Birdyline Book Blog

The Hunger Games is one of the most famous dystopian books with a huge fanbase and hugely successful movie adaptations. I can sit here today and tell you that I am a hunger games fan myself. As of a month ago however, I would have said much the opposite. Past Linnie would have been like, “yeah yeah the government makes kids fight to the death soooo realistic… but then there’s a love triangle of course. How original.” Present Linnie is ashamed of my judgment. I have many reasons for this, one being the impact of the messaging coming from the games, whereas many newer dystopian novels have these obstacles for no reason and don’t have some social commentary at all.

I hate you Divergent.

When the Hunger Games came out everyone was ready for the revival of the dystopian genre, but they weren’t ready for the social commentary or the realistic viewpoint the dystopia represented. I partially blame the movie, specifically the way it was advertised. While The Hunger Games is something that pretty much every person in the USA has heard of, the general information they know about the book misrepresents it. The reason I myself was so unwilling to read the book was because half of the publicity I saw regarding the series was about the love triangle and that was it. In truth, there’s so much more in the book than that.

I just finally read the hunger games… so here is the factor that sells this series for me- the lack of individualism. 

Books nowadays, especially (but not always) books written in the US, have a very common trope of individualism. It’s a “chosen one” mentality, possibly stemming from the idea of the American Dream and the idea that anyone can be someone if they work hard and they don’t need anyone else. Take popular serieses such as Harry Potter or Keeper of the Lost Cities where the main character has extra special abilities and a unique worldview and that makes them the only person that can “fix” what’s going on. In J.K Rowling’s series Harry is even blatantly referred to as the Chosen One. Another example I want to point out is the plot of Encanto. You wouldn’t think it at first– but Mirabel’s lack of power is what makes her special, and because of her unique perspective caused by this difference she is the only one able to solve the problem- as prophesied. Lastly, take Divergent- the bane of the genre’s existence. The main character in that series is special and different because not only does she fit in two places representing two different skills/emotions/values– she also ends up choosing the edgy mysterious one that shows just how strange and unique she is in her society.

Ew. I hate Divergent.

It’s almost a given that dystopian or fantasy novels are going to have at least a slight Chosen One trope. The main character has something different about them, and that way they’re the one person who can do whatever they do. This is NOT always a bad thing but when I read The Hunger Games I was surprised when I didn’t really find it.

In the books Katniss is never “different” than anyone else. Her unique abilities compared to the other tributes come from where she was raised. Considering the thriving black market in district twelve, we can assume there are people other than Gale or Katniss that hunt.

Other tributes in the games also have different types and levels of ability impacted by where they grew up. There are the Career tributes who clearly have an advantage over her, but there are also two young children like Rue and another young boy from district 4 who barely have a chance from the get go. Katniss isn’t particularly remarkable on one side of the line or the other. Most of the other tributes have mixed odds too.

Katniss never reveals some hidden power that the others (or even herself) didn’t know about. The tributes that Katniss ends up killing (spoilers) are not done because Katniss has some remarkable ability. She climbs up a tree, an understandable talent given that she is in the woods frequently. She cuts down a tracker jacker hive that ends up killing Glimmer. This wasn’t her original idea, and was something anyone else could do. Marvel is killed in a desperate spur of the moment decision as he attacks Rue, who she’s grown to see as another little sister of sorts. When it gets down to the final three, she doesn’t kill Cato directly. He is attacked by mutts and the book says that Katniss shot him to put him out of his misery.

Katniss is not a Chosen One. There are numerous people from her district that had similar skills or even better ones. Take Gale- had he been chosen in Peeta’s place ignoring the female tribute he would have done well and he could have filled the same role. He too comes from the same caretaker role in an impoverished family with a skill for hunting and presumably the ability to climb trees. 

People desperately want to assign the trope to the book which frustrates me! I saw a fan theory saying that Primrose was chosen on purpose to make Katniss volunteer, suggesting that the capital considered Katniss important in any way. No. The capital didn’t know Katniss existed and they did not care. Primrose’s slip had the same statistical likelihood of being drawn as any other slip of paper, though there were people with more papers. That was just the way it went.

The later books do not do as well at avoiding the trope, to be honest, but I will forgive it since the people of Panem chose Katniss as a symbol. In addition, it’s implied that Katniss loses much relevance after the war is over.

The best redeeming quality I found in the  sequels and the movies is that when Katniss wants to go off and kill Snow on her own she does not go. She does not separate from the “average joes” in her squad to go on the more dangerous, more special mission that she somehow pulls off. Instead, she stays with her group and ultimately the capture and later killing of Snow is done by others.

Some fatalities of the war are so close to her that people actually argue that it ruined the plot. Ah yes– what is the point if the main character suffers the loss of some things they were fighting for? The point is that The Hunger Games has an anti-war message and in war, there is no perfect “success.” At the very end, she leaves the capitol. She does not take on a leadership or even celebrity role. The ending may feel incomplete to people who are used to the “Chosen One” blueprint, but that makes me love it that much more.