The traditional gender roles in fiction have fallen out of favor in recent years. However, “heteronormative ideals of tough males and submissive beautiful females are often present in young adult fiction…with boys typically presented as active main characters and girls as passive peripheral ones,” (Taber et al. 1025). Going against this tradition is Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games that features a strong female protagonist who ends up saving her male counterpart. Katniss Everdeen breaks out of the passive female role and becomes an ambiguous mesh of masculine and feminine traits depending on her behavior and desires. In feminist criticism, “Judith Butler (1993) has influentially argued that gender has a performative aspect—in the sense that
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Katniss uses hunting as a way to connect to her dead father and his previous role in her family. “At the start of The Hunger Games, Katniss is depicted as an independent, strong and resourceful hunter, the main breadwinner of her family through drawing on the hunting lessons of her father,” (Guanio-Uluru 214-15). Katniss takes on the traditionally masculine role of a hunter in District 12 to honor her father and stay strong for her sister and mother. She is also able to take over for her father due to her mother’s weakness after his death. “Katniss is hunting to feed her family after her father’s death, which left her mother mourning and unable to function,” (Oliver 680). Katniss and her mother could not be more different, so it makes sense that Katniss would not follow her example as a maternal figure. Katniss is able to become stronger and more independent after her father’s death while her mother stagnates and falls victim to crippling depression. However, even though Katniss strongly …show more content…
Gone are the extravagant dresses, make-up, and femininity as Katniss focuses on only one thing in the Games: survival. “It is interesting to notice how Katniss describes herself in HG15 (a ‘wild, wounded creature’), for it goes against the typical representation of a female protagonist, usually delicate and fragile,” (Pinheiro 158). She no longer exemplifies a feminine identity as she fights to survive in the arena, rather she returns to her pseudo-masculine role from District 12 as a hunter. “Katniss Everdeen must solitarily face danger, and use her hunter’s power to dominate others,” (Guanio-Uluru 217). Being a hunter gives Katniss power over her opponents in the Games and gives her an advantage. Her identity as a hunter overrides everything else in her struggle to stay alive against the other tributes. “Katniss is a capable killer of both animals and people…By killing people, she proves that she can outlive their enemies. Through both hunting and defending her life against their attackers, she proves that she is a survivor,” (Oliver 683). In the arena, Katniss uses her hunting skills to take down other tributes like she would the animals around District 12. Her feminine identity is all but forgotten in the face of the Games and its brutality. “Katniss is confronted with various forms of physical distress…but she goes through
Katniss uses hunting as a way to connect to her dead father and his previous role in her family. “At the start of The Hunger Games, Katniss is depicted as an independent, strong and resourceful hunter, the main breadwinner of her family through drawing on the hunting lessons of her father,” (Guanio-Uluru 214-15). Katniss takes on the traditionally masculine role of a hunter in District 12 to honor her father and stay strong for her sister and mother. She is also able to take over for her father due to her mother’s weakness after his death. “Katniss is hunting to feed her family after her father’s death, which left her mother mourning and unable to function,” (Oliver 680). Katniss and her mother could not be more different, so it makes sense that Katniss would not follow her example as a maternal figure. Katniss is able to become stronger and more independent after her father’s death while her mother stagnates and falls victim to crippling depression. However, even though Katniss strongly …show more content…
Gone are the extravagant dresses, make-up, and femininity as Katniss focuses on only one thing in the Games: survival. “It is interesting to notice how Katniss describes herself in HG15 (a ‘wild, wounded creature’), for it goes against the typical representation of a female protagonist, usually delicate and fragile,” (Pinheiro 158). She no longer exemplifies a feminine identity as she fights to survive in the arena, rather she returns to her pseudo-masculine role from District 12 as a hunter. “Katniss Everdeen must solitarily face danger, and use her hunter’s power to dominate others,” (Guanio-Uluru 217). Being a hunter gives Katniss power over her opponents in the Games and gives her an advantage. Her identity as a hunter overrides everything else in her struggle to stay alive against the other tributes. “Katniss is a capable killer of both animals and people…By killing people, she proves that she can outlive their enemies. Through both hunting and defending her life against their attackers, she proves that she is a survivor,” (Oliver 683). In the arena, Katniss uses her hunting skills to take down other tributes like she would the animals around District 12. Her feminine identity is all but forgotten in the face of the Games and its brutality. “Katniss is confronted with various forms of physical distress…but she goes through