The Hunger Games as Heroic Myth, Essay Example

In essence, Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games is a myth about the heroism of integrity and loyalty to others in the face of brutality, exploitation, and oppression. Katniss Everdeen, the heroine, is launched on her trajectory when her sister Prim is selected for the brutal Hunger Games. Unwilling to watch her sister go off to certain death, Katniss opts to take her place, and is thrust into the superficial, affluent, cruel world of the Capitol, where she must compete in the Hunger Games, a violent competition staged as entertainment. Katniss must play a difficult game, but she prevails in the end thanks to her characteristics of loyalty and integrity.

Firstly, it falls to this analysis to demonstrate that The Hunger Games is indeed a myth, rather than a fairy tale. Both myths and fairy tales are stories that draw on the fantastic, but other than this they are very different indeed (Lombardi). A fairy tale is generally much simpler: where a myth may be concerned with a grand theme or central problem, the fairy tale is less demanding and more likely to have a reassuring bent to it (Bettelheim 26). Reassurance and hope for the future, according to Bettelheim, are major characteristics and functions of the fairy tale (26). Myths encompass myths of creation, myths of ethno-genesis, myths of events or cultural traditions, and more besides (Lombardi). Classical mythology includes such tales as The Odyssey, Jason and the Argonauts, The Iliad, the story of Perseus and Medusa, the story of Oedipus, etc. (Kirk 8). While myths are generally thought of as ‘sacred’, it would be a profound mistake (though unfortunately it is a common one) to hold that all myths are about gods. Indeed, myths may be heroic tales or even tragedies, as the aforementioned stories, all indisputably myths of the Classical canon, demonstrate (9). The Epic of Gilgamesh is another excellent example: Gilgamesh himself, though part deity, is nonetheless mortal and is generally depicted as a king as opposed to a god (9-10).

The precise definition of myth, then, has proven somewhat elusive and ambiguous. Segal proposes defining myth as, first, story (4). Myths are indeed stories; moreover, they are stories that might be described as derived from beliefs or credos (4). Here Segal gives such examples from American myth as the “’rags to riches myth’ and the American ‘myth of the frontier’” (4). Both of these were not specific stories, though they inspired many stories (4). Myths might also be thought of as particularly important stories: stories that present paradigms of behavior (Allen n.p.). Indeed, for mythicist and religious scholar Mircea Eliade, myth was irreducibly religious: myths are sacred narratives that convey profound meanings (n.p.).

It is this focus on profound, deep meaning that marks The Hunger Games as myth, not fairy tale. The Hunger Games does indeed make considerable demands on the reader. It is a tale of heroism, and it is deeply concerned with questions of power and oppression, authenticity and integrity, and loyalty. Author Suzanne Collins has acknowledged the influence of the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, a myth rather than a fairytale, on The Hunger Games: Theseus slays the Minotaur to save himself and his companions, and put an end to the tribute collected from Athens by Crete. The parallels are unmistakable: Katniss volunteers to take the place of her younger sister, who would certainly have died had she been forced to compete (46). Like Theseus, Katniss is selected as a ‘tribute’, although where Theseus must fight a monster in an underground labyrinth, Katniss’s contest is an open-air spectacle staged as entertainment.

Katniss taking the place of her sister Prim is an important clue about Katniss’s character: she is loyal to her family. However, that much was clear already, because it has already been made clear that Katniss is the breadwinner in the household: she even enters her name in the contest additional times so that she can provide for her family (Collins 12). “With one sweep of my arm, I push her behind me. ‘I volunteer!’ I gasp. ‘I volunteer as tribute!’” (21). This is a clear sign that this is a myth about family loyalty and love: the heroine, Katniss, is only put into the position of having to fight because she loves her sister, and refuses to allow her to go to certain death. As Lem and Hassel explain, relationships are absolutely integral to the novel: in many ways, one might even call it a myth about relationships (among other things) (125). One of Katniss’s most important memories of Peeta is the time when he risked a beating to give bread to her when she was starving (125-126). And in the course of the games, Katniss teams up with Rue, one of the more sympathetic tributes: the two bond, and help each other with medicines for their respective ailments. Katniss explains that she wants Rue as an ally “Because she’s a survivor, and I trust her, and why not admit it? She reminds me of Prim” (Collins 201). Ultimately, Katniss mourns Rue’s death in a manner designed to honor her memory and her people in District 11.

Katniss is, in short, an extremely authentic person with an enormous amount of integrity—and it is this that is brought into sharp relief when she confronts the spectacle of the Capitol (Frankel 49). In fact, even before she reaches the Capitol, the reader learns that there are sponsors in this ghastly contest, and an important part of getting sponsors is looking one’s best (Collins 58). As Katniss explains: “The Hunger Games aren’t a beauty contest, but the best-looking tributes seem to pull more sponsors” (58). Indeed, Katniss and Peeta are put into the hands of stylists, and promptly experience just how superficial Capitol society is. The people of the Capitol are fashion-obsessed, with considerable collections of clothing, shoes, wigs and the like (Frankel 49). They even practice social bulimia, an especially repugnant custom given the impoverished status of most of the districts (49).

Katniss is revolted by the fashions of the Capitol, which to her seem freakish (McDonald 14). For her, there is something very unpleasant and unsettling about the kind of cosmetic alterations people in the Capitol often make to themselves (14). The parallel between the consumption of the tributes’ bodies in a ghastly, violent spectacle, and the presentation of those same bodies in the most stylized and attractive ways possible is undeniable. As McDonald explains: “For Katniss, one’s looks shouldn’t be fodder for remaking, any more than one’s body devoured in the arena should be fodder for entertainment” (14). Again, the centrality of identity is evident, as Flavius declares she almost looks like a “real person”—after they have put her through an extensive and exhaustive beauty regimen (16).

That the Hunger Games themselves are heavily patterned on the gladiatorial games is highly significant: they are staged, but very real, violence put on in the name of spectacle. Indeed, the inescapable parallels with the worst excesses of ancient Roman society are played to the hilt: not only are Katniss and Peeta to compete in a hideous exhibition of senseless violence for entertainment, but they will do so after being handled by stylists with names lifted straight out of Roman history. Lem and Hassel note that this beauty routine entails a great deal of artifice: Katniss is essentially repackaged as “a feminine character both physically and behaviorally” (124). Another aspect of this artifice is her stage romance with Peeta. In reality, Katniss has complex, conflicted feelings about Peeta, but over the course of the Hunger Games, she is prompted to resort to a stage romance, wherein she pretends to feel significantly more in love with Peeta than she actually is (124).

Here, the initial exchange involving Haymitch is particularly revealing and candid. After Katniss protests that Peeta, in confessing his feelings for her on live television, has made her look weak, Haymitch counters: “’He made you look desirable! …You were about as romantic as dirt until he said he wanted you. Now they all do’” (135). When Katniss protests that she and Peeta are not, as Haymitch says they are, star-crossed lovers, Haymitch replies: “’Who cares? It’s all a big show. It’s all how you’re perceived’” (135). Haymitch’s concern here is sponsors: now that Katniss looks desirable because Peeta wants her, sponsors will pay to send her things she could use in the course of the games, i.e. food, medication.

Indeed, this is precisely what happens over the course of the games: Katniss has to play up the faux-romance with Peeta for the purposes of attracting more sponsorship. After the rule change that allows two tributes to survive, Katniss and Peeta team up, and Katniss doctors Peeta’s severe wounds. In the course of doing so, she realizes she needs to kiss him in order to play up the “star-crossed lovers” routine (Collins 260). “Impulsively, I lean forward and kiss him, stopping his words. This is probably overdue anyway since he’s right, we are supposed to be madly in love” (260). There is something rather odd about all of this: the charade of having to pretend that they are in love for the purposes of attracting sponsorship. It works, after a fashion: a pot of hot broth is sent parachuting down to them. “Haymitch couldn’t be sending me a clearer message. One kiss equals one pot of broth” (261). If Katniss is to save him, she must pretend to really want to save him. This takes some doing: Katniss is, as seen, actually a very authentic person, and this dissembling does not come naturally to her (261).

What, then? Has Katniss lost herself to the charade, the performance she must put on? No, not at all: it is a part of the conflict that drives the story. Katniss does what she must not only because she has to survive, but in order to secure Peeta’s survival as well. She is pragmatic and capable, so she realizes that the only way to save Peeta—for whom she genuinely cares—is to pretend to be in love with him. And the fact that she was an ally—indeed, a friend—to Rue saved her from death at the hands of Thresh, also from Rue’s district. Katniss is a fallible heroine: when the rule about allowing two tributes to survive is revoked, she points an arrow at Peeta. Nonetheless, it is Peeta who shows her the way: “’No,’ he says. ‘Do it.’ Peeta limps toward me and thrusts the weapons back in my hands” (343). This leads to a bit of back and forth, as Katniss tries to get him to kill her, a thing which Peeta, of course, simply cannot do. Finally Katniss comes up with a brilliant solution, outfoxing the games: since the games have to have a victor, she determines to deny them one by poisoning herself and Peeta (343).

Thus, Katniss plays along with the charade of the Hunger Games, but her defining traits as a heroine remain her authenticity, integrity, and loyalty. Indeed, Coatney points out that Katniss is a terrible liar: she fails at practically everything she tries to fake (180). This is because faking and showmanship do not come naturally to her, and she resists them accordingly (180). Authenticity and integrity are her greatest virtues, and she pays the price for that time and time again, either when she does try to fake something and it blows up in her face, or when she is honest and forthright and suffers the consequences—the truth not always being terribly popular, after all (180). The book ends with her having come clean with Peeta about the degree to which she was faking her feelings toward him—a difficult revelation indeed (Collins 373-374).

Thus, the book ends on something of an ambivalent note: Katniss has outfoxed the Capitol and saved Peeta, but she is keenly aware of the high price of victory. She was forced to play a deadly game, and she has won, at great cost, thanks to her authenticity and integrity. It is this that makes her a truly great heroine, and it is this that establishes the story as a myth. It is a myth about loyalty to others and authenticity, refusing to compromise one’s essential self, even in the face of brutal exploitation. Katniss prevails because she is truly courageous in her determination to remain who she is, and it is this commitment to herself and to others that ensures her heroic status.

Works Cited

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Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. 1973. New York: Random House, 2010. Print.

Coatney, Dereck. “Why Does Katniss Fail at Everything She Fakes? Being versus Seeming to Be in the Hunger Games Trilogy.” Dunn and Michaud 178-192.

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic Press, 2008. Print.

Dunn, George A., and Nicolas Michaud, eds. The Hunger Games and Philosophy: A Critique of Pure Treason. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Print.

Frankel, Valerie E. “Reflection in a Plastic Mirror.” Pharr and Clark 49-58.

Kirk, Geoffrey Stephen. Myth: Its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and Other Cultures. 1970. London: Cambridge University Press, 1973. Print.

Lem, Ellyn, and Holly Hassel. “’Killer’ Katniss and ‘Lover Boy’ Peeta: Suzanne Collins’s Defiance of Gender-Genred Reading.” Pharr and Clark 118-127.

Llanas, Sheila G. How to analyze the works of Suzanne Collins. Minneapolis, MN: ABDO Publishing Company, 2013. Print.

Lombardi, Esther. “Defining Terms: Myth, Folklore, Legend, etc.” About.com Classic Literature. Classiclit.about.com, n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2013.

McDonald, Brain. “’The Final Word on Entertainment’: Mimetic and Monstrous Art in the Hunger Games.” Dunn and Michaud 8-25.

Pharr, Mary, and Leisa A. Clark, eds. Of Bread, Blood, and the Hunger Games: Critical Essays on the Suzanne Collins Trilogy. Jefferson, NC: Shutterstock, 2012. Print.

Segal, Robert A. Myth: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Print.