2. Outer Beauty
Touched on earlier, the citizens of the Capitol are the most bizarre, extreme assortment of characters. There are a lot of exaggerated elements to the story, and they serve their purpose well. The message is clear as day: Society spends a great deal of time considering how we look in the face of the public world. We all do it. I do it. Image has such a tight hold on us that it can cloud the real issues that surround us all. Or maybe it's a subconscious distraction. It's selfish, but it's how we've been taught. It's how society has been shaped, and it's been that way for centuries. Fashion is the centrepiece of the capitol's image. The Hunger Games is the event, the people are its loyal spectators. And it all crafts an extravagant world where everything is supposed to look fine. The contestants, too, are instantly bombarded by the capitol way of life. They are given teams of stylists that ensure that they fit the part and even stand out as they are put on show for the world to see. Again, it's all about public image. The contestants take centre stage, there to serve their fans, and they are elevated and made to look greater than the individual self really is, and so too are the citizens of the capitol as they look down upon the poor and the oppressed of the districts. This is already true for the modern world: celebrities are sat upon podiums like gods, yet it's hard to believe that what we see is any more realistic than what we see in the representation given to us in The Hunger Games. In addition, the citizens of the capitol dress so bizarrely yet so alike that it's hard to tell them apart. Is it about fitting in, blending into the crowd so that nobody takes notice of us over the big picture. We put on a happy smile and wear what everyone else is wearing, who is going to notice us? And so, the citizens of Panem can blend into the crowd, and take no responsibility for what they support because they simply conform to societal norms.