Power In The Hunger Games

592 Words3 Pages
In the novel The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008), although the totalitarian government is initially successful at controlling the heroin’s life, as Katniss’s perilous journey of survival and self-discovery progresses, her actions become deliberately rebellious and damaging to the Capitol, as she seeks to resist its power. Thus hope transpires from seemingly indomitable circumstances, in true to form Young Adult Dystopian fashion. As the book starts, Katniss introduces us to her life in District 12, an existence heavily regulated by the Capitol. The storyline instantly immerses the reader in Katniss’s world and perspective through its use of the first-person voice and present tense. We discover a protagonist who, although deeply aware of injustices, is too conscious of her family’s safety to openly speak her mind: “Eventually I understood this would only lead us to more trouble.”(p. 7). At this point in time, Katniss’s fear, engineered by the Capitol, is controlling her. And although Katniss disobeys the rules by escaping the boundaries of District 12 to go hunting, her motivation resides only in her need to feed her family. Her illegal bounty is sold on the black market. Thus, Katniss’s disobedience ultimately serves to gratify the Capitol’s Peacekeepers (“…they’re among our best customers.” (p. 6)), and ironically reinforces the Capitol’s power by emphasizing the divide between the hungry and the well-fed in District 12. As the story progresses, the reader witnesses the development of Katniss’s identity, a key concern of adolescent literature. As she becomes a tribute in the Hunger Games and the Capitol’s power over her grows, Katniss’s frustration increases. She starts consciously and overtly rebelling “I make a point of eating the rest of my meal with my fingers.”(p. 54): for the first time, she does not defy authority to protect her family, but to
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