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literary analysis of the hunger games
essay of the hunger games
essay the hunger games
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SACRIFICE IN THE HUNGER GAMES
“I’m turning to fire again when the second knife catches me in the forehead. It slices above my right eyebrow, opening a gash that sends a gush running down my face, blinding my eye, filling my mouth with the sharp, metallic taste of my blood” (Collins,284). In The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, Panem is seen to be North America’s dystopia. It has the powerful Capital surrounded by twelve districts. The Capital rules all districts and keeps them at their mercy by forcing them to send one boy and one girl, ages twelve to eighteen to take place in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death. Sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen gives the ultimate sacrifice when she volunteers to take her twelve year old
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As she stands alongside the other dredging victims awaiting to hear what name will be called, she thinks of Gale. Her hunting partner from the district. She thinks of his forty-two names in the drawing, but then suddenly she hears the name called of the first tribute! Katniss screams to herself, “There must have been some mistake. This can’t be happening. Prim was one slip of paper in thousands! Her chances of being chosen so remote that I’d not even bothered to worry about her. Hadn’t I done everything? One slip. One Slip in thousands. The odds had been in her favor. But it hadn’t mattered” (Collins, 21). In other words, Katniss’ shocked by hearing Prim’s names called for tribute leads her to the impulsive act of volunteering as tribute. Being Prim’s protector after their father’s death, Katniss only concern at this point is who will watch over her family, who will feed them? Not at all thinking how will I survive? As Gale pulls away Prim and Katniss approaches the stage, she doesn’t even have time to wish for the safety of Gale before the next name is called. “Peeta Mellark!” ‘Peeta Mellark! Oh no, not him. Because I recognized this name, although I have never spoken directly to its owner. Peeta Mellark. No, the odds are not in my favor today’ (Collins, 25). In other words, Katniss still in shock of everything …show more content…
Katniss is a girl whose actions speaks louder than her words. “Without thinking, I pull an arrow from my quiver and send in straight at the Gamemakers’ table. I hear shouts of alarm as people stumble back. The arrow skewers the apple in the pig’s mouth and pins it to the wall behind. Everyone stares at me in disbelief. ‘Thank you for your consideration’ [Katniss says]. Then [gives] a bow and [walks] straight [towards] the exit without being dismissed” (Collins, 102). As you can see Katniss had little respect for those who didn’t respect her. Politics were not something she cared about. But now being the Seventy-four victor, politics must be an area she speaks on. To do so, Katniss returns to the Capital for an interview along with Peeta. Every question feels like a blow to the stomach for Katniss. Katniss knows she’s in trouble with the Capital and thinks to herself during the interview, “This is the crucial moment where I either challenged the Capital or went so crazy at the idea of losing Peeta that I can’t be held responsible for my actions” (Collins, 369). In other words, Katniss is now being scripted to survive the fury of the Capital. Having to go along with what they want to hear and sacrificing her own thoughts and
Since her father’s death, Katniss has been providing for her family. Her hunting skills are so impressive that even Peeta points out her precision: “She hits every squirrel right in the eye” (89). As such an experienced hunter, Katniss is skilled with a bow and arrow, as well as a knife. We see this violence continue when she is on the train headed to the Capital. After Haymitch punches Peeta in the face, Katniss throws her knife at Haymitch’s hand: “I drive my knife into the table between his hand and the bottle, barely missing his fingers” (57). However, that act still was not enough for her; she then takes the knife and throws it across the room landing it in the wall. She knew that in order to get his attention she would have to make an impression. Katniss acts out in violence again when she is in the training room at the Capitol. During her private session after missing a couple shots with her bow and arrow, she takes a few difficult shots to try and impress the Gamemakers. However, she notices that most of them are more focused on a roasted pig than her. She becomes furious, knowing her life is at stake, and out of rage, she fires an arrow straight toward the Gamemakers that spears the apple in the pig’s mouth. The violent part of Katniss hates and does not comprehend the idea of owing people. After Katniss’s father had died, her family was starving and it seemed she had no other options. While sitting outside the bakery in the pouring rain, the young boy Peeta it seemed had purposely burnt the bread so that he could give it to Katniss. Even though in doing that it meant getting punished by his mother. Peeta had saved her life and she always feels like she owes him for this. Peeta is never able to understand this because he himself is not a killer. In Ender’s Game, Ender, even from a young age, has the innate killer instincts. In each of
Katniss volunteering for the hunger games to take her sister prim's place because prim is just a child in katniss’s eyes. The hunger game arena could Be identified with a maze. Peeta the other tribute for District 12 had fallen in love with Katniss before the reaping. Because of her uniqueness the crowd
This part of the journey begins when Rue dies. Katniss tried to save her and failed. She shares her struggle when she shares, "Rue's death has forced me to confront my own fury against the cruelty, the injustice they inflict upon us. But here, even more strongly than at home, I feel my impotence. “There's no way to take revenge on the Capitol. Is there?” (Collins 1364). This part of the journey continues when she finds Peeta inured. Katniss constantly risks her life to get resources to help bring Peeta back to health. Katniss is willing to go through all of this trouble because Peeta is her friend and she knows that his survival is crucial to her winning the games, and returning to her district. Protecting
Katniss didn't worry about Prim being chosen because her name was only on one piece of paper out of thousands of others. At the beginning of the reaping Effie Trinket said “Happy Hunger Games!. May the odds ever be in your favor” (19) sadly the odds were not in the favor of Katniss’ family. When Prim was chosen Katniss didn't know what to do.
Amusing, violent revenge for a past rebellion against the Capitol, the games were created and televised the broadcast through Panem. The 24 participants are sent into an arena and are forced to purge the other Tributes while it’s mandatory for the citizens of Panem to watch. When Prim, Katniss' young sister, is chosen as District 12's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her sister's place. She and her male colleague, Peeta, are put against bigger, stronger tributes, some of which have trained to fight for the games their whole lives.
Katniss volunteered because her sister’s name was randomly chosen on the day of the reaping, the day each year when one known as a tribute is chosen for the Hunger Games. Prim was the minimum age of 12 when she was picked. The author, Suzanna Collins, states “… in District 12 … the word tribute is pretty much synonymous in the word corpse” (Collins 22). Katniss wanted to spare her sister’s life. “Prim … is the only person in the world I’m certain I love” (Collins 10). In the end Katniss not only survives the Hunger Games, but helps her teammate, Peeta Mellark, survive as well. Katniss was motivated to survive because she wanted to get home. “The train begins moving and we’re plunged into night until we clear the tunnel and I take my first free breath since the reaping … I begin to think of home. Of Prim and my mother … I begin transforming back into myself. Katniss Everdeen” (Collins
Now that The Belly of the Whale has been addressed, the next stage of “The Hero’s Journey” starts with the first of six subcategories being out of order. This initial subcategory is The Road of Trials, which occurs prior to Katniss’s Crossing of the First Threshold. Often the Road of Trials features sets of threes and some sort of failure. Katniss’s Road of Trials is formed of three parts, and all three of those feature a small amount of failure by Katniss. Part one is when Katniss first rides out on a chariot with Peeta during a parade in the Capitol in preparation for the games. She is initially reluctant to hold Peeta’s hand, failing at her task to appease the crowd, but she eventually does take his hand and does so proudly. Next, Katniss has to do a performance, all by herself, before gamemakers and sponsors to prove her ability and get a good rating on her skills. She tries shooting the bow, missing her first shot and getting a bulls eye the second shot. At that point, she had lost the audience’s attention. To regain their attention, through her fury at their inattention to her, she shoots an apple in a roasted pig’s mouth...a pig prepared for and seated among her audience. She promptly walks out, and later finds out she gets a score of 11 out of 12. Her final trial is her interview with Caesar Flickerman, the main face of Hunger Games television
Katniss and her fellow member of District 12, Peeta, make it to the final two tributes remaining. They are encouraged to kill each other, but refuse to do so out of love. Katniss and Peeta agreed to commit suicide together to disobey the rules of the Capitol. This is the nadir, or low point, of Katniss Everdeen. She has been left no option but to kill herself along with her partner. This is where her powerful resurrection takes place. Just before ending their lives, they are stopped by one of the creators of the Hunger Games arena. It is then announced that under the circumstances, they would allow both Peeta and Katniss to be victors of the Hunger Games. This gives a very large sense of relief, and both Peeta and Katniss emerge
As Katniss takes her the place of her sister, I question the fact if that was her fate or freewill. Katniss’s willingness to substitute herself for Prim as an example of one precious thing that they believe is entirely immune from the tyranny of fate: our moral character, as reflected in the moral quality of our actions. Morality, they argue, is a factor of our existence in which how we fare depends entirely on our own choices and not at all on those unpredictable forces beyond our control that we call fate. Fate could prevent Katniss’s action from achieving its intended purpose of keeping her sister alive, but nothing can ever rob her deed of its moral value. According to the philosopher I...
In a not-too-distant, some 74 years, into the future the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 13 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games; these children are referred to as tributes (Collins, 2008). The Games are meant to be viewed as entertainment, but every citizen knows their purpose, as brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts. The televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eradicate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. The main character throughout the series is a 16-year-old girl from District 12 named Katniss Everdeen.
The Hunger Games do not provide a realistic glimpse into the lives of the tributes. The Capitol takes great pride with appearances and fashion, and this is reflected through the tributes. Every year the tributes are groomed and pampered by the Capitol’s chosen stylists for the Games in order for the tributes to be admired by the people of Panem before entering the arena. Katniss acknowledges this when she says, “What do these people do all day, these people in the Capitol, besides decorating their bodies and waiting around for a new shipment of tributes to row in and die for entertainment” (Collins, Hunger 65). The Games show a glamorized type of reality in order to entertain Panem. The tributes cannot win on strength and brutality alone; they must win the hearts of sponsors and citizens of the Capitol. The tributes transform in to celebrities to win the hearts of citizens before being killed on live television. Mary Matos in her article “Media in the Hunger Games”, she states that throughout the Hunger Games trilogy Katniss alternates between that awareness, understanding, and manipulation of the media (Matos 4). While Katniss is alternating between all of these she will never out of the media itself. Being a tribute she will always be juggling herself between these three
...nt, Katniss decides not to play by the rules anymore and she splits a handful of poison berries with Peeta. She decides that she is not going to let the “Gods” manipulate the game anymore. Right before they eat the berries the leader’s voice comes overhead and tells them that they have both one. The reason he decides to do this is because the crowd would be incredibly disappointed if the “show” ended this way. This is Katniss’ true show of courage, to defy the leaders/Gods and make her own ending. It can be said that this was Katniss’ destiny or fate: that she was meant to win the Hunger Games.
The movie The Hunger Games, originally based on a book by Suzanne Collins, is about a place called Panem, which is ruled by the Capitol and has 12 districts within it. These 12 districts are separated founded on their economic statuses, meaning the higher the district, the more impoverished the residents are. There are 2 tributes that are chosen to participate, forcibly, in The Hunger Games each year. Each competitor is instructed to eliminate one another in order to survive and come out on top. There is only one tribute allowed to come out of the arena alive. Katniss lives in District 12, which is the most impoverished district of them all, and she volunteers as tribute in “the Reaping” when her sister is chosen to participate. She and the other tribute from her district, Peeta, make it into the arena with the hopes that one of them comes out the winner and above all else, alive (Ross, 2012). I will refrain from going any further just in case you have not read the book or have not seen the movie. In terms of soci...
“Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor” (Collins 19). Those were some of the last words Katniss heard before her sister’s name was called out for the seventy-fourth Hunger Games. Without thinking about anyone else, Katniss bravely accepted her sister’s spot in the games, a basic suicide mission. Katniss Everdeen had a vibrant personality, she was bold, intelligent, and a loving person. Her country, Panem, was controlled by President Snow, who let his country suffer in poverty. The capital was harsh and forces every district to send one boy and one girl to take part in the yearly Hunger Games. While a Disney Princess would yell for her
Ever since her act of defiance in her first games, the leaders in The Capitol have been outraged with her. She made the conscious decision to disobey the rules. Her and Peeta would have rather killed themselves than be forced to kill one another like the game’s rules were set up, so the head game maker let them both live. The Capitol, and many people in the districts saw this act as defiance, which no one in Panem is allowed to do. But for Katniss, it was the most moral action in a world where morality is questionable. If she decides to play the game how she is supposed to, then she knows she has to die in the arena. At first, Katniss accepts this fate, as long as Peeta is the one to survive. She also knows that if she does not follow through with this plan, her family, friends, and everyone she cares about could potentially be murdered as a result of her actions. If she decides to play the game how it is supposed to go, Katniss can make The Capitol happy and end any potential threats that can lead to an uprising. She knows that his option is probably her best choice because she can protect the ones she loves. She would rather sacrifice herself for the lives of many other people than save herself. In this option, Katniss is choosing the most Utilitarian action to take. With her death, she thinks that peace will be the outcome, and