Feminist Lens In The Hunger Games

Feminist literary criticism’s primary argument is that female characters have always been presented from a male’s viewpoint. According to Connell, in most literary works, female characters often play minor roles which emphasize their domestic roles, subservience and physical beauty while males are always the protagonists who are strong, heroic and dominant (qtd. in Woloshyn et al.150). This means that the women are perceived as weak and are supposed to be under the control of men. Gill and Sellers say that feminist literary criticism’s approach involves identifying with female characters in order to challenge any male centred outlook. It aims at resisting traditional assumptions of gender (3). In doing so, feminist literary criticism examines how works of literature perpetuate or challenge patriarchal attitudes. In feminism lens, The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins’ presents itself as a pro-feminist series It challenges gender stereotypes by presenting a female protagonist; Katniss Everdeen. The book has successfully challenged gender stereotypes by showing that men and women are equal. It is the societal constraints that do not provide a level playing field for both genders. Using Wollstonecraft’s book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman to analyze the Hunger Games this essay demonstrates how men and women are equal.

This essay will critically examine on how the female figure is represented throughout a very “selective” media outlet (the film industry), and how society is depicted in the film medium. The chosen media text for analysis is The Hunger Games, a theatrical adaptation of the novel written by Suzanne Collins and directed by Gary Ross. The film is centred on Katniss Everdeen - a teenage girl who volunteers on behalf of her sister, to fight in the annual Hunger Games- and the male District 12 tribute, Peeta Mellark, with whom she shares quite an intense past. Both characters embark on a journey that will test their physical and emotional boundaries, while being hunted by the other 22 competitors who all fight for the same objective: survival.

Suzanne Collins, the author of The Hunger Games, imagines a world where people are divided by district just like the real world does with the high, middle, low classes. This book is full of themes, literary devices and also talks about how the government — in this case the Capitol — oppresses their citizens.

Responsibility is key to survival in The Hunger Games because you must be responsible and careful before making a decision that depends on your life. “The price of greatness is responsibility.” (Winston Churchill) In The Hunger Games, two tributes, one male and one female under the age of eighteen, must leave their district to go and compete in The Hunger Games. While in the games all twenty-four tributes must fight to the death to entertain their Capital city. Normally there is only one winner but in this book there are two winners. In Suzanne Collins novel, The Hunger Games, the overarching theme is that responsibility is key to survival as demonstrated by the books main character, Katniss Everdeen, and how she takes care of her mother and younger sister, hunts for her own food, and trades for food and goods around her district.

In the Hunger Games series, a dystopian future is set up. The government of Panem, The Capitol, holds the wealth of Panem giving it the power to control all districts. In order to enforce this theory, they created the Hunger Games. They suppressed the rights of the citizen’s of Panem and selected their children in order to fight each other do death for survival. These games were created to scare the people and show them who was in charge. While these dystopian societies are going on, there are also utopian societies that we can see in our dreams. These societies are filled with what we think makes them perfect. For example, the utopian universe that can be brought to mind could be free of poverty, homelessness, war, racism ,etc. But, if we deeply think about it, if these problems did

Theme #1- No matter what tyrannical environment you live in, your identity can never be changed

The feminist theory is based on finding and exposing negative attitudes toward women in literature. Their goal is to reveal the reality of how women get portrayed in literature due to the fact that most literature presents an inaccurate view of women and are most of the time minimized. In the Catcher in the Rye there is a few female characters such as Sunny, the girls at the club, and Sally who are put in situations that show nothing but stereotypes and puts them in a bad spot throughout the novel. J.D Salinger decides to put some of the female characters in situations that can cause those who read this novel to think bad or leave readers with a bad image of women. This bad image on women is due to the fact that he decided to portray some of

There are several themes in the book, each one has a significant meaning to the storyline.

The Hunger Games trilogy revolves around universal dystopian themes such as :oppression, rebellion, class tension as well as appearance vs. reality ," Collins creates the world that on one hand seems quite improbable and extreme, but on the other, vividly reflects some specific issues in a real world, like social inequalities, ignorance and passivity of the people" (Macanić 7).

“The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins is a suspenseful and frightening story about a 16 year old girl, Katniss everdeen who is born into a small village called District 12. The capitol, which controls the districts hosts an annual Hunger Games each and every year. Two tributes, a boy and a girl from each district are chosen between the ages of 12-18 to compete against 22 other tributes, but only one can win. Katniss is not chosen, but her younger sister Prim is chosen at only 12 years old. Katniss volunteers in Prim 's place and is now in the hunger games. The boy tribute from district 12 is a son of a baker, Peeta Mellark. They are taken to the capitol and are preparing to spend three horrifying weeks inside of the arena where life or death is their

The Hunger Games and women in society: Suzanne Collins author of “The Hunger Games” designed Katniss Everdeen as the idealistic image of women in society. Her strength, skills, and self-control make her a figure of a woman perfect to match how our society wants women to be like and Suzanne wants that to stand out and make us think about it. Suzanne Collins wants to express how she thinks female should be like in everyday life and express that Katniss is much more than just a character, she is a message that is being sent to all the readers. Katniss breaks all the already established stereotypes by being able to survive, improvise and control herself in bad moments when even the toughest person would break apart. Katniss is strong since she was born she was being “tested”, she knows a wide variety of survival skills and her knowledge expands even more when she starts practicing for the hunger games.

Imagine your world is divided by the color of your blood. Red and Silver. Imagine your best friend is taken away to an arena of death because their name was pulled from a bowl of others names that just narrowly escaped death. Wouldn’t you want change? In King’s Cage by Victoria Aveyard, the world is divided by blood type. In The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Panem is a destroyed country divided into districts that send a male and female tribute to death every year. Both books present two female outcasts that are fed up with their worlds, and attempt to save themselves and the people they love. Aveyard and Collins both use character archetype and mood to present the theme of that when you are being controlled by someone you want to get out you want to get away. Even though it might be hard, as long as you hold what and who you love most you will always find a way back to them.

On the other hand, there is Capitol who has political control in the nation of panem. The story starts when each district must offer a male and female between the ages of 12-18 at a public reaping as a penance for their uprising. The tributes which are male and female shall be delivered to the Capitol and then transferred to a public arena where they will fight with other district until a lone victor remains. This tradition called the hunger games. The story centers was coming from poor district 12 where Katniss and Peeta as their tributes.

The Hunger Games: A Modern Day Odyssey? The Hunger Games is about a civilization that randomly selects two members from the different districts. Those two members are then forced to fight in an “arena” in which there is only one victor. In a way the Hunger Games is very similar to the Odyssey. The Odyssey begins years after the Trojan War has ended and Odysseus has not returned home.

In The Hunger Games, there are parts that can be argued It seems each character, event, and chapter brings even more action and importance. Discussions revealed multiple examples of important elements from characterizations, to themes and lessons, to symbolism. However, the most important part of the entire novel is when Katniss volunteers to be tribute because this scene shows the love Katniss has for her sister and how far she’s really willing to go to protect her sister, it also begins the whole story because it’s what got her are enough to create the rebellion, and it’s what made her meet Peeta, and create a relationship between them.