Examples Of Totalitarianism In The Hunger Games

This essay psychoanalyzes one of the main characters in the novel The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. The main character in this novel is Katniss Everdeen. Some defense mechanisms are illustrated in her behavior and actions. This novel is about a country that consists of 12 districts ruled by the Capitol, a totalitarian city. Every year, each district sends two participants, a boy and a girl, to Capitol to participate in the Hunger Games. The participants fight till death, and the survived participant is crowned as the Victor. The novel tells the story of the sixteen-year-old girl Katniss Everdeen, who volunteers to take her younger sister's place in the annual Hunger Games. Peeta was chosen as the male contestant from district 12. The novel

It means that individuals try to remove themselves from “events, stimuli, interactions, etc […] that could remind [them] of painful thoughts and feelings” (Niolon). The individual tends to be silent and avoiding people that can be a reminder of painful emotions. For example, Katniss tries to avoid having connections with other people to eliminate the risk of caring for someone that she then might lose, which is something she has experienced before when her father died when she was eleven. For example, she made a decision of not having children because she might lose them in the Hunger Games: “I know I’ll never marry, never risk bringing a child into the world. […] My kids’ names would go right into the reaping balls with everyone else’s. And I swear I’ll never let that happen.” (378). Another situation where her impulse to use withdrawal is caused by the possible triggering of memories of her father's death is her reaction to an injured man that is brought to their house, because her mother is a healer: “I ran from the house. I went to the woods haunted by the gruesome leg, memories of my father’s death” (216). She is trying to remove herself, both physically and mentally, from any stimuli to avoid painful