Rio Bravo

Snow vs Women (An essay)

Pannem is a democracy caused by random disasters that ruined North America. It's been led by a dictatorship known as The Capital. And due to the lesser district's rebellion; they make them participate in the hunger games. President Snow is the ruthless dictator & leader of this land. But what most people don't know is that Snow also enforces traditional gender roles & power! Let me explain!

Starting, in the first movie, Snow has one big scene that is in the first movie. He is in a garden, talking to Seneca Crane about why the games have a winner. He tells him that the games have a winner because of hope. He says it's stronger than fear; calling it a fire that needs to be contained. This is a classic tyrant move, distracting the people with something that gives them a little hope. You see, this prevents many people (women included) from seeing the oppression that the capitol has on the districts. Therefore it promotes the gender roles of femininity that the capitol has, preventing women (maybe men in the capitol as well) from being who they truly are. Making women controlled in a certain way using a thing that could destroy their power.

This isn't the first example of this either, later on in Catching Fire, after Katniss & Peeta win the hunger games. Snow visits Katniss in District 12's Victory Village. He was aware of the starcrossed lovers' narrative and does not believe that. He convinces her to agree not to lie to each other. He calls her action impressive. But he says that the action districts view it as resistance. He tells her about how it could lead to war. He then tells her to convince him that her lover's narrative is real. Later in the games, when he's talking to Plutarch Heavensbee (the new game master about how Katniss needs to die to stop a possible revolution. This supports my claim because Katniss has become a symbol of resistance. And that's bad for Snow because he needs to keep men & the capitol is in power. Snow views Katniss as a threat to his power. So he wants her dead.

To bring this point home. We move into the third movie of the series; Mockingjay Part 1. To do a quick recap, Katniss escaped the games and caused most of the districts to rebel and fight the capitol. This causes an absolute war, and Snow takes drastic measures. In the film, Snow lines people up with peacemakers, he makes a big announcement: Anything related to the Mockingjay (Katniss) now counts as treason. And he then makes the peacekeepers shoot the Mockingjay supporters dead. This means something bigger, this means that he's trying to keep them silent and in their place. He is trying to stop the Mockingjay. This could mean he's trying to stop women from gaining more power. Since Katniss is not only the Mockingjay, she's also a woman that opposes this.

In conclusion, Snow controls hope. He tries to limit and stop women and enhance traditional gender roles by containing hope and using fear to crush the districts. And he forbids anything that opposes this. And not only that, he tries to stop a women...

The End