The modern world claims to be very sophisticated, empowered by the wisdom and experience of generations and multiple ways to address all possible conflicts and issues. Even though our society is filled with scientists and scholars, who study every aspect of our life daily, make achievements, create discoveries and inventions, draw conclusions and work out new strategies, out world is still undergoing dozens of unwanted problems that seem to be unpredictable for the scientists and researchers.
There is an opinion that some of these conflicts are being artificially created and enforced by various parties in order to achieve more influence or to pursue some personal interests. There also is a version that the unwanted problems tend to occur in our society due to the lack of knowledge or some systematical mistakes, which the scientists still do not know how to identify. One of the most important issues of the contemporary society is the growing gap between the social classes. This tendency has already been called a serious problem that may bring multiple negative results in the near future.
The movie called “The Hunger Games” is based on the three novels written by Suzanne Collins. It is a well known fact that the movie presents a story about a violent and cruel game young people from poor districts are forced to play in order to entertain the upper classes. In the beginning it seems that the main focus of the movie and the books is the game and surviving of the players, but actually, the basis and the causes of this brutal game lay in the confrontation between the classes of the society.
There are twelve of poor districts, where people are being neglected, where they starve and live in poverty, and there is another part of the society, the rich people living in luxury, the people, who are so bored that they ran out of entertainments and came up with the idea of Hunger Games. Social conflict in the story of “The Hunger Games” represents the issue that every country of our world has to face these days. This is the problem of the gap between the rich and the poor. In “The Hunger Games” this issue was taken to the extreme and the rich class is dominant in a cruel way, it oppresses the poor people, owns them and decides whose lives to take and when.
Gwartney, Patricia, A., Lynne Fessenden and Gayle Landt. “Measuring the Long- Term Impact of a Community Conflict Resolution Process: a Case Study Using Content Analysis of Public Documents”. Negotiation Journal, 18(1) (2002): 51-74. Print.
This article was designed to explore the ways of conflict resolution through the application of social exchange theory and the ways of evaluation of the progress or success of the conflict resolution. The scientists noticed that short-term success is much easier to evaluate than the long-term success. There are criteria that offer the ground for making a definite conclusion about the results of conflict resolution, but even if the result was evaluated as positive – that does not guarantee that long-term effects of the conflict resolution will also be successful (Gwartney, Fessenden & Landt, 53).
The theory of social exchange is based on collaboration between the sides of the conflict. This kind of co-operation is very hard to achieve because in most situations the conflicting parties have multiple contradicting points of view and it is impossible to find aspects of agreement between them. The authors of the article state that in order to overcome a community or regional confrontation the relationships between the leaders of both sides need to be improved. The representatives of the leading forces need to find common ground and learn how to work together.
According to this point of view, in order to resolve the conflict in the society of “The Hunger Games”, the leaders of the Districts and the Capitol need to meet and find a compromise. The only thing necessary for the progress to happen in this situation is mutual desire of all sides to resolve the conflict. Yet, as it always happens, in the particular case of “The Hunger Games” there is a side that has a significant advantage and would like to keep it that way. In this case, there is no mutual desire to agree because one of the sides enjoys its position and is not willing to co-operate.
Christian, Diana, Leafe. “24 Common Sources of Community Conflict”. Communities,128 (2005): 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35. Print.
This article presents twenty four causes of the conflicts in the society. All of the sources of disagreement identified by Diana Christian are very common and are the constant reasons of multiple problems in smaller communities, such as families, couples and roommates, and bigger communities such as regions of a country or members of a union between several states.
The author describes in detail several cases of conflicts between individuals caused by different reasons. According to the article, one of the best and most effective ways to resolve a conflict is communication, honest and open sharing of insights and complaints about various uncomfortable situations. Christian describes the lessons various members of the community learnt through participating in confrontations and heated arguments, observing other members having a disagreement and managing the conflict.
The author of this article points out how important it is to be flexible and ready to participate in the process of resolution, solve the problems by means of an honest conversation and making conclusions together (Christian, 35). This method is very helpful for smaller communities and the confrontations that have not been lasting for too long. Yet, when we take a look at the conflict of “The Hunger Games” – we notice that what people experience there is called the class war. It is not a minor misunderstanding between two spouses; it is a long lasting heated confrontation between crowds of people.
It has been going on for generations and many people have been involved. The confrontation caused sufferings and pain that cannot be forgiven with the help of one honest discussion. The conflict in “the Hunger Games” happened over money and power. Finding a compromise would mean that the abusing dominant party would, all of a sudden, realize that they were hurting thousands of people and change their policy. Unfortunately, even if this miraculous outcome happened, this would not guarantee the forgiveness from the side of the poor people, who lost their friends and relatives during this oppression and discrimination.
Both of the articles suggest similar ways of conflict resolution. The authors logically suppose that if the representatives of both conflicting parties find an agreement and common ground, the conflict will be over. To my mind, we should not forget that the leaders of dominant Capitol have been keeping the situation this way for a long time for a reason. The reason is – they like the way things are. In order to solve such enormous and complicated conflict, completely new leaders need to be involved and these leaders need to be supported at least by the majority of their sides.
Works Cited
Christian, Diana, Leafe. “24 Common Sources of Community Conflict”. Communities,128 (2005): 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35. Print.
Gwartney, Patricia, A., Lynne Fessenden and Gayle Landt. “Measuring the Long-Term Impact of a Community Conflict Resolution Process: a Case Study Using Content Analysis of Public Documents”. Negotiation Journal, 18(1) (2002): 51-74. Print.