Joey's College Life: The Hungry Games

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One of my favorite things about The Hunger Games, despite having a cold female protagonist, is the fact that the characters in the book and the events that transpire therein are relatable to nearly everybody that reads it.  Speaking for myself, one of the parts of the book that I can relate to the most take place in the very beginning, where Katniss offers herself as tribute in the stead of her much younger sister, Primrose. After her name gets read to District 12, Katniss is nearly shellshocked, unable to believe the odds that her sister's name was chosen instead of hers. "There must have been some mistake. This can't be happening. Prim was one slip of paper in thousands! ...One slip. One slip in thousands. The odds had been entirely in her favor. But it hadn't mattered" (21.) This is what I can relate to, the total sense of powerlessness to the odds. And her base reaction is to selflessly put herself in Prim's place in the Hunger Games. As the oldest child of four, I can say without hesitation (like nearly anybody I'm sure,) that I'm selfless enough to do the same thing. My little brother and sisters are sacred to me, and I do everything that I can in order to make sure that they have a proper upbringing in a house where they aren't necessarily the focus of the day-to-day activities of the home...

 And even though Katniss is a girl, I was able to identify and relate to her, because her most important character traits defy gender roles. The writing in The Hunger Games is descriptive and gripping enough to not force Katniss' gender into our faces as much as other books would have. Her thoughts are spilling onto the page, a verbose stream of consciousness, and as such aren't littered with indicators of her gender, just like our own. I could choose any quote of the book and it would apply, but here is the one that I'm using. In this context, Katniss is dying of dehydration and she's unable to find any source of water. "What easy prey I am! Any tribute, even tiny Rue, could take me right now, merely shove me over and kill me with my own knife. and I'd have little strength to resist. But if anyone is in my part of the woods, they ignore me. The truth is, I feel a million miles from another living soul" (169.) Nothing from this quote makes any indication of her gender, the reader is unable to ascertain whether Katniss is male or female. She's weak and dying, but made no mention of her being weaker than a man, or still a woman, or anything like that. This is essential to her character, and to the book as a whole.

Comments

  1. kendall hendersonSeptember 8, 2016 at 5:23 PM

    I absolutely agree that "her most important character traits defy gender roles"... I think that's why this book appeals to so many readers. It's not that she's a female character with masculine traits. It's that personalities don't have genders... she's just a human being. Both male and female readers feel stress, anger, worry, fear, etc. Suzanne Collins doesn't trap her into being feminine or masculine and just lets her be a person with a variety of feelings and personality traits.

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  2. UnknownSeptember 9, 2016 at 8:53 PM

    I had never thought of it like this. See the thing is, I saw a Katniss who sometimes aggravated me because she did not trust Peeta, and deliberately put herself in danger by being emotionally closed off as a loner. Then I saw a Katniss who was strong and defiant but also masculine. I always noticed when she was blatantly defiant and when she was blatantly made to be super feminie with dresses and frilly things of that nature. But you bring an interesting point that she has been welded by Collins to be both masculine and Feminine. When you really think about, Katniss got everyone talking. Whether you like her feminine side or hated her masculine side, you kept reading because she was so diverse and unpredictable.

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