The Hunger Games Hero's Journey

Every story based on a Hero must go through a series of steps known as The Hero’s Journey. The Hero’s Journey has three main parts which are; Departure, Initiation, and Return. The Hunger Games written by Suzanne Collins is one of the many stories that follow this process. In this novel, Katniss Everdeen the story’s hero goes through the steps in a unique way, having to fight, kill and be hunted by kids of her own age and to fight to the death. In The Hunger Games Katniss goes through the Departure stage just as every other Hero does, but Katniss knows that the chance of Call to Adventure is coming but when The Capitol comes to her district to choose the annual two tributes, her little sister Primrose is chosen. Katniss then offers herself to be tribute instead of Primrose. The Refusal of the Call comes when Katniss is frightened and unsteady about what is happening and the thought of having to go out and fight to the death with random kids Katniss would like to refuse this task but she is forced to by The Capitol. Katniss’ Supernatural Aid is not magical but is there with her throughout the whole experience and is her mentor who previously won a Hunger Game. The Crossing of the First Threshold stage is
shown when Katniss is in the training arena and shows her skills of archery with the bow and arrow to the judges. When Katniss shoots her arrow towards all the judges and hits an apple is where The Belly of the Whale step happens because it is her lowest point and willingness just to prove to the judges that she is a very accurate shooter.
The Initiation stage of The Hero’s Journey begins with The Road of Trials happen when Katniss must leave behind all the supplies of weapons because she was instructed to by her mentor, when the forest is set on fire and fireballs sail through the air to hit her and when the group of tributes finds Katniss are waiting for her at the bottom of the tree, where Katniss has to drop the hive of tracker jackers which are very poisonous wasps, onto the group of tributes. The Meeting with the Goddess happens when Katniss and Peeta realize that they are in love with each other, Katniss takes care of Peeta and kisses him. The Woman as temptress stage is brought also by Peeta by distracting Katniss and making her leave and stray from her quest to take care of Peeta. The Atonement with Father step is when the couple kill Cato and then have the task to kill one or the other, but this is where the Apotheosis step comes in and Katniss and Peeta both are about to eat the poisonous berries to kill one another because they are star-crossed lovers. When the capitol announces that there can be two winners from the same District the couple achieves their goal and go through The Ultimate Boon step and last step of the Initiation stage.
The Magic Flight is when Katniss and Peeta escape with the win of both of them keeping their lives.
This is dangerous because The Capitol believes that they were defying them. For the Rescue from Without step the couple has their mentor and stylists, family and district to help bring them back to everyday life. In The Crossing of the Return Threshold this happens during Katniss and Peeta’s last interview. The two are now the Masters of the Two Worlds because they have a hero like quality to them to all the districts because they were the first two to ever make it out of the Hunger Games together. The Freedom to Live step happens to every hero at the end of the story so for now Katniss is free to live life without fear of The Capitol until the next Hunger
Games.
From the Departure phase to the Initiation phase to the Return phase the Hero always transforms from a normal person into a god like hero. The Hero’s Journey takes place throughout every Hero story and The Hunger Games was only one out of the millions of stories that go through the three phases of Departure, Initiation and Separation. Katniss went through her journey and defeated the rules of The Capitol.