Tab takes on... Proving that District 13 of The Hunger Games is the Secret City of Oak Ridge, Tennessee

After reading the Hunger Games, especially Mockingjay, it is without a doubt that District 13 is located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This is to be proven by the aspects of secrets, nuclear war, nuclear weapons, bombs, airborne divisions, and many other ideas to be explored. Some of these ideas may be a different in fiction versus reality, with the potential of the fiction to be a reality at some point if the occasion was to arise.

Secrets is one topic that Oak Ridge and District 13 both share. The best example of this from District 13 is found in chapter 2 where it is mentioned that almost all new construction of the district was done under the surface and that most of their citizens spent most of their day underground. There are many reasons District 13 was this way. The main reason was because they did not need to be detected so that they could win against the Capitol. District 13 needed the Capitol to believe that they were gone and wiped off the Earth. Oak Ridge and its importance for the atomic bomb was and still partially is one of the best-kept secrets around. At its start in the 40s, as the area we know it as today, very few residents out of 75,000 knew what was actually going on. (New Republic) The workers only knew the exact tasks expected on themselves. (The Atlantic) The land used to make these areas were to be used for the "war effort" as the people and farmers living on the land at the time were told. (Secret Cities) In a way, both District 13 and Oak Ridge were kept secret. Just as District 13 was kept a secret from the capitol and the rest of the districts before the uprising, Oak Ridge was kept secret from the rest of the world as well. Oak Ridge was unknown of as well. It was "the city that didn't exist". It wasn't on any map. To entice workers to come, it was simply known as Clinton Engineering Works. (historynet.com) Still today, it is labeled as the Secret City. It stayed a secret for many years or decades.

Another common factor that District 13 in Oak Ridge share somewhat is an Airborne Division. District 13 has an Airborne Division that is housed separately. (Chapter 5) While Oak Ridge does not have an Airborne Division, there are two options that Suzanne Collins could have been considering when she was writing Mockingjay. The more likely option would be the 101st Airborne Division, located in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, which is about 3.5 hours away when driving. A more local option would be the McGhee Tyson Air National Guard base, which takes about thirty minutes to get to when driving.(Mapquest) There is not a specific distance or time it takes mentioned in Mockingjay to how far the Airborne Division is from District 13, but if District 13 what is to be in the Oak Ridge area, these would be the only options.

A drastic difference between District 13 and Oak Ridge is how long it took to be built upon and developed. Chapter 14 of Mockingjay states that District 13 is the work of centuries. Oak Ridge, however, was a community built with speed in mind. It was intended to be temporary. (Secret Cities) Many buildings and structures from then are still here today and are still being used, less than a century later.

The most important factor in both of these areas would have to be the role they each played or could play on nuclear weapons and on nuclear war. In chapter two, it is said that District 13 was the face of a nuclear weapons program for the Capitol before the Dark Days with another nuclear arsenal out West. In reality, similar circumstances were at hand in the 1940s. Oak Ridge had and still has massive facilities to modify and create nuclear materials for weapons. (The Atlantic) There also was a location out west, in Los Alamos, New Mexico that armed, tested, and built the bombs that is now defunct.(Secret Cities) None of this had been attempted before. Despite that, there was no time for mistakes or practice trials. Whatever happened, happened. Today, Oak Ridge holds two of the neutron science research centers in the world with the government still being the main employer. (historynet.com)

While District 13 may be a fictionalized area, it is still possible that it was based on Oak Ridge. The common subjects of secrets, airborne divisions, nuclear weapons, nuclear war, and other similar interests make reality set in to this fictionalized world. For what may not be possible today, could become our future tomorrow. More advancements in technology and science could make it happen before we know it.

Sources

1. The Atlantic article - The Secret City by Alan Taylor, June 25, 2012. (The Atlantic)

2. Historynet.com article - Oak Ridge and the Town the Atomic Bomb Built by Kay Grant, June 1, 2010. (historynet.com)

3. Mapquest.com. (Mapquest)

4. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. (Chapter)

5. New Republic article - A Visit to the Secret Town in Tennessee That Gave Birth to the Atomic Bomb by Lewis Falstein, November 12th, 1945. (New Republic)

6. Secret Cities of the Atomic Bomb Documentary part 1 & 2, YouTube. (Secret Cities)