Manslaughter is a topic that frequently interests people, due to the “why” factor behind it. In the novel The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, and in the story “In the Penal Colony”, by Franz Kafka, the circumstantial instances of death are quite questionable as to if they're murder or not. Often times, manslaughter can be justified by law and ethics. While sometimes the homicides couldn’t be further from justifiable..
With murder being a controversial topic, what's legal versus what's ethical is quite different. Legally - murder is, “the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another.” (Google). With this logic, if a killing is done intentionally, then it’s murder by law. Murder is also the title for an unlawful killing,…show more content… ¨The rules of the Hunger Games are simple. In punishment for the uprising, each of the twelve districts must provide one girl and one boy, called tributes to participate. The twenty-four tributes will be imprisoned in a vast outdoor arena that could hold anything from a burning desert to a frozen wasteland. Over a period of several weeks, the competitors must fight to the death. The last tribute standing wins.¨ (Suzanne Collins 18). From this quote alone it is quite obvious that the Hunger Games are run by the government, as a form of punishment for their past rebellion. Thus making each and every one of the tributes´ killings legal, due to the fact that they’re approved by the capitol. The Hunger Games themselves are games of survival, consisting of constant defensive moves. “The exceptions are the kids from the wealthier districts, the volunteers, the ones who have been fed and trained throughout their lives for this moment.” (Suzanne Collins 94). The volunteers. With tributes volunteering, they are then putting themselves into an offensive position. With these volunteers having a motive of killing every other tribute, they are then making unethical, planned murders. The occurrences of manslaughter in The Hunger Games are quite acceptable, however this is quite different ¨In the Penal
