#but yeah the avoxes were and still are one of the most disturbing parts of the books to me

[umbrellahat07]

Another thing I feel like the movies really missed was the conditions in the districts themselves. A lot of Katniss's backstory from before the Games in District 12 was just left out of the movies entirely. The fact that people regularly starved to death, the lack of medical care available (Katniss's mom was an apothecary because there weren't enough doctors in District 12), the way the reaping system worked, the working conditions. In District 11 the situation was worse, they grew all the food but were still starving. In book 2 it talks about abusive Peacekeepers (the name for the district police force) and is implied they come from the districts the careers are from. It talks about bad conditions in other districts as well, though in less specifics. We see with Effie how painfully oblivious everyone from the Capitol is to the condition of the Districts.

In the books Katniss talks about her dad dying in the coal mines, her mom falling into catatonic depression, her and Prim not having food to last the winter, being overjoyed when dandelions start sprouting because it's something she and Prim can eat. She mentions that even with a more stable source of food, Prim is 12 and would weigh "ninety pounds soaking wet." She says the same about Rue later.

With Rue, in the first games, we find out about District 11, how Rue had several siblings, all growing up in poverty. How the other districts used extensive child labor. Katniss offers her the drumstick from a bird she hunted and Rue can't believe it, she had never eaten that much at once before. And soon after Rue and Katniss started comparing experiences, their plans went wrong and Rue was killed. We already know the Games are rigged, the Game designers may have killed Rue to silence her stories of District 11 before she said anything too incriminating. That may be why President Snow was so angry when Katniss publicly acknowledged the situation in District 11.

And all the cruelty of the Districts and the true long lasting effects of the Games are hidden from the Capitol. Katniss sanitizes the stories she tells Peeta of her childhood because she knows the Capitol audience can hear. The audience sees the fighting and the bloodshed, but after the Games, they only see the pretty sparkling victors. Katniss wakes up after the Games to find all her scars, even ones from before the Games, are completely gone. The audience doesn't want to see any yucky lasting effects, they want to see the gleaming victors, pretty young things about to parade around the Districts.

We know it's supposed to be secret too, because the tributes' voices are constantly suppressed from the moment they're chosen at the reaping. The pre-Games interviews are leading question after leading question. They're coached on what to say at all public appearances. During the Games, they can't talk too much about the Districts, or risk getting killed by the deus ex machina of the arena. Katniss and Peeta's victory speeches were written for them, and straying from the script to honor Rue was a huge act of rebellion.

The Capitol citizens are kept in the dark about what really goes on in the Districts, and the rebellion is kickstarted by Katniss, and to some extent, Rue, exposing it during and after the games.

Also, I noticed the movies only briefly mention (if that) the Avoxes, who are prisoners forced into slavery in the Capitol, whose tongues are cut out so they, too, can't talk about their horrible conditions. Katniss was horrified by the Avoxes, especially because she recognized one of them, a girl who her and Gale saw running away outside of District 12 who got caught by a helicopter, who later was the Avox sent to Katniss's room before the Games. It was one of the more horrifying details to me when I read the books, and it doesn't get discussed a lot because they were pretty much left out of the movies.

The Hunger Games, Actual Teen style!

On the left, 15-year-old Josh Hutcherson.

On the right, 16-year-old Jennifer Lawrence.

Think how much creepier it would be to see them killing other kids when they look so squishy-cheeked and little.