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CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
A. Criticism towards Repressive Capitalist Ideologies in Collins’ the Hunger
Games
According to Marxism Tyson, 2006: 56, an ideology is a belief system which is the outcome of cultural conditioning. Ideologies in general are divided
into two categories; the repressive ideologies, or those that distort the masses in understanding material realities of human condition, and nonrepressive ideologies.
Repressive ideologies refuse the notion that material conditions shape the way an
individual live his world. It often functions to legitimize the opression of a
particular group in society by posing as natural ways to see the world to distort the material reality. On the contrary, a nonrepressive ideology functions to create
awareness that individuals are shaped by their material conditions and reminds the existence of repressive ideologies that help individuals to submit to the ruling
power Tyson, 2006: 57. Capitalist ideologies and criticism towards them as repressive ideologies
are manifested in many literary works published in the United States of America. As one of those works, Collins’ The Hunger Games criticizes the cornerstones of
capitalism, which is individualism and self-reliance. This work reveals the negative elements of capitalism practiced by the main character as the antithesis
of the authoritarian government. Therefore, the researcher will attempt to reveal how the work criticizes these ideologies through the revelation of the degrading
natures of rugged individualism and the facade of self-reliance. The researcher also attempts to analyse the damaging commodity culture as its second objective.
1. The Revelation of the Degrading Natures of Rugged Individualism
One of the prevailing ideologies to understand the world today is American Dream. American Dream does not only constitute American society but
also the international community as well, due to America’s superior geopolitical position inherited from its victory over other powerful rivals. Starting from 1930s,
the dream has been spread into the corners of the globe and formed the faith in democracy, represented by the revival of the ideas of freedom, peace, and dignity
Rosenberg in Iriye, 1983: 127. The American Dream is not only spread through military or economic powers, but also through its manifestation in various forms
of literature, such as movies, television shows, and the internet Campbell and Kean, 1997: 256-258. The popularity of the values of the dream is caused by its
utopian belief in which everybody can achieve their aspirations if they are willing to work really hard and persevere. This belief interpellates individuals from
various social background, but most of all those from the underclass and lower class. Althusser in Ferretter, 2006: 78 explains that ideology is understood as the
lived relation between men and the world, it is the way men make sense of the real world, in short, the way they understand their world. As expounded by
Marx’s historical materialism, the reality lies with the forces and relations of production that forms exploitation and domination, the lived relation that
individuals have in the present is the way individuals cope with their world. In