Could you help me draft a thesis statement and opening paragraph comparing "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant and The Hunger Gamesby Suzanne Collins...

Both of these texts lend
themselves well to a Marxist interpretation, which focuses on the structures of inequality in
society and the impact of this on the "haves" and the "have nots." This is
evident in "," where Madame Loisel is so obsessed with what she doesn't have that she
fantasises constantly about what she would like to have in order to be considered rich and a
person of status in society:

She grieved incessantly,
feeling that she had been born for all the little niceties and luxuries of living. She grieved
over the shabbiness of her appartment, the dinginess of the walls, the worn-out appearance of
the chairs, the ugliness of the draperies. All these things, which another woman of her class
would not even have noticed, gnawed at her and made her furious.

Madame Loisel is therefore completely dominated by what she doesn't have and what she
feels she should have. Even though this quote specifices that "another woman of her
class" would not even notice the things she obsesses over, it is clear that Madame Loisel
feels so strongly her supposed want and poverty that she is willing to do anything in order to
be rich and to enjoy the life she feels she deserves. This perception is one that ruins her
life, and of course the life of her husband. Theis of course that the necklace she impoverishes
herself for only has the appearance of wealth, whilst actually being fake, just as the kind of
life Madame Loisel obsesses over appears to be of great value but in reality is full of
superficial appearances and has a veneer of glamour.

Katniss in The
Hunger Games lives in world with a very clear demarcation between the rich and the
poor. The complete control of the Capitol over the twelve districts is shown visibly through the
yearly trial of the Hunger Games, where each district must surrender one girl and one boy to be
slaughtered for the amusement of those in the Capitol. Katniss is clear of the meaning behind
this ritual:

Taking the kids from our districts, forcing
them to kill one another while we watch--this is the Capitol's way of reminding us how totally
we are at their mercy. How little chance we would stand of surviving another
rebellion.

Katniss operates in a world where she is a
powerless individual pitted against the might of the Capitol, and where she has to use every
resource available to her in order to survive and to defy the Capitol.

Both
texts therefore lend themselves very naturally to a Marxist interpretation. A good thesis
statement that could be used to examin them would be:

Both "The
Necklace" and The Hunger Games show the suffering caused in the lives
of characters who exist in a setting where their position of not possessing wealth and power
leaves them vulnerable.

This thesis statement will allow an exploration of
some of the elements highlighted above.