Catching Fire

What really difficult or complex things are happening in the text?    

I am in the middle of Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. It is the sequel to The Hunger Games. It is about what happens after Katniss returns home from the Hunger Games, about how there are uprisings in different districts that threaten to overthrow the government of Panem. 

There are many ways to view the surface problems of this book. So instead of viewing the problems through the eyes of Katniss, I will view the problems that are seen (and unseen) by The Capitol (the government of Panem).

In the book, the surface problem seen by the Capitol is that there are uprisings in the districts, creating chaos and violence. However, this problem would not be as serious if it did not spread like wildfire (as the text said: "President Snow is right. A spark could be enough to set them ablaze" the "them" refers to the districts), for these uprisings are triggering other uprisings in other districts. The Capitol has a reason to view this as a problem, because all of these uprisings threaten the safety of the Capitol. These uprisings were the results of the rage that built up over the years within the citizens due to the suffering these citizens endured. The citizens have had enough, too much resentment for the Capitol had been built up, and they were simply waiting for the right time to strike. And when Katniss won the Hunger Games through a possibly rebellious move, it gave these citizens the perfect opportunity to rebel against the Capitol. 

As I have said, the uprisings came to be because the citizens hated the Capitol too much, and they hated them because they suffered too much. But why did they suffer? They suffered because the Capitol made sure they would, in order to "remind" them that the Capitol is still in control. However, I don't think the Capitol made them suffer because they simply wanted them to. I think they did it because they were afraid of what the districts could accomplish if the districts came together to overthrow the government (as they are now). Perhaps they thought torturing and scaring the citizens of Panem was the only way to ensure power stayed with the Capitol, for they thought it would make the citizens afraid to take action. But instead, it only brought hatred for the Capitol, hatred that lead to this chaos.

But that is not the root of the problem. For there would have been no fear of an uprising if there wasn't one before. And indeed, there was one, such a large uprising that it turned into a war, and though the Capitol won, the war still brought mass destruction (including the loss of the entire District Thirteen). This is why the Capitol made the districts suffer after the war, to try to destroy the bravery of the people, so they wouldn't be brave enough to start another uprising and possibly another war. The reason for the first uprising was also due to the built-up rage of the people, the hatred they had for the Capitol. This shows that the Capitol was never a good government in the first place. The root of the problem came from the Capitol itself.

The Capitol probably doesn't know this, or they would have been kinder to the people of Panem after the war instead of making them suffer. The Capitol never realized the fault was their own. None of the present uprisings would have took place if the Capitol actually knew how to govern Panem well. This is the root of many real-life problems. We never realize that perhaps it is ourselves who need to change and improve, rather than everyone else. If we knew this since the beginning, many conflicts that changed history would never have took place. We should all consider this before deciding others should change.