Readers Response

Anonymous

Posted July 27, 2009 on Barns and Noble

"There's really not much to say other than I just read a book that was equal part disturbing and completely compelling.
I can't even say how much this book effected me, both emotionally and physically. (I bought a bow and arrow set. No kidding.)
I think this is a book that will stick with me for a very long time.
Caution: It's violent and a lot of parts are very unsettling, but if you can get through it, it's really an amazing read. Opens your mind, for sure.
I can't wait for the sequel."

This comment shows that Katniss is an empowering female character. She effected this person so much that they went out and bought a bow and arrow. Katniss is different type of female character and I’m glad other see that she is as strong and empowering as I see her.

 Underwhelemed, Hoping for More, January 29, 2012

By

lyh "lissbirds"

 From amozon.com

This review is from: The Hunger Games (Book 1) (Paperback)

Everyone around me has been talking about this book and I finally got a chance to read it. I burned through it in less than a weekend, but I found myself wanting to like it more than I actually did. The plot went extremely fast (and normally I read quite slow), but to me there was no depth to the story. Each revelation the main character had seemed forced to me. I felt like I was constantly being told this or that fact was important, or the main character felt this way without the prose actually making me *feel* that way. It was just too much telling and not enough showing. Also, the dialogue throughout (epsecially between Peeta and Katniss) felt so stilted and rang very untrue to me. Often sentences were confusing and sometimes scenes transitioned so quickly it was confusing I had to read over a passage a few times. (It seemed on more than one occasion that Katniss had spent her last arrow, when in the next scene she was reloading her bow.) There was even a typo in my copy.



I didn't think that is was possible for someone to not like this book. So far I have only heard good reviews on the book, mainly becuase they can realate in ways or they look up to Katniss. But this person found that there was no depth to the book and the dialogue between Kattniss and Peeta felt unture. I can agree with that because like I said before I feel like in the begining when Peeta says he loves Katniss, Katniss pretends to love him back so she can get sponsers. Then when they spend time together in the cave they become more connected even though Katniss kinds of playes along to get medicain and food, but that kiss between them was real and feel like Katniss does love Peeta. That could also be because I read the other two books.

Critical Contect

   

I read the article entitled “The Masks of Femininity Perceptions of the Feminine in The Hunger Games and Podkayne of Mars” by Rodney M. DeaVault. The article talked about how Katniss Everdeen does not portray a typical female character. DeaVault mentions “Katniss is neither entirely “masculine” nor feminine”; she is a new, “othered" category, a blank slate upon which a gender identity can be crafted.”(192,DeaVault) I found this quote interesting because I never thought of Katniss that way. I just knew that she was different than the typical protagonist character. She isn’t dependent, nurturing, and emotional as DeaVault says in page 191 of the article. She is strong and independent. She is the provider of her family but she also cares for her week sister and mother. In the article the author mentions the role of Cinna. Cinna is Katniss stylist and he makes her look feminine without her consent. The author mentions “Cinna asserts that femininity and gender can be either a code of conduct or a performative construct, with costumes and masks to be donned and discarded as necessary”. (194, DeaVault) I'm not sure how to decipher this but I take as Katniss can take Cinna dressing her up as help or she can see it as a bad thing. Katniss sees Cinna as a friend and someone she can feel herself around although their time together is spent making Katniss someone she is not. The way Cinna makes her look is a distraction of what she really is and how she can use a bow and hunt. No one would expect a beautiful young woman to be able to hunt and to be strong and competitive. So I guess you can say she is neither super feminine nor super manly.

Film Comparison (Differences)

The only aspect of the movie that I don’t like and that I found different from the book is the relationship between Katniss and Gale. In the book I felt that they were in love and there was connection between them even though nothing was spoken about how they felt about each other. I feel like Gale and Katniss have such a close friendship and they are in love without even knowing it. In the movie on the other hand I felt like that connection was not there, they talked like friends but I didn’t send feel like they loved each other. Which can be an issue for later movies.

Film Comparison (Similarities)

The Hunger Games Movie was a good take on the book. I have found from the past that movie producers don’t do a good job at representing the book and the characters in it. Katniss played by Jennifer Lawreence has many similarities to the Katniss portrayed in the book. Her personality, she is seen as strong, independent, and as a caring sister and friend. She seems cold and unemotional at times as she does in the book. For example when she enters the capital she seems to have no emotion and in the movie when she first enters the stadium on the chariot as the Girl on Fire she shows no facial expressions. Another similarity I found is the connection between Katniss and Peeta. I felt that in the beginning Katniss was only pretending to be in love with Peeta because she thought it would help her get sponsors, and over time in the games Katniss begins to feel for Peeta. While watching the movie I felt the same feeling that in the end of the games right before they almost ate the berries she did it because she loves Peeta.   

Personal Synthesis and Feminist Analysis

The Hunger Games by Suzzanne Collins in not like most of the popular fiction books that are on the selves right now. It has a main female character, Katniss who is seen as strong, independent, and composed. She never broke under pressure, she never cries, and she will fight to the death. I think that  Suzzanne Cillins wanted to create a character that was seen as leader and someone that is not like any other female protagonist. Main female characters are normally seen as venerable and emotional, especially in a situation like the Hunger Games. Katniss is someone that any little girl and any aged women can look up to. She is strong, after the death of her Father and when her Mother became distant she took on the role of the Mother and Father, as the provider and care giver all for her little sister Prim. She doesn’t crack under pressure, when her sister Prim’s name was picked not only did she volunteer to take her place in the games, she promised her sister that she would try to win and she did win. Katniss is determined, she won the Hunger Games and she saved Peeta’s life. Although Katniss can be seen cold at times, she only comes off that way because she has had a tough life. I could not imagine living in district 12 where she has no freedom, her mother is distant and her father is dead and the only thing she finds comfort in, is sneaking under the electric fence to hunt with her only close friend, Gale so that she they can feed their families. Overall I think that Katniss is a female character that pushes the limits in what the “typical” female role is and what women should act like and be like. I know that even though Katniss is a fictional character I look up to her.