The Hunger Games From An Occupational Therapy Student’s Perspective

March 29, 2012
by Chelsea

What are OS/OT?

After completely obsessing over the book series The Hunger Games, I finally got to see the film last weekend. Talk about occupational deprivation, if the citizens of the capitol have no better way to occupy their time than to watch a reality TV show of teens brutally killing each other then I think they are in need of some serious occupational therapy. I know that the games are a way to repress the districts and showcase the undying power of the capitol annually, but if the capitol just provided its districts with healthy, meaningful occupations and decent conditions to live in then there would be less cause for the districts to revolt and no need for such barbaric circumstances. Sure, call me biased because I am a student of occupational therapy and would make sure everyone had healthy occupations if I could, but I couldn’t help thinking “what if?”

There are many instances of relevance to occupational therapy in The Hunger Games. When Katniss becomes a victor of the games, she no longer needs to hunt in the woods because she is given plenty of food for the rest of her life, but she continues to break the law and hunt because hunting is meaningful to her and it defines who she is as much as being an occupational therapy student helps define who I am. In addition, although the capitol suppresses the districts of almost all meaningful occupations, even they seem to realize the importance of occupation and expect all the victors to take up a new occupation before their victory tour since they no longer need to work for a living. Peeta takes up painting, which becomes meaningful for him as a way to channel his anger and to manage his undiagnosed yet inevitably present post-traumatic stress disorder. The people of the capitol do not seem to have many occupations aside from altering their physical appearances and drooling over the victors of The Hunger Games. It seems odd that they are not the ones on a reality TV show since their lives are so unrealistic and strange. Unfortunately, the people of the capitol are not too unlike people of our society in their obsession with reality TV stars.

Is the book The Hunger Games a social commentary on how obsessed society has become with the voyeurism of reality TV shows? Millions of Americans are glued to their TVs during reality shows such as Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Jersey Shore, Sister Wives, Teen Mom, The Bachelor, and many more. I guess the term “reality” is a bit misleading because most of these shows are dramatic exaggerations of daily life that give unrealistic expectations of how reality should be. So if these “reality” shows actually do affect our perceptions of reality, how are they affecting our daily occupations?

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