Hunger or satisfaction?

Considering this blog was originally supposed to be dedicated to publishing, I thought it was about time I actually started talking about it in a way. Considering my job is off limits, perhaps the best way to do this should be through the review of books that I have read recently.

Yes, I know many people are doing something similar so I'm not going to be doing actual reviews per say. After all, there's only so many times you can listen to people picking apart the same things over and over again. Instead, I'm going to do something a little bit more in depth if I can and write about something that struck me because of one thing or another.

So, how is this going to work?

I will take a book (or series) and give you my own opinions regarding it. Simple enough? Yes, but I will be assuming that other people have read whatever I'm talking about and while I will try to keep things as spoiler-free as possible, I will issue warnings when this is about to take place.

And what better place to start than with the Hunger Games trilogy?

I'm a bit late to the party with these but with one thing or another, I didn't get the opportunity to read them until this summer. And I will admit, I read these AFTER watching the film so my opinion may be a bit skewed in contrast to most people's.

I assume most people know the story so I will keep this section brief. Katniss Everdeen lives in Panem, a futuristic world (possibly America) that has been ravaged by war and has been divided into 12 districts. Every year, two children between the ages of 12-18 are chosen at random from each district to be Tributes for the Hunger Games, a brutal reality show that has the participants fighting to the death until only one remains. When Katniss' sister is chosen, Katniss volunteers to take her place and must survive the Hunger Games and the anger of the Capitol.

Just a warning, some spoilers may exist for a while. If you want to avoid them, skip to the section after the picture of the note.

ABANDON BLOG!!!

The character of Katniss rather impressed me in a number of ways. One, she is a survivor, feeding her family and generally making sure that the people she cares about are looked after, following the trend of a lot of Young Adult books (growing up too soon, the ineffective parent etc). But it's not just that she is a physical survivor that struck me, it was her mental capabilities as well.

In most books, the protagonist is pulled into a battle or a cause and fights for it because they believe in it. They were not looking for the cause, but now it is there, and they are going to make things right. But Katniss REALLY is not looking for a cause. She does not want The Cause. The Cause can find someone else because all she wants is to see tomorrow and make sure the people she loves survive. And that makes her appear cold and uncaring. But I can see where she's coming from. You never know what the Capitol may make you do next so you have to guard your heart in case something happens to someone you care about. So she makes that circle as small as she can.

The issue that most people seem to have with her lies in her effectiveness with The Cause of the book...or rather her ineffectiveness.

In the climatic moment of The Hunger Games, Katniss manages to defeat the Capitol by making sure that she and Peeta both survive, instead of just one of them. She has let Peeta into her circle and she doesn't want to let him go, but her action causes ripples and the world becomes just a little more unstable because of this. She doesn't realise the full implications until someone explains it to her and even then, she doesn't know just how deep this goes until it is too late and she is in the middle of it.

For several people I've spoken to about the book, their problem is that Katniss goes from being this kick-ass survivor to a political puppet that doesn't really do anything except gripe, moan and have emotional breakdowns.

But like I've said before, Katniss was a survivor because she had to be. She had time to learn how to survive and to understand how the world worked. What she could get away with and what she couldn't. In the space of two books (about a year or two), what she knows changes drastically. People she trusts turn out to have ulterior motives, others assume she knows more than she does and her own motivations are questioned. She doesn't have time to breathe or understand this new world. She's just pushed into it. She has to be one thing or another to protect the people she cares about and honestly? She is rarely given a moment to just 'be'.

As for the people she's around, her perceptions are screwed with over and over again. People she trusts become people she has to be cautious around and vice versa. Take Gale. Her best friend in the whole world and one constant in a world of uncertainty. She has to deny that relationship to protect him but eventually, that constant becomes something she doesn't like and cannot deal with. And Peeta? Her rival in the Games to her rock during the aftermath, he is eventually taken from her and altered, leaving her floundering and trying to cope in a situation without someone that she can really trust or even trusts her to the extent she requires. She is being pushed, prodded, manipulated and shaped into a figurehead. A lovestruck teen, a beautiful rebel and an eloquent speaker. But she is none of those things. Her words are not her own. Her looks are not her own. Even her fighting abilities are not her own since her rebellion insist that she not be placed in any danger. Her very sense of self is being pushed aside and her identity is being taken away from her by people who want to use her for their own ends.

Can you honestly blame her for having several breakdowns when all of this is happening?

Even when she tries to take charge and be proactive, she isn't really allowed to. She's a figurehead, not a leader. It's not about what she does as it is about what she is supposed to represent. It doesn't matter that her actions were motivated by her own selfish desire to survive and not have to take out her friend. To everyone else, her actions were a rebellion against the system that was holding them back and gave them the courage to speak out and to stop accepting things as they were.

Let's look at another symbol of hope. Harry Potter is 'The Boy who Lived' who eventually was seen as the hope against darkness. The difference here is that his actions took place when he was a baby. It wasn't a conscious action on his part and people understood that. He was given support and opportunities to prove himself. He made proactive decisions because they were the right thing to do and he fought the darkness on his terms. When Katniss eventually does it? She loses some valuable people and nothing much comes from it. Seriously, things blow up before she can really do anything. The one proactive thing she does is ensure that the circle of dictatorship doesn't continue.

I think that is why so many people have a problem with her. Because she started as a girl and then became a symbol. A symbol she did not mean to become or was really given an opportunity to understand. Harry had about seven years to get his head around what he was and to choose to take a particular path, even when people he trusted were manipulating him to a certain extent. But where Dumbledore tried to find another way and struggled to accept what Harry would have to do, the people around Katniss are manipulating her actions based on the greater good at the expense of her own welfare.So much of what happens to her, happens in spite of her. She is defined by one moment, not a series of incidences, and unlike Harry, she is very aware that she doesn't want to be there and that someone else would be much better suited for the role.

But more importantly, the trilogy is about her. The Harry Potter series was about Harry finding his place in the wider social context because it kept finding him and drawing him into it, helping him to grow from a symbol to a leader. The Hunger Games is not about the Capitol, or the rebellion or even the Games. It's about Katniss and how she copes. It's about how she is being broken by the rebellion the same way that Peeta is broken by the Capitol. The only difference is that the Capitol used more obvious methods to get what they wanted. Yes there is a wider context but that is all background information rather than a central theme and that is an important distinction to make.  Unless you understand that, you are going to be disappointed.

It's safe now

On the spoiler-free side of things, I think the trilogy is something you should check out if you haven't already. I know many consider the last book to be the poorest of the trilogy but think of it as a study of psychology rather than judging the characters based on what you see. It's a fascinating exploration of the human mind and a sobering look at our current culture.