Dystopia is a world or society where people lead the lives of many while being under the control of a few. This means that the average person within this society has to deal with the consequences of the decisions that are made whether it is in their best interest or not.
Living within a society entails giving up certain individual rights for the good of the community. In small societies, everyone has agreed upon the freedoms that are lost. In large societies, however, it is near impossible to take into account the perspective of every individual, thus the “few” make decisions for the entire society. While not inherently bad, this approach is worse for some than others.
In many dystopian novels there is a problem with the way the government runs the state. Books such as The Hunger Games, Divergent, and The Giver contain protagonist going against the government and the way of society in order to bring what they hope is a better society. Being part of the “many” allows them to scrutinize the actions of the “few” and take action to mitigate the effects for the rest of society. Taking a closer look at The Hunger Games, the layers a of dystopia can be seen. There are those within the capital who, though they do not want for food or money, live their lives adhering to the way of life that the government promotes (ie. taking entertainment from the annual hunger games). Also, there are the residents of districts one and two who participate in the games but have access to better training and benefit from having won many times over the years. Finally, there are those of districts eleven and twelve who were struggling day to day and dreading the game every year thinking they could do nothing about it. Even though they all live very different lives, it is all due to the same government; the “few” has control of the “many”.
