The Characterization of Katniss Everdeen

Haymitch. Say you‟ll help me.” He frowns at his bottle, weighing my words. “All right,” he says finally Collins, 2009:178-179. Other proof that shows her instinct to protect is when Haymitch asks her to find some allies from other Districts Katniss prefers to get together with two tributes from District three that are considered as a joke by most of the tributes. They‟re a little strange, but I‟m pretty sure neither of them is going to try to make me uncomfortable by stripping naked…, Wires and Beetee make a decent company. They seem friendly enough but don‟t pry. We talk about our talents; they tell me they both invent things, which makes my supposed interest in fashion seem pretty weak…, Well, Wires and Beetee are smart. They invent things. They could tell by sight that a force field had been put up between us and the Gamemakers. And if we have to have allies, I want them Collins, 2009: 226, 227, 230. From the quotation above it can be seen that Katniss sees the two tributes from different perspective. She figures out that the two tributes she likes are slightly good in fighting. Other tributes view Distr ict three‟s tribute as a joke. However, she knows they are weak but they have their brains and that is why she wants to have them as the allies so that she can protect them. From the training session, she can tell that they are bright people and it can be something useful in the arena. Katniss is also portrayed as someone who concerns about others in every situation she is in. In every decision that she makes, she will think about others first before herself. It can be seen when she almost gives up on her hunting in the wood, but she keeps on waiting so that she will get fresh meat for her friend‟s family. I‟ve been in the woods three hours, but as I‟ve made no real attempt at hunting. I have nothing to show for it. It doesn‟t matter for my mother and little sister, Prim, anymore. They can afford to buy butcher meat in town, although none of us likes it any better than fresh game. But my best friend, Gale Hawthorne, and his family will be depending on today‟s haul and I can‟t let them down Collins, 2009: 4. It is mentioned in the quotation above, she has been in the woods for three hours and still gets nothing. She actually can give up today‟s haunting but she thinks of her best friend‟s family that needs her catch so she stay still in the woods until she gets something for them. It can also be seen when she has the visit from President Snow who comes to warn her regarding what she did back in the game which has led to the acts of uprising in some districts and also to make her promise to convince the president that she is not defying the capitol. The first question is who to tell, if anyone. Not my mother or Prim, obviously; they‟d only become sick with worry. Not Gale. Even if I could get word to him. what would he do with the information, anyway? If he were alone, I might try to persuade him to run away. Certainly he could survive in the wood. But he‟s not alone and he‟d never leave his family. Or me. When I get home I‟ll have to tell him something about why our Sundays are a thing of the past, but I can‟t think about that now. Only about my next move. Besides, Gale‟s already so angry and frustrated with the Capitol that I sometimes think he‟s going to arrange his own uprising. The last thing he needs is an incentive. No, I can‟t tell anyone I‟m leaving behind in District 12 Collins, 2009: 32-33. She is very concerned about the situation that she has got into after the visit from president snow. She starts thinking about someone she can tell the situation about but she does not want to tell her family or even her best friend because she knows they can be in danger or do something dangerous if they know about it. Katniss often shows her disgusts about the Capitol, especially about President Snow, the man who commands everything in their world. The one who creates the regulation and controls everything in their world. President Snow is the last person that Katniss would like to encounter but when he visits her in her home, she treats him as if he is some kind of dangerous animal. Perhaps it is the newness of the house or the shock of seeing him or the mutual understanding that he could have me killed in a second that makes me feel like the intruder. As if this is his home and I‟m the uninvited party. So I don‟t welcome him or offer him a chair. I don‟t say anything. In fact, I treat him as if he‟s a real snake, the venomous kind. I stand motionless, my eyes locked on him, considering plans of retreat Collins, 2009: 19. Katniss‟ reaction towards President Snow in the quotation above also signifies that there is a gap that separates both of them. It also shows that Katniss feels inferior under the presence of the President Snow. It can also be seen from Katniss‟ thought about President Snow‟s statement about the impact of the uprisings that she may have caused in several districts. “There have been uprisings?” I ask, both chilled and somewhat elated by the possibility. “Not yet. But they‟ll follow if the course of things doesn‟t change. And uprisings have been known to lead to revolution.” President Snow rubs a spot over his left eyebrow, the very sport where I myself get headache. “Do you have any idea what that would mean? How many people would die? What conditions those left would have to face? Whatever problems anyone may have with the Capitol, believe me when I say that if it released its grip on the districts for even a short time, the entire system would collapse. I‟m taken aback by the directness and even the sincerity of this speech. As if his primary concern is the welfare of the citizens of Panem, when nothing could be further from the truth. I don‟t know how I dare to say the next words, but I do. “It must be very fragile, if a handful of berries can bring it down” Collins, 2009: 21-22. From the quotation above, Katniss seems to make ironic comments about President Snow‟s statement through her thought. It can also be seen when she said to herself that she is staggered by the things that she just heard from President Snow because the things that President Snow tell seems false to her. It is about the impact of the uprising and President Snow talks about it like he really thinks about the welfare of the people in the districts, as if he really cares about them instead of his supremacy.

B. Unequal Treatments Done by The Bourgeois

From the characterization in the previous chapter, there are two separated class that can be seen in Catching Fire, the Capitol as the upper class or the Bourgeoise and people who live in the district as the proletariat. Katniss represents the latter. As the one who owns the means of production which implies that they have more power, the Capitol holds everything under their control and in order to uphold their control over the lower class, the system, the rules, and the custom, everything related to the lives of people in the Districts, in this context the proletariat, are under the authority of the Capitol. However, the system that they apply to the proletariat somehow leads to a form of unequal treatments to the lower class. Unequal treatements perpetuated by the Capitol in order to uphold the status quo. The condition where there is one class is at lost and another is not. In the story, people in the district live in a very different lives from the ones who live in the Capitol. As it is mentioned before, the Capitol do things unequally to the people in order to maintain their power. The Capitol holds this annual game as a way to control their power over the people in the District. Hunger Games itself come out as the result of the rebellion done by the ancestors of the lower class. It is the means of the Capitol to control the proletariat and the proletariat however, cannot resist because they have limitation. Since they are only the proletariat, they will not dare to resist the rule. This system also has been going for quite a long time in their world. That being said, it is like an ideology that is planted on the their mind that they are nothing compare to the upper class. Barry proposes Althuser‟s term interpellation which signifies the way each person is made to see him or herself as an entity free and independent of social forces Barry, 2002. People, in a way are being led to accept their condition even if the condition is harmful for them. In the story, the game works by sending two kids from each district, called as tributes, to a superficial area designed specifically for the game and have them kill each other until the last one who manages to survive, will be crowned as the winner. Katniss Everdeen is one of the kids who went to the Hunger Games. She volunteers to substitute her little sister and wins the game. In the Games, the capitol only want to have one victor. Something which has become the part of the game tradition for years. At that time the remaining tributes are only Katniss and her partner Peeta. Therefore, she attempts to eat the poisoned berries together with her partner instead of killing each other to be the victor and that makes it look like she outsmarts the system that has been built by the Capitol. Her last act is considered as an act of defiance against the capitol. This situation then gives her a difficult situation which will lead to her return to the game. The capitol has been controlling Katniss by making her think that she is free after the Hunger Games but she is actually not. It works by sending Katniss back into the Seventy-fifth Hunger Games which previously did not have victors from the previous games as the tributes. Without hesitation, he reads, “On the seventy-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, the male and female tributes will be reaped from the existing pool of victors… What does it mean? Existing pool of victors? Then I get it, what it means. At least for me. District 12 only has three existing victors two choose from. Two male. One female… I am going back to the arena Collins, 2009: 172-173. In the previous Quartel Quells, the tributes are drawn from the result of voting. So, all of the people in the districts have to vote for two kids that they think should go to the arena representing the district. However, for this year the Capitol change the rules and it means Katniss has to go back again to the Games. Since she is the very reason that emerges the uprising in some districts, Capitol considers her as a threat. Therefore, they manipulate the rules of the Games to get her back into the Games so that the rebels will have no guts to do the uprisings. Katniss, herself, cannot fight the rules because the law has been laid out and the Capitol has been planting the idea that the Games itself is the impact of the rebellion done by their ancestors so they have no choice other than to follow the rules. This is considered as the unequal treatment because the deal is that all the victors of The Hunger Games are out of the reaping life. Katniss and other victors are made to think that they are free but actually they are not. As the one who has more power, the Capitol will always control them. Drawing Katniss and other victors as well back into the game signify that the Capitol try to uphold their power. This also emphasizes Capitol‟s remarks that even the strongest among the people in the lower class cannot do anything against them. Something that the Capitol has been planted to the people‟s mind that they would have no power against the Capitol.