I literally was this girl, but long before I read the Hunger Games, I read The Hiding Place. Long before the dad was an obstacle I read Little House, where Pa is Laura’s greatest hero. My mother read scripture to us constantly, and we leaned towards Narnia, and Lord of the Rings, stories that center friendship, bravery, forgiveness. Where the girls and the boys both make foolish mistakes and are forgiven anyway. I never thought about what that earlier literature was doing for me, why my parents were so careful to read alongside or ahead of me. But my idea of girlhood was derived from Jane Eyre and Anne Shirley, and by the time I got to Katniss Everdeen, I saw completely how compelling loving she was towards family, and also how terribly broken she was by everything else.
Same with my daughter. She loves Hunger Games, but recognizes Katniss for who she is, flaws and all. We read Little House, Anne of Green Gables, Betsy Tacy, Little Women, etc. when she was little. I knew they are good and wholesome stories, but didn’t necessarily see it as building a foundation. Thanks for sharing your perspective.
Love the emphasis on educating readers to understand context and the real from counterfeit. I believe this will be more effective and strengthening than outright prohibition with no thought. We need to teach truth with boldness.
Honestly, if you read the entire trilogy of stories, it ends with her being a wife and mother. After experiencing a genocide of her own people, the death of the sister she would’ve given her life to protect, and after the war ends and the Capitol is fully defeated, she decides to be a wife and mother. That says a lot to me. In my experience, finally being able to settle down and live a normal life after experiencing a rough childhood has been the ultimate healing experience, and I hope it was that way for her too.
I read the Hunger Games as a freshman in college only because it was assigned in English class. My friends raved about it in high school, but the same friends were fans of other books I had rather avoid, such as Twilight. My younger brother owned the trilogy, and I asked him to send me the first book because I needed to read it for class. I picked it up early on a Saturday morning and finished it that same Saturday evening. When I went home for Thanksgiving, I borrowed the other two books from him immediately and read them almost as quickly.
Perhaps it is because I was already an adult, or because I am a man and not a teenaged girl, but I didn't find myself glorifying Katniss' rebelliousness as such, but only her refusal to submit to an inherently evil government, just as you point out. Her actions are (mostly) correct in the context of her world.
What struck me more reading as a man was Peeta's point of view. He wants to protect Katniss, but he's very bad at it. He is contrasted with Gale, who doesn't really care so much about protecting Katniss (he does as her friend, but he doesn't love her the way Peeta does), but he's good at it. Peeta must feel very inadequate. Yet, in the end, he, the "inadequate" one, ends up with Katniss because his gentleness is what she needs after the war. During the war, during the games, his gentleness was a liability to her. Gale would have been a greater asset in the arena. Together they probably could have made short work of the other tributes. I also don't think she survives the war without Gale's assistance. But she ends up in the arena with Peeta because he's the one she actually needs. And after the "storm" is finally over, Peeta remains by her side, not Gale. Peeta is the one who can actually be a father to her children, and who can help her finally rest in safety. Because Peeta was the one who was willing to die for her, not Gale.
Yes! This! Ultimately it’s Peeta who teaches Katniss the value of self-sacrificial love to the point that they would rather die together than kill each other and that is what ultimately sparks the fire that destroys the Capitol. The power of gentleness and self-sacrifice… the power to choose death over harm to someone else. That’s why these are redemptive stories. It’s not insignificant that Peeta is the baker’s boy (and Haymitch is the spirit brewer - the baker and the butler)- that Peeta is the one who suffers abuse to first provide Katniss with food and hope before Gale comes to teach her survival skills. The symbolism is so important there.
Thank you for adding this perspective. The men’s positions in the story were so important, particularly Peeta’s, and this analysis of Katniss completely misses half of the growth dynamic.
I was a tween girl from Ohio that read these books, but I didn’t take this posts author’s views at all. I saw the strengths and values of men in this story without even having a strong father of my own. I carried this with me and became a very happy wife and mother. Of course I liked Gale at first, but in the end, Peeta embodied the structure that was needed.
Which is why I’m so glad our family waited to watch and read the Disney classics and Hunger Games books until we built the foundation. I got a lot more enjoyment and depth from them because I was older, and I was also able to discern the context and the subtle messaging as I consumed them. (I also appreciated how you talked about context tying into the characters, because nothing happens in a vacuum.) Really great post!
Most of the rebellion was forced upon her by circumstances and manipulation. She didn't set out to defy righteous authority but to survive and protect the ones she loves. This weight, in the end, breaks her completely. It doesn't make her stronger. I think Mockingjay highlights that a lot. The epilogue shows when her true strength comes: she learns to love and trust, to submit to Peeta as a husband and to become the mother of their children. Her real strength came from letting down those barriers and being vulnerable.
Many parents are eliminated from the stories entirely. We see only orphans without a family structure. It's a lazy writing choice often used to overcome the question "and where were the parents when this was happening?"
This article nails that writers of our popular stories-print or media-are the most influential people in the world today and that as parents, uncles, aunts, Grands etc we need to be aware of the narrative. We'll done!!!
Having 3 teen daughters and one who especially enjoyed this series, this piece really illuminated what I have needed to express to them. Thank you! This is the best analysis I’ve read on the internet in quite a long time.
I literally was this girl, but long before I read the Hunger Games, I read The Hiding Place. Long before the dad was an obstacle I read Little House, where Pa is Laura’s greatest hero. My mother read scripture to us constantly, and we leaned towards Narnia, and Lord of the Rings, stories that center friendship, bravery, forgiveness. Where the girls and the boys both make foolish mistakes and are forgiven anyway. I never thought about what that earlier literature was doing for me, why my parents were so careful to read alongside or ahead of me. But my idea of girlhood was derived from Jane Eyre and Anne Shirley, and by the time I got to Katniss Everdeen, I saw completely how compelling loving she was towards family, and also how terribly broken she was by everything else.
Same with my daughter. She loves Hunger Games, but recognizes Katniss for who she is, flaws and all. We read Little House, Anne of Green Gables, Betsy Tacy, Little Women, etc. when she was little. I knew they are good and wholesome stories, but didn’t necessarily see it as building a foundation. Thanks for sharing your perspective.
Love the emphasis on educating readers to understand context and the real from counterfeit. I believe this will be more effective and strengthening than outright prohibition with no thought. We need to teach truth with boldness.
Honestly, if you read the entire trilogy of stories, it ends with her being a wife and mother. After experiencing a genocide of her own people, the death of the sister she would’ve given her life to protect, and after the war ends and the Capitol is fully defeated, she decides to be a wife and mother. That says a lot to me. In my experience, finally being able to settle down and live a normal life after experiencing a rough childhood has been the ultimate healing experience, and I hope it was that way for her too.
I read the Hunger Games as a freshman in college only because it was assigned in English class. My friends raved about it in high school, but the same friends were fans of other books I had rather avoid, such as Twilight. My younger brother owned the trilogy, and I asked him to send me the first book because I needed to read it for class. I picked it up early on a Saturday morning and finished it that same Saturday evening. When I went home for Thanksgiving, I borrowed the other two books from him immediately and read them almost as quickly.
Perhaps it is because I was already an adult, or because I am a man and not a teenaged girl, but I didn't find myself glorifying Katniss' rebelliousness as such, but only her refusal to submit to an inherently evil government, just as you point out. Her actions are (mostly) correct in the context of her world.
What struck me more reading as a man was Peeta's point of view. He wants to protect Katniss, but he's very bad at it. He is contrasted with Gale, who doesn't really care so much about protecting Katniss (he does as her friend, but he doesn't love her the way Peeta does), but he's good at it. Peeta must feel very inadequate. Yet, in the end, he, the "inadequate" one, ends up with Katniss because his gentleness is what she needs after the war. During the war, during the games, his gentleness was a liability to her. Gale would have been a greater asset in the arena. Together they probably could have made short work of the other tributes. I also don't think she survives the war without Gale's assistance. But she ends up in the arena with Peeta because he's the one she actually needs. And after the "storm" is finally over, Peeta remains by her side, not Gale. Peeta is the one who can actually be a father to her children, and who can help her finally rest in safety. Because Peeta was the one who was willing to die for her, not Gale.
Yes! This! Ultimately it’s Peeta who teaches Katniss the value of self-sacrificial love to the point that they would rather die together than kill each other and that is what ultimately sparks the fire that destroys the Capitol. The power of gentleness and self-sacrifice… the power to choose death over harm to someone else. That’s why these are redemptive stories. It’s not insignificant that Peeta is the baker’s boy (and Haymitch is the spirit brewer - the baker and the butler)- that Peeta is the one who suffers abuse to first provide Katniss with food and hope before Gale comes to teach her survival skills. The symbolism is so important there.
Yes, these books are heavy-handed in symbolism, which imo is a point in their favor. Peeta is Katniss' "bread of life" so to speak.
Thank you for adding this perspective. The men’s positions in the story were so important, particularly Peeta’s, and this analysis of Katniss completely misses half of the growth dynamic.
I was a tween girl from Ohio that read these books, but I didn’t take this posts author’s views at all. I saw the strengths and values of men in this story without even having a strong father of my own. I carried this with me and became a very happy wife and mother. Of course I liked Gale at first, but in the end, Peeta embodied the structure that was needed.
It’s a major assumption that all the male authority figures in a girls life are going to be trustworthy and non-corrupt.
This kind of a literature didn’t grow up in a vacuum.
Secondly misses the point that the true hero of the story is Peeta
The Bible gives us Proverbs 31 but it also gives us Deborah, Jael, Lydia… so many others.
Which is why I’m so glad our family waited to watch and read the Disney classics and Hunger Games books until we built the foundation. I got a lot more enjoyment and depth from them because I was older, and I was also able to discern the context and the subtle messaging as I consumed them. (I also appreciated how you talked about context tying into the characters, because nothing happens in a vacuum.) Really great post!
Most of the rebellion was forced upon her by circumstances and manipulation. She didn't set out to defy righteous authority but to survive and protect the ones she loves. This weight, in the end, breaks her completely. It doesn't make her stronger. I think Mockingjay highlights that a lot. The epilogue shows when her true strength comes: she learns to love and trust, to submit to Peeta as a husband and to become the mother of their children. Her real strength came from letting down those barriers and being vulnerable.
Excellent post! Highly accurate! Thank you for writing this!
Many parents are eliminated from the stories entirely. We see only orphans without a family structure. It's a lazy writing choice often used to overcome the question "and where were the parents when this was happening?"
This was phenomenal mate. Great piece. Will be sharing with many folks in my capacity as a schoolteacher and a young father.
This article nails that writers of our popular stories-print or media-are the most influential people in the world today and that as parents, uncles, aunts, Grands etc we need to be aware of the narrative. We'll done!!!
Having 3 teen daughters and one who especially enjoyed this series, this piece really illuminated what I have needed to express to them. Thank you! This is the best analysis I’ve read on the internet in quite a long time.
I have goosebumps reading this. Sending to every other mom of reading girls I know!!
Loved reading this!!
Wow! This was really interesting and eye opening to read
Glad to hear! Thanks for the feedback