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The Hunger Games starts with an ethical dilemma in the first chapter. Katniss discusses going hunting outside the district even though if she gets caught it could result in death. I feel that she chooses to hunt despite the consequences because she didn’t want to see her little sister or mom starve. I believe she uses the virtues approach in her choice. She is demonstrating compassion, love, and generosity by being willing to risk her life to provide for her family. She chooses to provide by refusing to be like her depressed mom. She makes her choices by asking “What would happen to my family if I didn’t do this” and “Would I be just like my mother if I didn’t do this?”
Another approach she uses for this dilemma is the utilitarian approach. She makes the choice to feed her family instead of letting them starve to death. She had to choose between two options of death. At least with the choice of hunting she could provide for her family and they could survive just a little bit longer. The ethical choice being hunting because the balance of her and her family living for a little bit longer is greater than the harms of the starving to death. The choice also outweighs them being taken away from their mother to live in a group home where they would be mistreated and likely still starve to death.
The next ethical dilemma Katniss faces is volunteering for Prim or letting her sister be reaped. Katniss obviously volunteers for Prim. She uses the virtue approach once again. She shows compassion by trying to spare her sister the horrors of the hunger game. She also shows courage by volunteering for her sister as most people wouldn’t sacrifice themselves even for family. She acts in this way because they are in line with her morals. She is loyal to her family and doesn’t give that up even if it costs her own life.
Another approach to this dilemma is the fairness or justice approach. Katniss knows that there is a moral difference between her and Prim. She has tried to make Prim’s life as easy and trouble-free as she can for their situation. She has a history of doing more ambiguous things to survive like hunting outside of the district and even one time rummaging through trash for food. She volunteers because she knows that she can potentially kill someone in order to survive. She also knows that Prim would not hurt a fly and prefers to help heal. Katniss also knows that she has more survival skills because of her hunting than Prim does. It is also unfair that Katniss has her name in the drawing twenty times to Prim’s one time. She volunteers because they are not on equal grounds, Katniss has a better chance, and she couldn’t bear to watch her sister die.
The next dilemma is whether she should blow up the Careers’ food. Most of the time one of the strategies used by the Careers is to stockpile the food provided at the beginning of the game. Katniss notes the years that they have failed to protect it is usually when another district’s tribute has won. She uses the utilitarian approach to solve this dilemma. She decides to blow the food up because it will give the other tributes and her a better chance to win the game. This action can harm some of the other tributes, but she thinks that harm will be outweighed by the benefit of the non-Career tributes chances of winning increases.
The Virtues approach is also used to solve this dilemma. She also knows that this action will speed the games up. The faster the game happens then there is less time for the game makers to orchestrate a more gruesome but entertaining death. She tries to help keep things in the game interesting so the game makers don’t feel like they must interfere and nudge the contestants together so that they will fight. She is using compassion for others because she doesn’t want the game makers to unleash horrors for them to face which would result in some entertaining deaths. Compassion is also shown in how she is giving other non-Career tributes a better chance at survival.
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