The tributes in The Hunger Games are presented as commodities to those in the Capitol. According to Marxism, a commodity is an object outside of ourselves that holds value. While the tributes enter the arena to fight, they first become non-tangible commodities for Capitol citizens to sponsor. To attract sponsors and survive, the tributes must stand out through their parade, training scores, and interviews to make an impression on the Capitol audiences. After winning the games, the victors find that they remain commodities, as Finnick confesses to being sold by President Snow.

1. By: Charity Yoder

2.  The idea for this is that while the tributes were picked
to fight in the arena, they were made before going in to
become a sort of non-tangible commodity for those in
the capitol who would sponsor them.

3.  What is a commodity according to Marxism?
 One definition: “A commodity is, in the first place, an
object outside us…” (Tucker 303)
 Tributes become non-tangible objects in the eyes of
those in the capitol
 Start the process of becoming a commodity

4.  Offers that commodities and the taste for them come
from “dominant classes and in all their properties
takes different forms depending on the state of the
distinctive signs of ‘class’ that are available” (Bordieu
231)
 Those in the capitol have the tributes for entertainment

5.  “…or finally, by state apparatuses whose major, if not
exclusive function is to assure that discipline reigns
over a society as a whole .” (Foucault 206)
 This logic is how the games came to be, and why the
capitol relies so strongly on the tributes and the fact that
they become commodities.

6.  The capitol needs to keep a reign on the districts, and
does so by having the games/victors
 However, the way the tributes are presented to the
capitol make them commodities

7.  Participate in the tributes parade
 Get a high training score
 Do well in the interview

8.  Make an impression or be prepared to die
 “…Since the baggy miner’s outfits miner’s jumpsuit
outfits are not particularly becoming, our tributes end
up in skimpy outfits with headlamps.” (Hunger games,
80)

9.  Most want to score high so that people would be more
willing to sponsor.
 Katniss’s problem?
 “Instantly, I know I am in trouble. They’ve been here too
long, the gamemakers. Sat through twenty-three other
demonstrations…” (Hunger Games, 123)

10.  One must be presented in such a way to attract certain
sponsors, while driving others away depending on
what kind of tribute a sponsor wants
 “At once, it’s clear I cannot gush. We try playing me
cocky, but I just don’t have the arrogance...” (Hunger
Games, 143)

11.  The capitol does not want to be reminded of what has
happened.
 In response to what Katniss looks like after the games
 “I know, But the gamemakers wanted to alter you
surgically…” (Hunger Games 430)
 Takes away the sense of commodity

12.  In Mockingjay, it is clear that the sense of being a
commodity has not been taken away at all
 Tributes become formal commodity
 Finnick confesses “President Snow used to…sell
me…my body, that is” (Mockingjay 198).

13.  Tributes in the games were unwittingly used as a form
of commodity
 After the games, the sense of being a commodity was
gone
 But was really taken a step farther in book three when
Finnick confesses to what happened to victors

14.  Bourdieu, Pierre. “The Correspondence Between
Goods Production and Taste Production.” A Social
Critique of The Judgment of Taste. Cambridge: n.p.,
1884. 230-233. Print
 Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. New York:
Scholastic, 2013. Print
 Collins, Suzanne. Mockingjay. New York: Scholastic,
2013. Print

15.  Foucoult, Michel. "Panopticism." The Foucoult Reader.
Ed. Paul Rainbow. New York: Pantheon, 1984. 206-07.
Print.
 Tucker, Robert. The Marx-Engels Reader. 2nd ed. New
York: Norton, 1978. Print.