Author's Note: This story is dedicated to my friend Brandy, who without, this story would have taken even longer to write. Even as it was, it took me awhile, as I seem only able to write Hunger Games at one o'clock in the morning.
The Hunger Games Soliloquy
To whoever it may concern;
Dear Capitol collective,
Hello. I'm not sure if you bother to know who we are, or what we stand for, so I will inform you. We are the unseen force behind all that is created in your plastic world. We work hard for food, and slave for trinkets. Our world is gray and colorless if compared to your own. But yet we are still here, even if you try to ignore is for the majority of the year. We are everyone from the smallest child to the oldest ancient. We are your district celebrities. We are the nameless faces forgotten in death. We are the rebellion of Panem.
In your eyes, we are not worthy. Our rebellion is foolish to you. You take for granted that our efforts will be squashed. To you, we are children- not fit to make our own choices. According to you, we are no more than animals, and no better than slaves. Our lives mean nothing to you, except as to how we affect your own.
You say that we are foolish, that we are weak, that we will never win. And maybe that is true. Maybe we'll all die, and Panem will unite again. But when history looks back on us, no one can ever say that we did not try. My life should be my own to rule, and I will go where-ever my heart shall lead me. You can take away my life, but never my spirit. My words are mine alone, and my thoughts will be my own until I die.
To the government of Panem, I renounce thee. You haven't done anything for us, and yet we are your workers, your slaves, and your victims. I fight with all my heart, knowing that I will be helping bring your corrupt system down. It may not happen right away. Maybe not even soon. But when you crumble, I will be waiting and watching, and I will smile at your misfortunes.
You and your ideals to pacify your sheep-like people is the old Roman saying "Bread and Circuses" or, in the original, "Panem et Circenses". You lead the people close to you with luxuries, and keep them ignorant of real government workings. It works well, does it not? But add into the equation us, the workers, who you keep in poverty and fear. But oppression cannot live forever. Have you ever heard the old expression, 'history will repeat itself'? Mankind is doomed to make the same mistake that his ancestors made. The cycle will continue until someone learns from history's mistakes. An you, Panem, have not learned.
I rebel against you and your people because of the misery you put us through during the last decades. The horrors the children in our midst had to experience, and the helplessness of the people back home. Once they controlled us, but no longer. What kept us down is now the reason for rebellion- ironic, how karma works.
So for those who accuse us of being foolish, for rebelling against you for long-past reasons, I can assure you- I am not. I rebel because of the Hunger Games. It is one thing to punish the original offenders. While I don't condone it, I understand it. But to kill the children of our land, decades after the first rebellion? How can that be justified?
Now, I don't speak for others- they rebel for rights and freedoms, and because of the extreme poverty in their homes. They see the vastly unjust distribution of wealth, and rebel against that. And I agree, that is a perfectly valid reason for leaving Panem. But it is not my reason. My reason is the Hunger Games- the slaughter of our children, put on television like a sport. I see the pain and misery of our people and I have an obligation to my home to stop it.
And now, men and women in the Capitol, I speak to you directly. I have never understood this, and I really must ask: how can you justify your enjoyment of the Hunger Games? How can you broadcast our torment, and regard it as amusement?
How is it that you can enjoy this genocide? Have you been so desensitized to violence and death that our senseless pain means so little to you? You've become so sadistic that you look forward to the carnage. Are you so removed from the rest of the world that you can no longer feel empathy at all? How can you be so cold to our suffering? We are not a reality to you. You see death and laugh, but how happy would you be at the murder of your neighbor, your friend, your child? It's alright if it happens, as long as it doesn't happen to you?
Or maybe you actually believe you are better than us? Other than where we were born, there is no difference between us and you. I am just as intelligent, just as complex, just as human as you are. I bleed, and my blood is just as red as yours is. Do you believe that we are less than you, less than human, no more than animals? Have we lost our fundamental right to life in your eyes? What monsters you must see us to be if you believe we deserve to be tortured, to be murdered!
What the Hunger Games does, it points to the young, pure, innocent, sweet children, and it says, 'I'm going to punish you for the sins of your ancestors. I'm going to destroy all that which is good within you, and I'm going to tell you it's your own fault. I will laugh at your pain, and smile when you bleed. I will force you to fight others just like you: children. I will make it so awful for you that survival is worse than death. I will turn you into a monster, and I will enjoy doing it.' And you, my friends in the Capitol, are only feeding the fire.
Author's Note: did you like it? I'll take prompts for other one-shots like this (specifically soliloquies, monologues, speeches or "reasoning behind"s), if anyone ways to suggest one via review or private message.