Analysis Of Female Initiation In The Hunger Games Trilogy

Suzanne Collins,one of Time magazine's most influential people in 2010,is the writer of The Hunger Games trilogy:The Hunger Games,Catching Fire and Mockingjay,which earn much academic attentions.The writer depicts the initiation of the female protagonist Katniss Everdeen in this science fiction.She endows the novel with profound connotations by describing a female instead of a male who was a leading character of the science fiction frequently,combining social and political critiques with the initiation of the protagonist.In order to probe into the female initiation in this science fiction,the thesis analyzes three phases of Katniss growing journey,her different recognition toward family and society,individual and collective,emotion and career in different phases and the influential factors that cause her initiation.This thesis is consisted of five chapters.The first chapter is the introduction in which the author and her work,research at home and abroad and the Initiation Story are briefly introduced.Three phases of Katniss growth are analyzed respectively in Chapter Two to Four which are the body chapters of the thesis.The first stage—forbearance and abnegation,discussed in Chapter Two,is the stage when the protagonist Katniss performs her restraint towards her mother's nonfeasance after her father's death,her obedience under the oppression and exploitation of the government.The second stage—resistance and ambivalence with compromise is examined in Chapter Three.After engaging in the Hunger Games,experiencing the death of her new ally,the protagonist Katniss realizes the mercilessness and ruthlessness of the government gradually,and she begins to resist.She displays her defiance against the government by changing the rules of the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games successfully.The resistance,accompanied with compromise,is not absolute because she who is threatened by the president of the government has not recognized the essence of the oppression.The protagonist Katniss fulfills her substantive initiation in the third stage—awakening and initiation which is explored in Chapter Four.After cooperating with the rebellions,suffering the death of many innocent people,she perceives that the leader of the rebellions will be another dictator,so that she makes an accurate decision at the crucial point.It indicates the awakening and initiation of Katniss and the female's pursuit for comfortable and happy life.Chapter Five is the conclusion.It concludes the characteristic of the initiation of the protagonist:shifting of gender from male to female in the science fiction,combining the initiation with the social and political critiques.Meanwhile,the significance of the initiation is discussed as well.