Katniss and the Heroine’s Journey

The classic heroine’s journey appears in many beloved books, like Coraline, Alice in Wonderland, and The Wizard of Oz. It features in works by Tamora Pierce, Jane Yolen, and Juliet Marillier. And it permeates The Hunger Games, casting Katniss as a classic heroine beside classic heroes Percy Jackson and Harry Potter.

The true goal of the heroine’s journey is to become the all-powerful mother. Thus, many heroines set out on rescue missions in order to restore their shattered families: Meg Murray of A Wrinkle in Time quests to save her father then her little brother. Coraline tries to save her parents, Meggie of Inkheart, her mother. Alice and Dorothy struggle to return to their families. Katniss is protector of the family from her earliest years, as she feeds and cares for not only her little sister but her mother. She extends this protection to Gale’s family, her own district, and finally all the people of Panem, as she provides food and support for her loved ones and protects the innocent.

Katniss, like Artemis or Percy Jackson’s friend Annabeth, shoots a silver bow. Silver is the color of moon magic, perception, and feminine strength, while a bow is the elegant distance weapon of the classic warrior woman. Even Susan in the Narnia series is called “the great archer.”

In many fairytales from Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” to “The Six Swans,” the heroine’s most dire struggle takes place high in the prince’s castle, far from the magical protection of her forest or ocean home. This, like the Wicked Witch of the West’s castle, is the masculine world of law and tyranny, where the young heroine is truly helpless. The Hunger Games themselves are a similar fortress of the tyrant’s power, where the Gamemakers can torture Katniss with firestorms and viciously changing rules. In the final book, Katniss enters the Capitol itself to assassinate Snow on his home ground. She sneaks through the city-sized trap he has created, filled with mutts and deadly “pods” to find him awaiting her in his palatial mansion in the center.

By realizing that the tyrant’s power over her has ended, the heroine finds independence and strength. Just as Dorothy discovers the Wizard is a humbug, or Lucy and Susan see Aslan dead and helpless, Katniss perseveres through Snow’s threats and traps to see him die in the Capitol square.

However, the patriarch is not the real power in the heroine’s tale – he’s little more than a pompous blusterer who melts away when confronted. For the heroine, the true threat is the evil witch, murderess of the innocent. She is Mrs. Coulter of The Golden Compass, the Wicked Witch of the West, the White Witch of Narnia who tortures Edmund and keeps the land bound in sterile winter. Though Katniss realizes it too late, this adversary is rebel president Alma Coin. Coin, like Snow White’s stepmother, resolves to destroy the young heroine through jealousy and to maintain her own rulership. Katniss is a beloved symbol of revolution, Katniss could name another to be president, therefore Katniss must die.

Discovering the dark matriarch’s power, understanding her, confronting her, but not becoming her is the key to adulthood. Katniss destroys Coin’s influence over herself and over Panem, her world, and then retreats into the simplicity of the countryside. There she becomes, not a warrior woman, but a mature adult, protector of her family and figure of morality. This is the key to the heroine’s journey—traveling toward acceptance, balance, and nurturing love.

More information on the heroine’s journey, from charts to a booklist can be found at http://vefrankel.com

 

Katniss the Cattail: An Unauthorized Guide to Names and Symbols in The Hunger Games http://www.amazon.com/Katniss-Cattail-Unauthorized-Symbols-Suzanne/dp/146996824X

 From Girl to Goddess: The Heroine’s Journey in Myth and Legend http://www.amazon.com/From-Girl-Goddess-Heroines-Journey/dp/0786448318/

 

Comparison of Models

The Steps of the Journey

 

Campbell‘s Hero’s Journey	The Heroine’s Journey	Stages
The World of Common Day	The World of Common Day	Innocence and Discovery
The Call To Adventure	The Call To Adventure	Innocence and Discovery
Refusal of the Call	Refusal of the Call	Innocence and Discovery
Supernatural Aid	The RuthlessMentorand the Bladeless Talisman	Innocence and Discovery
The Crossing of the First Threshold The Belly of the Whale	The Crossing of the First Threshold Opening One’s Senses	Journey through the Unconscious
The Road of Trials	Sidekicks, Trials, Adversaries	Journey through the Unconscious
The Meeting With the Goddess Woman as the Temptress	Wedding the Animus Facing Bluebeard Finding the Sensitive Man Confronting the Powerless Father	Meeting the Other
Atonement with the Father Apotheosis	Descent into Darkness Atonement with the Mother Integration and Apotheosis	Meeting the Self
The Ultimate Boon	Reward: Winning the Family	Meeting the Self
Refusal of the Return The Magic Flight Rescue From Without The Crossing of the Return Threshold	Torn Desires The Magic Flight Reinstating the Family Return	Meeting the Self
Master of the Two Worlds	Power over Life and Death	Goddesshood and Wholeness
Freedom To Live	Ascension of the New Mother	Goddesshood and Wholeness

 

Katniss, Queen of Children

The classic heroine’s journey sees girls questing to rescue their lovers and families from danger, questing into fairyland to retrive a stolen child, or stealing a husband from the troll queen. The most quintessential quest is protecting a daughter or little sister—the other half of the self.

Prim is both these to Katniss, the tiny sister she has mothered when their own mother withdrew from them, the girl she spends each day providing with food. As Prim bids her goodbye in Katniss’s own baggy dress, she’s Katniss’s younger most innocent self, the self most needing protection.

The Hunger Games is coded as a battle of adults versus children. Katniss’s parents are useless, from her dead father to her withdrawn mother who forces Katniss to care for herself and her sister (before abandoning her in the final book). Katniss is the one to hold the family together and keep them from starving, and through the book she dwells on her mistrust for her mother. Only Gale, a fellow teen and protector of his own family, can be relied on.

In Katmiss’ world, the older children protect the younger, as she does her little sister, or Rue does for her younger siblings. Since Rue is the eldest in her family, there’s no one to protect her but Katniss. Katniss realizes that Thresh and Rue would be her friends if not for the true enemy, the ones who hold the games.

Her true allies, she ones she shares sympathy with are the tongueless girl in the capital, Thresh, who would have been a friend, her hunting partner Gale back home. Even Madge, the baker’s daughter, gives her the mockingjay pin she wears as a symbol of home, while Katmiss discards her mother’s dress and shoes. Half the children in the games are reluctant to fight, from Thresh, who lets Katniss escape, to Rue, showing her she’s in danger from hornets, to Foxface, darting in to steal and run.

Adults are using her, from Cinna, who selects her dazzling outfits to show off his own talent long before he sees her as a person to Haymitch, who pushes her to shine for the sponsors. The Games themselves are the most fundamental example of this, run by adults to kill children for entertainment. In this world, the president is the ultimate adult and ultimate user, murdering families to control the victors of the games.

However, Katniss fails to become a leader. Book one sees her outsmarting the game to save Peeta as well as herself, but she has no message of rebellion for her audience. She charms the president into publically sparing her by using, of course, childish charm. In Catching Fire, she disturbingly never rises above a pawn, as Haymitch arranges with most of the other winners to protect Katniss and Peeta and smuggle them to safety.

At the end of book three, Katniss finally embarks on hrer own mission, leading the adults to go assassinate President Snow. However, a group of children including Prim are deliberately murdered as the final casualties of war. When Katniss realizes that rebel president Coin is the culprit, and that Coin plans to restart the Hunger Games and kill even more enemy children, Katniss decides who her enemy is and breaks every adult law and expectation to shoot the real target. She turns from the protector of living children to the champion of the dead, even as she leaves her own childhood behind forever.

Max Guevarra the Mockingjay

In the twenty-first century television show Dark Angel, nineteen-year-old Max Guevara dispenses street justice, all while protecting her friends and seeking her divided family. In Katniss’ world, she would be called a mutt, a human creature re-engineered to be a supersoldier serving the government’s will. However, like the mockingjays, she escaped and found a way to thrive outside the government’s control. Becoming another Katniss, she rescues children and young women in danger.

In both stories, the females are active and males more passive—intriguing as the action and science-fiction genres are traditionally marketed to boys. In fact, with their constant action, clever comments, and bravery, both heroines have strong male followings. Romance is difficult and treated as secondary to hunting down the villainous patriarch—the traditional goal for the male hero.  The post-apocalyptic setting lets the heroines escape traditional gender roles, Katniss as a poacher and Max as a thief before both become freedom fighters.

Though lawbreakers, the protagonists owe allegiance to a higher morality: Max lets a woman walk away after murdering her own father, but destroys the payoff she was given. She covers for her cheating friend but assures him he’ll be dangling from a window if he does it again. Katniss fights to save the prep team who, though Capitol citizens, were kind to her, and insists on saving the brutal career tribute Enobaria because it feels wrong to let her die. In today’s shifting world, with often no clear right choice, teens are guided to seek a deeper wisdom. Both young women contend with an uncertain life on the cusp of poverty, which is nonetheless preferable to the institutionalized violence and near-certain death of the Capitol’s Hunger Games or Seattle’s Project Manticore. This fight to survive, while entertaining, also reminds the audience of the many types of cruelty in existence – some crimes of neglect and others more purposeful. Both are means of subjugating a population, which the true heroine must battle.

Both women prefer to dress androgynously, but are often forced into alluring dresses by society. Max and her friend Original Cindy act like sultry feminine airheads in a gambling club, complete with an offer to wager lapdances. Katniss spins in a glittery red dress, thanking her audience for giving her such an opportunity. Thus, they conform to expectations while revealing the artificiality of traditional femininity. In fact, the girls lack female role models and define themselves outside of conventional society, focusing on earning money to support their chosen families rather than looking beautiful or staying at home. Without traditional family structure, they bond with friends, venturing into the forest or onto the streets to keep them safe. Back home, their domesticized boyfriends are the ones who cook.

The message for teens is clear: Katniss and Max are strong, clever, creative young women who always save the day. As they struggle against the patriarchy and at last discover the stronger female who has been the true enemy, their stories emphasize that women can be just as powerful as men, if not more.