《饥饿游戏三部曲》中环境因素对凯特尼斯性格的塑造(2)
4.1 The 74th Hunger Games 9
4.2 The 75th Hunger Games 11
5 Analysis of the Environmental Influence of the Social Environment on Katniss’s Personality 13
5.1 District 13 13
5.2 The General Social Background 15
6 Conclusion 17
Bibliography18
1 Introduction
The Hunger Games Trilogy, being very popular stories written by Suzanne Collins is read widely all over the world. It consists of three novels. The first novel, The Hunger Games, was written by Suzanne Collins and acquired by Scholastic Corporation in 2006. It was released in 2008. The second one (Catching Fire) was released in 2009 and the third (Mocking jay) in 2010. As a result of the significant popularity of The Hunger Games books, Collins was named one of Time magazine's most influential people of 2010.
The Hunger Games detail the adventure of Katniss Everdeen, who is forced to engage in a fight to the death tournament against other children. The novel takes place in Panem, a dystopia-like country built on what was once North America. In a world of limited resources, the despotic government run by the Capitol keeps its citizens in line by separating them into Districts and reinforcing severe class separations. But their strongest tool to promote disunion and to discourage rebellion is the Hunger Games: a yearly event where two tributes from each district are competed against each other for the country to watch on television. In the three books, Katniss fights during the 74th and 75th hunger games. The arena was destroyed by Katniss at the 75th games as result of a secret designed mission from the rebels. Three of the tributes, including Katniss, are rescued by survivors of District 13. The rebellion continues with Katniss being used as a rebellious symbol for the rebels to fight against the Capitol and ends up by killing the leader of District 13; President Snow of the Capitol also ends up dead.
The Hunger Games is a thrilling series of great dystopian fictions comparing to 1984 or Brave New World and the current reality television scene. According to the author Suzanne Collins, she “was channel surfing between reality TV programming and actual war coverage” when she developed the idea for the story. The novel manages to give a picture of both the viciousness of a totalitarian government and the perils of living in a fame-fascinated culture.
Personality can be revealed by analyzing one’s thoughts and expressions, attitudes, interests and actions. The study of the paper expresses the author’s thought to readers of the story. Katniss, the major character of the novel, whose personalities shifted under the influence of the Capitol, the family, her allies and friends in the battlefield as well as the ever-changing situation of the arena. The whole idea of having forced a teenager to fight to death in a battle might sound as though it might reveal the worst of humanity. However, to a certain degree, it also unveils the kindness in human nature. Although Katniss was good in nature like any other human beings, she could not totally be herself in the face of death or in the vision of losing her sister. The dystopian society left her no choice and the only way of survival is to change herself, her personality.
This paper aims to seek out what the author is trying to unveil through her novel by analyzing the changes of Katniss’ personalities and to understand how society can change people’s personalities and behaviors. In addition, the study also gives clues to the analysis of humanity in extreme cases. In the mean-time, it is hoped that the paper can be conducive to providing readers an idea of how the dystopian novel works. But most importantly, readers can develop a sense of alertness towards their society because by reading Katniss’ personality profiles, they can see their own images as if they were the character in the novel. They might reflect upon themselves and come to an agreement that the worse the society gets, the more dehumanized phenomena appear and more twisted personalities reveal.