Katniss : A Success among other Failures
Fire is catching! And if we burn, you burn with us!
Katniss Everdeen is not just a YA protagonist. She's a symbol of hope, strength and survival. Because of this, she was made into a symbol of rebellion by the people in Panem. But for the readers, she isn't just a 'hero', she's a girl who, against her own wishes, fought for love.
So today, let's dig into the iconic character that Katniss is. Let's explore her strengths, weaknesses, flaws and fate.
First and foremost, what makes Katniss relatable and distinct is that her motivations are undoubtedly very humane. They encompass basic human needs like not wanting to die of starvation, making sure her loved ones do not perish to hunger or sickness, and taking charge and responsibility when life leaves her no other choice.
Her goals aren't larger-than-life. She doesn't want to be a hero. She doesn't want to become the rebellion's symbol. She doesn't want to prove her worth to anyone. All she wants is to stay alive. And that same need to survive drives her forward through every single challenge that she is forced to face, it gives her strength and builds her character.
Katniss feels personal and grounded for the same reason. She doesn't want to save the world or fulfill her destiny, she only wants to make sure that her family doesn't go to sleep at night hungry. A large chunk of the population in today's world still does not have adequate wealth to feed themselves twice a day. That is a very real-world problem. And even when all of the people reading this series might not face the same problem, but they must be aware of its existence.
That makes Katniss's struggle very realistic and important. She's just an impoverished girl trying to fight to stay alive.
Katniss's bond with Primrose is also a very big factor on why people like her. While she's distrustful, cold and menacing at times, she loves Prim with her whole heart, to the point where she willingly walks into the Hunger Games to prevent Prim from going there. This shows the duality of her nature, putting a spotlight on the fact that she still has love in her heart despite all the horrible experiences she has had.
The one thing that sets Katniss apart the most, though, are her flaws. She is a tough nut to crack. She's irritable, angry and spiteful, quite opposite to the usual welcoming, kind protagonists. Katniss is described to have 'the charm of a dead slug' by her own mentor, showing how her flaws have a high chance of taking her life away.
While most protagonist's flaws and imperfections are very surface-level, Katniss's run deep, being influenced by childhood trauma, starvation, loneliness and the demise of her father.
Many Protagonists have flaws like clumsiness, insecurity about their looks or wit, shyness etc, and while I agree that those are real issues affecting people, they do not seem to affect the hero's story and are only an extension of the character's inferiority complex, affecting the story in no way whatsoever. These flaws also do not affect the decisions made by the characters, showing them as having 'secret perfection'. That's why, they appear as fake-flaws.
Katniss however, is a different case. Her flaws of being cold, distrustful, impulsive, selfish and emotionally closed-off, actually affect her decisions and motivations throughout the story, causing her difficulties and problems in achieving her end goal. Her flaws aren't just a part of her own head, but they are real and visible to other characters, many not shying away from pointing them out. Katniss is not secretly perfect, she is full of imperfections. But that does not make her less of a hero, it makes her human.
Katniss is a character that has been formed from grit and sheer determination. She does not have any innate special characteristics that make her stronger and more powerful than other people. In fact, it's the complete opposite, with her being at a physical disadvantage from the other tributes in the games, having being starved and malnourished since her childhood.
Most other Protagonists are opposite in this case, meaning that even through adversaries, they are physically stronger than most others by some uncanny ability canon to their respective book, giving them an automatic upper hand in battles and conflicts. They are shown to be unique and powerful due to the same abilities, making their personalities not as important. Their abilities are the ones that make them special, not their own choices or decisions.
Many readers see themselves in Katniss, with her having to fight against odds and not giving up to get what she wanted. She was not physically superior in any way, the odds were not in her favour, she had a lot of fears and scars from her past, but she did not let those stop her. She kept fighting, she did not give up.
In a way, she gives us all hope. Hope that no matter the adversary, we have the ability to come out, no matter how many odds are stacked against us. Her journey is full of peril and sorrow, but it's a journey of survival. She has been through things unimaginable, but she has persevered. She isn't just hope, but also strength and motivation.
Continuing with hope, why don't we now talk about how big the representation of Katniss is in the story? The Mockingjay is not just a bird, it's a symbol of hope, rebellion and resistance. The residents of Panem see Katniss as a fire that doesn't hesitant to burn bright even in front of the oppressive Capitol. They saw that this girl is not going to be broken or killed - literally and figuratively - by the Capitol. She has the strength, the courage, the motivation, the ambition to go against this god-like, omnipresent force that is the Capitol and in a way, through her, they all thought that maybe, just maybe, they had a chance too.
The Capitol tries its best to make sure that there is no unity between the districts. They do not want the district citizens both inter and intra, to have a sense of brotherhood and family. But Katniss goes against this very notion, when she volunteered for the Hunger Games only for the sole purpose of saving her sister, thereby showing the country that she is different. In Panem, we have seen that even family members do not volunteer for the tribute, each one fearing for their own life. But Katniss acted selflessly, the only thing in her mind being the notion to keep her sister safe. She shed a new light on the existence of the citizens in Panem ,thereby showing that people like her still exist and all hope was not lost.
Sadly, many other Protagonists fail to be this symbolic and significant in their own story. That's why it is confusing when the other characters and general public in the story loves and respects the main character. Because to the reader, they haven't done anything deeply significant to charge the minds of people, it's plainly visible to the reader.
When Katniss broke down when Rue died, gave her something akin to a funeral, she gave birth to the spark that would ignite the fire of the second rebellion.
In the arena, where tributes are just busy defending themselves, not even stopping to mourn the death of their allies, Katniss let herself be consumed by grief, over losing a friend she had met only a few days ago, an ally she had for a very, very short time. That action of hers shows kindness, compassion and unrest for the oppression and exploitation that the cruel Capitol does upon them.
She wanted Rue to win, she and Rue were working together, and she had hope. But the hope was taken away from her when Rue was killed, ultimately drowning her in grief. Katniss saw her sister in Rue, she saw a young, innocent girl caught in the cruel trials of the Capitol. She saw a bird in Rue, a bird that was caged and bludgeoned when she was born to fly. Katniss wanted to free Rue, she wanted her to go home. She loved Rue, just the way she loved Prim.
Now that we're on about love, how can we not talk about Katniss's love triangle involving Peeta and Gale?
There are still many people who think that the Hunger Games series is all about the love triangle only, but they are very wrong. The love triangle plays a subtle yet significant part in the story, but it's not the main focus. The Hunger Games does not focus on the romance a lot, it is secondary.
Unlike many other books, the romance here isn't viewed as important as the political message and inhuman exploitation. In no way am I saying that romance is bad, but when a book is marketed as 'dystopian' but predominantly contains romance, it is disappointing and irritating.
Gale or Peeta aren't constantly on Katniss's mind for the sake of love. Sure, she thinks of them a lot, but not for the sake of romance, it involves mostly their survival and a lot of general care over brazen romantic thoughts and feelings.
Of course, the triangle adds depth and tension, but does not overpower the stakes, does not take the main spotlight of the story that focuses on unrest and rebellion. For the same reason, the romance feels natural, not something tried to put in the books for special purpose or to highlight the fact that these three characters are romantically involved.
Gale Hawthorne represents familiarity for Katniss. He even represents home, since she and he aren't very different, and she sees a part of herself in him. She recognises him as her equal, and learns how to trust him, slowly but surely. Gale can arguably be called her first true friend, someone she knew she could completely rely on, someone she trusted with the safety of her family.
This information is vice-versa, since Gale trusts Katniss completely too. In fact, they had a pact that if one of them gets reaped, the other would look out for their family.
So where does Gale go wrong?
In my opinion, Gale isn't wrong for Katniss right from the beginning. Of course, he is responsible for the death of Primrose, which gave Katniss an outright reason to hate him. But he wasn't dislikeable from the beginning.
Gale embodies anger. Having lived in extreme poverty and having dealt with near starvation, Gale has an obvious hate for the Capitol, the Games and their system. He's very open about how inhuman it is, and has the thoughts of rebellion festered deep inside him. He has innate rage for the Capitol, the urge to strike back, the unrest for the injustice that they are subjected to.
Katniss more or less, feels the same way. She feels that anger, that rage, that unrest and even when she's not vocal about it, she does understand the unfairness of their situation and wants to make it better.
For the same reason listed above, Gale represents violence in its true form. His form of rebellion is extremely violent and destructive. He believes in 'an eye for an eye' and thinks that the Capitol needs to be given a taste of their own cruelty. He believes in fighting fire with fire, leading him to help in creating weapons that would eventually take Primrose's life.
Gale is a living example of the fact that rebellion is as harmful as oppression if it isn't kept in check. His thirst for vengeance and uncontrollable rage led him to commit crimes that his oldest, closest friend would end up resenting him for.
Peeta, on the other hand, has had a significantly different life from Katniss and Gale. Born in the Merchant Section of the district, he has been fairly well-to-do since birth, though not drowning in luxury. He has never had to worry about starvation, or taking tesserae for the same. Because of this, he does not have as much anger in his heart as Katniss or Gale do, and something noteworthy to point out here is that Peeta is an inherently calm and gentle person.
For Katniss, Peeta represents rebirth. Renewal of hope. Even the idea that Katniss should start hunting for her family's survival was given to her indirectly by Peeta. When Katniss was almost about to die of starvation, Peeta was her last hope. Peeta had saved her life far before the events of the 74th Hunger Games.
He also embodies kindness and compassion. While Katniss was used to people being selfish and putting a price on everything, Peeta shed a new light on how life can be. He was physically abused by his mother only because he burned a few loaves of bread to give to Katniss. He knew it was coming, but he did it anyways only because he wanted to not let an innocent person die.
Peeta is also shown to want to hold on to his originality. He does not wish to change for the Capitol, in one way or another. While Gale lets himself be consumed by hatred and fury, to the point where Katniss doesn't even recognise him anymore, Peeta strives to remain himself. Even after being hijacked and tortured by the Capitol, Peeta fights to hold on to his humanity, to not lose his soul to anyone, let alone the oppressive Capitol.
He is a sign of quiet, unmoving strength. Not the one that fiercely attacks like wildfire, but the one that stays rooted in the ground despite hurricanes trying to move it. He is adamant to be himself, be the kind, compassionate, empathetic, beautiful boy, a unique individual who isn't a product of foolish love or extreme hate for the Capitol.
With Gale, Katniss would never heal. He reflects her own anger, resentment and violence. He reflects all those qualities in her that she knows are dangerous to herself as well as the people around her. She herself has seen how uncontrollable Gale can get, the extreme methods he will go to, to get what he wants. She sees that as a mirror to the behaviour of the Capitol citizens, people who she severely despises.
Gale even stopped trying to understand Katniss on a deeper level, trying to uncover and dissect her trauma, trying to know what she has truly been through. He has passively hurt her even before he was responsible for Primrose's death. Katniss did not need harshness, she needed compassion and gentleness, which Gale was unable to provie. He distanced himself from her automatically when vengeance became more important to him than virtue.
Peeta, on the other hand, makes her realise that isn't a creature of hate, that she doesn't need to be one. He brings out all of the positive, good characteristics of her, reminding her of the love she feels for her family, of the humanity that still runs in her veins. He helps her understand that rebellions aren't made for acting out of anger, but to make justice prevail and to stop the inhuman oppression and injustice.
Peeta reminds her that life can exist without just the purpose of survival, that love can exist without violence. That love can be selfless, and some people are just here to be friends. He reminds her that she is worthy of love, she isn't a lost cause. She isn't a monster, but a beautiful human being with her own set of unique virtues. Peeta loves her selflessly, kindly and gently, understanding what she needs and actually giving it to her. He gives her love, support and understands that she isn't just a figment of his imagination, but a real person with her own thoughts and feelings.
Peeta's role in the rebellion is also crucial, since he knows that their purpose of the rebellion is not to destroy the Capitol, but to make sure that it and the districts are on the same level in terms of humanity and justice. He doesn't let fear and anger consume him, keeping a clear head and a good heart. That is the driving force behind his actions, making him a strong warrior, but above that, a good man.
In comparison to this, the romances of the protagonists in most books do not carry this much depth, falling flat and seeming unnecessary. Suzanne Collins has taken great care to show that the love-triangle in her books is not just shown for the purpose of fun or only because you need one, but it lays the very foundation of Katniss's character development, showcasing her internal conflict and showing the audience who she is as a person.
Phew, this was a long one.
Thank you so much for staying to read, I cannot be more grateful. Kudos!
(images aren't mine, they belong to respective owners)
