where we as their parents, just accepted our fate.
Tell us, what would you do if you were a parent in District 11 and had very limited options? Would you have stayed and just accepted your fate and relied on the hope of your children to change the future? Or would you have risked your life and tried to leave, with no resources, and no outside help?
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District 12: The Book Smugglers
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Posts
I would have fled. We all want things to be better for our children.
ReplyDeleteI think I would try to leave. The living conditions sound so bad in most of the districts, I don't think I would make it very long there.
ReplyDeleteI would have gotten the heck out of there!
ReplyDeleteI know I would try to leave. Being a Mom of 3 children I could not stand to see them starve. But I do know that when it came to eating I would give the kids more and take less for myself. I have had to do that before and would not think twice about doing it again. The Capitol is greedy and ruthless not caring about anyone but themselves!!
ReplyDeleteI think that once I saw the signs that the Capitol's control was cracking I would have left. I most certainly would have joined the rebellion when the time came if I was still there.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you guys! I would have tried to leave, or least got my kids out and sent them w/ someone I trusted and then I would have joined the rebellion!
ReplyDeleteI would have left or staged my death or something
ReplyDeleteI would have taken my children and got as far away as I could. Anything to protect my kids.
ReplyDeleteI think I'd weigh my options. If I knew I had a pretty good chance of getting out of the district alive - then I'd leave. But if I knew that I'd more than likely get shot in my escape then I'd have to stay. It'd be a rough life either way.
ReplyDeleteI believe that if I discovered I was pregnant with my first child, I might try to run. I'd have heard the rumors of District 13's survival, and being in 11, it might be possible to get there if I was quick and stealthy. However, if I already had a child (or two) then it would require a great deal of consideration. If I fled, could they survive the run? Could they keep quiet enough to avoid the hoverdrones? Could I provide enough food for them on the run to keep them healthier than if we'd stayed and risked living within the district? A group on the run will be easier to find than a single person. I'm not sure I could handle the consequences my children would face if I ran with them. So I think that if I already had kids, I'd stay, and hope and pray for their survival and safety, but if it was a case of finding out I was pregnant for the first time, I think I'd risk the run.
ReplyDeleteI'd run. It would be difficult but I'd try to get my children out of that situation and hopefully they would have a chance at having a better future.
ReplyDeleteWhen you have children, you must always do was is in their best interest, even if it isn't always the easist thing to do. I would run.
ReplyDeleteI think I would have tried to leave. It would be worth the risk for a better life for my kids. Better death than a life like that.
ReplyDeleteI would want to run but if I lived in that world where would we go and be safe? If we stay, there is a chance my child's name wouldn't be picked. If we ran maybe we could escape but it would be death if we're caught.
ReplyDeleteRealistically, I think there is a better chance of survival if my child stayed and hope she beats the odds and her name isn't chosen for the games.
I have an idea where to flee. The journey is dangerous, but I would not elaborate how much as that spoils the Mockingjay plot.
ReplyDeleteI would stay and raise my children to the best of my abilities. I would start by trying to work within the system to try to make it better. But I'll admit, I'd be one who would join the revolutionaries! I will do whatever it takes to protect my children, but this life is also about making it better for all.
ReplyDeleteAs a mom (which I am), I would urge our running and attempting survival. If I had my current knowledge, I think we would have a pretty good chance.
ReplyDeleteIt's really hard to say. I don't think I could have accepted the things that they would do to my children, but I think that I would have felt powerless to change anything. I might risk my own life to run away to make things better before they were born, or maybe even decide to not bring children into such a world, but I don't think that I have ths strength to do any more than that.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely have tried to leave, their life was so horrible and so full of sadness. There was always the risk of dying and suffering everyday, I would just have taken the risk and leave with my family.
ReplyDeleteI would have found someway to leave with my family as soon as possible.
ReplyDeleteMost of you say you'd run...but where? And how? If you run away, it'd be like the Hunger Games...you, in the forest, with nothing, and a bunch of Peacekeepers following you to try and kill you or arrest you. And would you do it? In Catching Fire, Katniss describes the 'armed towers placed in equal distances from one another' and a '35-foot fence with wicked coils of barbed wire with metal plates on the bottom.' Katniss stated the rebellion in the Hunger Games, so maybe that year was a good year for the districts.
ReplyDeleteJust saying...I'm not trying to be a piss-off or anything.
Being from district 11 I think I would try to run since it's pretty close to 12 and 13. 12 had very little security and most of the citizens were willing to help. It makes me curious what happened to Bonnie and Twill exactly.
ReplyDeleteThe difficulty with 11 though was that it was pretty high security, the toughest part could almost be just leaving the district.
Once I saw the captiol crack just a little, I would be out on the run with my kids! I would go at night and pray to everything that I could as least get my kids safly to district 13.
ReplyDeleteThese are all great comments! It's interesting to read the series from the point of view of the characters and then to read it being a parent (if that makes sense). Being a parent, you want to do everything you can for your kids. For some, that means trying to flee, and for others, that means staying and making the best of a horrible situation.
ReplyDeleteReally, how are they any different than the countries around the world who deal with war and poverty? Many flee, but few make it. Those who stay suffer or make the best of their situation.
There's no right or wrong answer, but both sides have their risks.
I would definitely run, but would plan for it way ahead of time if possible. But if an oppourtunity presented itself for me to easily escape with my family right away, I'd take it.
ReplyDeleteI would just pack everything and go. As long as my kids are safe.
ReplyDeleteI would start a uprising
ReplyDeleteI think this is my favorite post on the tour so far :) I definitely thought about the parents' roles when reading the books. I could not believe that they would stand by and let their children be sacrificed. I cannot even stand to hear myself yell at my kids sometimes! lol
ReplyDeleteI would like to believe that I would have rebelled, been in the revolution, or fled and saved my kids, but I guess we never know what would really happen until we are in such a situation. They must have been brainwashed, being controlled for so long, they all grew up with that life as the norm, so they didn't fight it. And of course, the parents had all had to go through the same coming-of-age-ritual when they were young...*Sigh* I still think I would have ran. Or fought :) Definitely would have gotten food for my kids and taught them to read in secret :)
I think I would be scared to have my kid live in these kind of conditions. They might starve, get picked for the games, or have to join the fight against the Capitol. It would be awful!!! I think that I would not be able to sit and watch it happen. I would have to take a stand and fight against the Capitol, too.
ReplyDeleteEven without kids, I would want to run. But I'd also have to think about my kids futures too, like who would their friends be? Would they ever get to marry? Could I take care of them if they got sick or broke a bone in that new wilderness if I'm not skilled like Katniss's mother? So I don't know for sure how I'd react; it's all so dependent on the situation. I completely understand why, for instance, Katniss didnt run off with Gale to begin with; she didnt want to leave Prim and her mom behind.
ReplyDeleteI think I would probably run once I realized I was pregnant. I would stage my death, that I drowned, and then I would take all the food I could svae up and begg for and all that. I would have my husband come with me and we might be able to survive in the wild unnoticed long enough to find a way out of the corrupt country and into a different country, where we wouldn't be found. We could hunt for our food. OR I could train my children ever since they were little to fight really well and just have them enter their names extra times to get food for eachother and themselves. Or the esiest option.....don't have kids, dont get married, live a single life for their sakes.
ReplyDeleteRun away to district 13? Sounds like a fantastic idea to me. The only thoughts in my head are GOT TO GET AWAY..
ReplyDeleteSuch a difficult question ... living in such oppressive circumstances changes the way that you view things - changes your view of yourself & your abilities & your opportunities. Be told often enough that there is no hope of things changing, you begin to believe it, because the mind will train itself to always find the flaws in the plans - to see that there is no solution.
ReplyDeleteSomething dramatic would have to happen to shock the system into taking those huge risks -- and sometimes that means that the shocking event would have to hit close to home.
Having lived through some difficult experiences in my own life, and having left a difficult situation to start over again with a very small child, I think that I would definitely take the risk to leave and attempt to get out from under the rule of the Capitol. If not to District 13, then possibly to another country. While they aren't mentioned, there is a huge world out there, and I can't believe that whatever happened to create Panem wiped out the rest of civilization as well.
If I were a parent in the Hunger Games, I would do whatever it took to keep my child alive, even if it meant my own death. There is absolutely NOTHING worse than having to bury your own child, and with the hunger games, who knows if you would even have enough of your child to bury? No parent should have to deal with their child dying, and so if I had to, I would be like The refugees from from District Eight, and try to make it to 13 with my family
ReplyDeleteSorry i didn't know one entry per person please don't disqualify me
ReplyDeletebookworm- No worries! We'll delete the extra entry.
ReplyDeleteI think that I would follow what the Capital said for the time being, just so that we would all be safe. Then, if I was still alive, I would join the rebellion.
ReplyDeleteHave the winners been chosen and announced yet?
ReplyDeleteHi Marissa- Yes, all winners were contacted and their names posted here http://mundiemoms.blogspot.com/2010/09/mockingjay-district-11-giveaway-winners.html
ReplyDeleteDang. I was trying to hold on to some hope. Haha Thanks for answering my question!
ReplyDelete