Setting in The Hunger Games and Catching Fire (Spoiler Alert)

            I just started reading Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. Last year I read the first book in the series, The Hunger Games, and I really liked it. Both books are set in the future, in an unfair society split up into twelve districts, where some have very wealthy people, and other districts are impoverished. In the last book, Katniss and another boy named Peeta from her district survived the Hunger Games, an event where twenty-four kids chosen from each district must fight each other until the end to stay alive. I think that in both The Hunger Games and Catching Fire the setting is an integral part of the book.
           The setting is very important in the book because first of all, that is why Katniss has so many struggles. If everything in the districts were easy and peaceful, there would be no reason for her to try so hard to stay alive. Katniss is also very brave because of the setting. She has to overcome obstacles like finding food, and she learns to hunt and even go without food sometimes. This is part of the reason I think she was able to stay alive until the end of the Games, since she was used to going without necessities and having to be without important things.
          The world set in The Hunger Games and Catching Fire is very unfair and there is a lot of injustice in it. This affects the story and the setting in many way. The Capitol, made up of a group people in charge of all the districts, has a drawing every year to randomly pick one girl and one boy from each district to compete in the Huger Games. During the Hunger Games, all the kids will die except for the last one standing. In the last games, Katniss won along with Peeta, because they altered the rules and were both able to survive. If the setting wasn't this way, these events would probably never have taken place. Katniss would have never changed, and she wouldn't have fallen in love with Peeta. If things were different, the world might have been more fair, and the people in charge would never have done this to young children. 
          Lastly, without the setting, I don't think Katniss would be so close to her family. After her father died in a mining accident and her mom become unable to care for her younger sister Prim, Katniss had to take care of the family. She had to take over getting food and making sure that everybody was okay. This is why I think Katniss feels she needs to be responsible for Prim, because there's no one else to care for her. This is also a reason I think she was able to win the Hunger Games. She was used to fending for herself and having to be tough and strong. 
          In conclusion, the setting in The Hunger Games trilogy is very important to the plot, conflicts, and characters. The struggles, injustices, and hardships of District 12 and the Capitol are why I think Katniss cares for her family so much and was tough enough to overcome the Hunger Games. If the setting was any different, I think the story would also be totally different.