This is my essay
Leah Fraser
English 422
March 30, 2014
Favorite Essay
Working Title The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is arguably one of the most universally popular young adult science fiction novels of the decade. It is read by people of all ages and has been translated into twenty-six languages. It is easy to write off The Hunger Games as merely another trend in young adult fiction, but it is much more significant than that. There are many ways to interpret the novel, but one aspect of it that is impossible to ignore is its feminism. This is so significant because science fiction has been considered an inherently “masculinist” genre for so long. The main character in the novel, Katniss Everdeen, is not the type of character typically seen in popular science fiction, starting with the fact that she is a woman. In the paper, I am going to analyze The Hunger Games and its main character Katniss Everdeen in terms of the critical paradigm of feminism, and prove that the novel fits neatly into pseudo-genre of feminist science fiction. One of the most important feminist aspects to looks at in The Hunger Games is its main character Katniss. Katniss defies the archetype of the typical subject of human nature laid out in the chapter “Feminist theory and science fiction” in the Cambridge companion (Hollinger, 125). Although she is white (though she is described as having olive skin, which is ambiguous), she is neither male nor middle class. In fact, she is the direct opposite of these two things. Katniss is a woman from the poorest district that exists in her country, District Twelve. Additionally, she is not only the main character in the novel, but becomes a key figure in her society, and a leader to men and women alike. She is ascribed characteristics typically reserved for men. She has been a hunter (rather than a gatherer of the hunter/gatherer tradition) since age eleven in order to keep her family alive, she’s tough and unconcerned with being outwardly emotional, and
English 422
March 30, 2014
Favorite Essay
Working Title The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is arguably one of the most universally popular young adult science fiction novels of the decade. It is read by people of all ages and has been translated into twenty-six languages. It is easy to write off The Hunger Games as merely another trend in young adult fiction, but it is much more significant than that. There are many ways to interpret the novel, but one aspect of it that is impossible to ignore is its feminism. This is so significant because science fiction has been considered an inherently “masculinist” genre for so long. The main character in the novel, Katniss Everdeen, is not the type of character typically seen in popular science fiction, starting with the fact that she is a woman. In the paper, I am going to analyze The Hunger Games and its main character Katniss Everdeen in terms of the critical paradigm of feminism, and prove that the novel fits neatly into pseudo-genre of feminist science fiction. One of the most important feminist aspects to looks at in The Hunger Games is its main character Katniss. Katniss defies the archetype of the typical subject of human nature laid out in the chapter “Feminist theory and science fiction” in the Cambridge companion (Hollinger, 125). Although she is white (though she is described as having olive skin, which is ambiguous), she is neither male nor middle class. In fact, she is the direct opposite of these two things. Katniss is a woman from the poorest district that exists in her country, District Twelve. Additionally, she is not only the main character in the novel, but becomes a key figure in her society, and a leader to men and women alike. She is ascribed characteristics typically reserved for men. She has been a hunter (rather than a gatherer of the hunter/gatherer tradition) since age eleven in order to keep her family alive, she’s tough and unconcerned with being outwardly emotional, and