Gender Role In The Hunger Games

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The Face of a Girl but The Role of a Man “I could be shot on a daily basis for hunting, but the appetites of those in charge protect me” (Collins 17). Katniss, a strong and independent character, is the protagonist in the novel The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. She volunteers for her sister, Prim, when she is chosen to participate in the annual fight in a televised death match with other different districts. Coming from District Twelve, she is as a poor and helpless girl like the rest of her district. In the games Katniss struggles to find a way to not kill Peeta, but also make the Capitol look weak by having two winners from the same district. Although Katniss has physical norms of a female, she refuses to obey the traditional gender roles by taking both …show more content…

Peeta’s kindness probably saved the lives of Katniss and her family from starvation. Katniss described as an independent character that takes care of herself and her family, now depended on Peeta for survival. She explains the feeling towards Peeta’s actions as, “I feel like I owe him something, and I hate owing people. Maybe if I had thanked him at some point, I’d be feeling less conflicted now” (Collins 32). Katniss is grateful for Peeta’s kindness and generosity, which makes her feel an uncomfortable sense of obligation to him because when people start acting nice to her, she feels like she needs to give them something in return. Frank Flynn, a researcher from Stanford University, “suggests that immediately after one person performs a favor for another, the recipient of the favor places more value on the favor than does the favor-doer” (Goldstein). Katniss placed a great value towards Peeta’s favor because she is used to hunting and feeding her family by herself. A traditional female role is to depend on a male for survival, but in Katniss situation she does not want to feel the need to depend on a

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