Tom Stoppard's play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, draws on two previous theatrical works: Shakespeare's Hamlet and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead follows the "off-stage" exploits of two minor characters from Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. While the two main characters in Stoppard's play occasionally make brief appearances in "Hamlet," as scripted in Shakespeare's original tragedy, the majority of the play takes place in other parts of the castle where Hamlet is set. While "off stage" in this way, the characters resemble the main characters in the absurdist Waiting for Godot. As in Beckett's play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern pass the time by impersonating other characters, engaging in word play, and remaining silent for long periods of time. These same two characters were also featured in a parody of Hamlet, the short comic play by W. S. Gilbert entitled Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Gilbert's play makes Rosencrantz and Guildenstern into central characters and alters the storyline of Hamlet. What is the author's purpose in this passage?

in a place once known as north america, now known as panem, is a very rich city surrounded by twelve districts. every year because this very rich city, known as the capitol, is so rich and likes to think they control all the districts - which they do - there is something known as the hunger games! this is where two children, one boy and one girl from each district from the ages of twelve to eighteen, have to leave their families and compete in the hunger games, a live event that is aired on tv's all over panem. when katniss everdeen, aged sixteen from district 12, has to volunteer to take the place of her twelve-year-old sister prim after prim's name is called forth to become the 23rd member to compete in the 74th hunger games, she promises to prim that she will win! katniss doesn't believe she's coming out alive - but she's not going down without a fight.

because district 12 is so poor, katniss has been close to death many times from starvation but she's made it through it. but this is a different kind of close to death; this katniss doesn't know if she can survive.

she doesn't want to hurt, or kill anyone but when it comes down to it katniss' instinct is to survive. but when she starts to have confusing feelings about the boy from her district who is also her fellow contender, things get worse, and then she teams up with the girl from district 11 and only one person can survive. but who will it be? will her feelings get the better of her? will she let someone else win so they don't have to die? if katniss is going to win she's going to have to be brutal. she's going to have to kill!