Hero's journey in the hunger games

Sally Goodstudent

Professor

ENG

A Heroine’s Journey

When The Hunger Games novel was published in 2008, it was immediately a best-seller. The first in a trilogy, sales of the series would eventually surpass that of the Harry Potter book series (Gaudiosi). The novels are set in a dystopian future where the country, Panem, has been divided into 12 districts following a massive war. Eventually they were adapted into four movies: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay Part 1 and Mockingjay Part 2. The first movie opens to show that the protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, has adapted well to the post-apocalyptic world. She lives with her mother and younger sister, Primrose. Her father died years earlier in a mining accident. Though her family is poor, she has mastered the art of the bow and arrow and is able to hunt and catch food to sell or eat. Life is not wonderful, but it is the only life Katniss knows, and she seems to accept it. She has no idea that she is about to step onto a path that will take her on a journey to become a hero.

The Hero’s Journey is a formula developed by scholar Joseph Campbell to help us understand stories. The steps in his formula can be applied to Katniss’s life as her journey begins in the first film and Katniss’s transformation progresses through the sequels. This paper will only focus on the first film. Campbell noticed that often heroes have something Unusual about their Birth or Early Childhood that sets them apart from the rest of the people in their community. Katniss lives a hard life, but so does everyone else in her district. Her father died when she was young, but he died along with many other children’s fathers in a mining accident. This step does not really seem to be an important factor in Katniss’s journey. However, the second step, the Call to Adventure, is extremely significant to Katniss’s life.

As punishment for the citizen uprising against the Capitol, each district must sacrifice two children every year to compete in the Hunger Games. The children fight each other to the death until only one child remains and gets to return to his/her district. The children, called tributes, are chosen by a selection committee that comes to town for the selection ceremony. When Escort Effie Trinket arrives, she stands before a large bowl filled with the names of all of the eligible tributes from Katniss’s district. Since her sister, Primrose, is now 12, this is the first year that her name has been added to the bowl. Effie swirls her arm around in the bowl, chooses a card, and reads into the microphone “Primrose Everdeen!” Katniss is devasted to hear that her sister must participate in the Hunger Games. She immediately volunteers to take her sister’s place, and thus begins her Call to Adventure. Often times Campbell says that the hero resists the call, but Katniss doesn’t hesitate. She immediately crosses the Threshold, and gets on the train that will take her to the Capitol. She leaves behind the life she has always known and heads for the unknown challenges, uncertainty and danger that await her in the future.

On the train, Katniss is introduced to Haymitch, her Mentor. He is her district’s only past winner of the Hunger Games, and therefore is the only person who can teach Katniss what she needs to know in order to survive the Hunger Games. Haymitch is an alcoholic. He is gruff and dirty and uncouth. Katniss does not trust him and thinks that she does not need him. Katniss also must figure out how she feels about the other tribute from her district, Peeta. Once she reaches the Capitol, and she sees the grandiosity of the event before her, Katniss realizes that she must rely on Haymitch for the advice he has to offer. She wants to just focus on training and fighting the other tributes in the games. However, Haymitch reminds her that her survival is contingent upon how much the sponsors enjoy her performance. He reminds her to smile and put on a show for the Capitol citizens who are watching the Hunger Games. Katniss takes his advice and also meets other mentors, such as Cinna, her costumer designer, and the rest of his team. Katniss even realizes that Effie seems to be rooting for her and helping her, as well.

During training before the games, Katniss is thrown into a gym with the other tributes. Available in the gym are several weapons for the children to practice on. The tributes are also required to show sponsors, politicians and gamemakers how well they use their weapons. Katniss is already a bow and arrow expert, so she does not need to be given this weapon. It is hers for the taking. When she realizes the audience has not paid attention to her use of the bow and arrow, she shoots an arrow into the food they are eating up on the second balcony of the gym. Here she proves that this is her Special Weapon, another key step in Campbell’s formula.

After making it through live TV spots with the famous Caesar Flickerman who wants to tease her about her relationship with Peeta, Katniss is thrown into the dome where the Hunger Games are “played”. Here is where she will face her toughest Challenges and Trials, the key pieces to Campbell’s formula. All of the tributes are dropped into the middle of an open field. Centered in the field is a Cornucopia filled with weapons for the tributes to use. One of the first challenges Katniss faces is having to grab a quiver and bow out in the open and run to the safety of the forest before being killed. The gamemaker is tasked with creating drastic changes inside the dome, so in addition to possibly getting killed by the other tributes, Katniss could be killed by poison gas, falling bombs, rolling fires, sudden floods, and other surprises. At one point, Katniss has to get away from other tributes who are hunting her down. Many of them are Careers – children from other districts who have trained their entire lives as preparation for the Hunger Games. She climbs a tree and hides out there throughout the night. After killing a few of the other kids by dropping a tracker-jacker nest on them, Katniss herself gets bitten and has to run from more of the gamemaker’s tricks while hallucinating from the poison.

As Katniss continues for days in the Hunger Games, trying not to starve or die from the elements, she makes friends with some of the tributes. However, she has to deal with their deaths when they are killed. This is the beginning of the Abyss, Katniss’s darkest, most perilous part of the journey according to Campbell. When little Rue dies, Katniss is devasted. She feels so alone. Even towards the end, she and Peeta have decided to work together. But Peeta is hurt and can barely move. Katniss must take care of him and perform for the sponsors who are watching the games so they will send her the medicine he needs to survive. Despite her conflicted feelings, she kisses Peeta, knowing the audience will love the show. They send the medicine and Peeta gets better. They are able to move and make it back to the Cornucopia, where only one tribute remains, Cato, the one who killed Rue. Suddenly, all of the dead tributes return in the form of hybrid-mutts and try to kill the remaining tributes. Katniss throws Cato to the mutts, in part to save her and Peeta, but also as revenge for Rue’s death. However, Katniss feels no happiness at Cato’s death as she listens to him being ripped to shreds by the mutts. She further descends into her dark Abyss.

Now the only two tributes left are Peeta and Katniss. The gamemakers have played games with her, telling her that they have changed the rules to allow two winners to win the Hunger Games. That means she won’t have to kill Peeta. But then they make another announcement proclaiming that the rules have changed again, and only one can be the winner. Katniss must decide what to do. Her options include killing Peeta, killing herself, or killing them both. Katniss and Peeta make a pact to kill themselves by eating poisonous berries. Just as they are about to eat them, the gamemaker announces that the Hunger Games are over. Both Katniss and Peeta have won. Katniss has achieved her goal. She has reached what Campbell calls the point of Transformation, and she is now a true Hero. But her journey is not over yet.

The Capitol throws a large celebratory party and Katniss and Peeta are paraded around and interviewed more by Caesar Flickerman. Then they make the long journey home on the train in what Campbell called the Return Home. Peeta wonders if they can still be romantic, as they pretended to be during the games. Katniss now views the world differently. She has seen such horrors. She has been hunted like prey and she was forced to kill other children her own age. How will she go back to life as usual in her district? She is also warned that she will now be watched by the Capitol. They are angry that she and Peeta outsmarted them by almost eating the berries and killing themselves. It forced the Capitol to allow for two winners, a previously unheard-of conclusion to the games. When she returns, she is so happy to be reunited with her mother and sister. However, she and Peeta are supposed to live in Victor’s Village, where Haymitch lives, and not return to their family homes. Each of them gets their own house and unlimited food and wealth as rewards for winning the Hunger Games. Katniss looks around at her fellow villagers. They are so happy for her and proud of her. But they are still poor and struggling. She has seen things that have changed her, and maybe she wants to change things for her people. Can she use her new-found power and prestige to help the people of her district? Here is where Katniss finds herself struggling with the Mastery of Two Worlds. She must reconcile her experiences from her journey with the life she left before. She must figure out a way to stay true to herself as a hero, to honor her journey and what she went through, and figure out how to go back to living the way she used to. She begins to understand that she is braver and tougher than she ever imagined. This hints to the viewer that she now has some new role in her community. Perhaps she may be able to improve the lives of the people in her district and for all citizens of Panem in the sequels.

Using Campbell’s criteria for a hero’s journey helps the viewer understand Katniss’s evolution from regular Panem citizen to victor of the Hunger Games. In doing so, she found strengths and talents that she might never have discovered. The books and movies were especially popular amongst girls who don’t often get to see a girl in the role of hero. Although none of us have every had to participate in something as horrific as the Hunger Games, we have struggled with challenges and trials that make us wonder how we’ll get through. I have been through some pretty tough times, including losing people as Katniss has. Sometimes I’ve had someone there to help me, and other times I have had to push through on my own. Understanding Katniss’s journey to becoming a hero and seeing her achieve her goals inspires me as I proceed on my own journey.

Works Cited

Gaudiosi, John. “Hunger Games Trilogy Beats Harry Potter Series to Become All-Time Bestselling Book Series.” Forbes.com. 17 Aug. 2012.