Annotated Reading List

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. New York: Scholastic, 2009. Print.

Suzanne Collins supplies an atmosphere of oppression and rebellion in her book Catching Fire, which is the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy. Katniss thought she would no longer have to deal with the Capital and its calmly insane president after her Hunger Games. She was wrong. There is unrest in the districts due to Katniss' defiance of the Capital, and who wouldn't be angry at a government that made you send your children (or you) to entertain the masses by killing one another. Trust is a major theme in Catching Fire because Katniss has to determine who her allies are and who her enemies are. "Remember who your enemy is" Haymitch says to Katniss before stepping into the arena. In the world of Catching Fire, there is the all-powerful Capital to oppress the other districts in a tyranical sense. I can tie this idea back to Brave New World in that there is one tyranical person who controls almost everything in the resident's life. I believe that if the world described in Catching Fire were our world, we would find it to be our "duty to overthrow the government that has not acted in the general public's best interest". However, many people claim that today's government is terrible, yet they do nothing. So if something truly horrific happened similar to the events of Catching Fire, would people be too indifferent to rise up?(400 pages)

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006. Print.

What is a utopia? Is it a place where everyone gets along well? Is it a place where no one is biased against another person for their physical looks? Is it a place where everyone enjoys their work? The Brave New World in which Huxley writes of is a utopia he believes we will one day become. However, unlike the typical connotation of the word utopia, Brave New World is not exactly a perfect society (or at least at this point in time we would not describe it as such) with its loose sex, approved use of hallucinogenic drugs, and genetic predetermination. Huxley prophesies that a decay in moral values will lead to his (dystopia)utopia. Some of this decay in morals can be spotted in our society such as many people now considering it normal to have lovers in a year numbering into the double digits. Soma, or the drug of Brave New World, is used by the people whenever they want an escape or are feeling too much emotions. Taking a gramme of Soma sends the person on a "holiday" away from reality to a feeling that is described as being "Christianity without the tears." This drug can be related to the want to legalize marijuana in the US. Utopia may not be pretty, but it's "perfect", right? If you wanted a utopia, what would you be willing to sacrifice for it? (259 pages)


Postman, Neil, and Steve Powers. How to Watch TV News. New York, NY: Penguin, 2008. Print.

How to Watch TV News will enlighten you on how to... well watch TV news. How to Watch TV News is both informative and a warning to the general public of what TV news is all about. Money (well, maybe some news too but that's back seat to money). Postman and Powers describe how TV news expose their viewers to ads. One technique is for the anchor to grab a person's interest just as they are going to commercial break so that that person stays with them. Also, "breaking news" may get many people's attention (which equals more viewers, which equals more people watching commercials, which equals more money), even if those first reports are not exactly solid facts. With the age of technology that we are in now, reports can be sent instantaneously back to the studio. These first reports may not be as accurate as news stations would have you believe. If something catastrophic happened five minutes ago, how do you know so much about it anyway? How to Watch TV News describes the inter-workings of TV news and how it affects our perception of certain events. (169 pages)

The annotated bibliographies are here.