Katniss Everdeen, and Character Strength from Unexpected Sources

[puella_nerdii]

The promised essay for womenlovefest. Some of this is taken from comments I made at Mark Reads; a lot of it is new. HUGE GIANT SPOILERS for Mockingjay, so be warned.

Katniss Everdeen, and Character Strength from Unexpected Sources
by PuelKatniss Everdeen is not the easiest character to like. She's distrustful, judgmental, and prickly; she reacts to kindness

Comments

[carcharias1130]

1) I loved all of this, and will be reccing it to all my friends I know who have read the books.

2) One point you made that really hit me, and I've always thought it but never put it into words: the idea that a revolution story should ultimately be about rebuilding. That the rebuilding part, the picking yourself up off the ground after being driven to your knees days on end, the dragging your ass out of bed every morning after, the supreme effort that goes into making things work after your reality has been torn asunder, that is the real contest, the ultimate testament to human will. And that's what Mockingbird is about. Politics is not a part of it, has no place here (which is what I saw symbolized in her murder of Coin) in this new life Katniss has to build for herself and with Peeta.

You hear all these news reports about how rebuilding in Afghanistan or Iraq is a failure, or how much we're fucking it up, and the news anchors and analysts just whine and simper in their combovers and eyeliner and make pointed jabs at political officials to get ratings, and Joe and Jane Smith sit and drink beer and complain about how those bums over there are stealing their country's money because they can't get off their lazy butts and fix their country, and no one stops to think about just how shit hard it is to rebuild from a pile of brick dust.

I think Collins hits right there, she sees the immense struggle that comes after a revolution or war and shows it to us through the mind of an incredibly strong teenage girl. Not strong physically, (though she damn well is), but strong in will. Katniss has more sheer human will in her than most if not all of the characters in THG. (I'd be interested to see a similar essay on Peeta; he is the harder character for me to figure, if only because we aren't granted access to his mind).

I never saw THG as a revolution-revenge on "The Man" story. I saw from the beginning the theme of rebuilding; while the 12th was the victim of horrible abuse, Collins played it from the start less as revenge for their suffering and more as "see? See how hard this will be to rebuild? But that hope, that hope for rebuilding is there." You can see Collins laying the groundwork in The Hunger Games, and while I was certainly rooting for Katniss to take the system down, I was also fascinated at how Collins' slow build to this heavy, thick idea of will.

tl;dr: Job well done. I also have many feelings on revolution-revenge stories. :)

[puella_nerdii]

♥

The hardest part of any war is the rebuilding, I think; I wouldn't call destruction easy, because obviously it's painful for anyone caught up in its wake, but getting caught up in a seemingly neverending cycle of retaliation is a trap a lot of people fall into. And I like that Katniss, over the course of the books, sees that trap for what it is, and opts out of it. THG is definitely a revolution story, and Katniss's anger and defiance are an important part of that, but you're right, it's ultimately not about revenge.

I have all the feelings, too. Honestly, writing this essay made me realize just how much THG caters to the narrative devices and elements I love.