1. Linda Brach ENGLISH 5770

2.   Adolescents are confronting the collapse of their childhood verities.  Authority figures [begin to] appear despotic which  Further alienates the teen protagonists who must now assert their independence. - Screen Education, 6/1/12 Why the dystopian appeal?

3.   Comes from a military family  Early 2000s  “Reality” TV  Live war footage (Iraq and Afghanistan) S. Collins Inspiration for the Hunger Games

4.   Setting: sometime in the future. PANEM – an area of 12 “districts” after a revolution (presumably the United States) the CAPITOL – the governing city of PANEM  Two “tributes” from each district – one female, one male, ages 12 – 18 are selected to “fight to the death” in an “arena” created by the “benevolent” (hegemonic totalitarian) state. This fight is designed for the entertainment of the capitol’s citizens. (Think Gladiators, bull fights, boxing.) Synopsis

5.   Katniss – 16 year old heroine of District 12 – coal mining district (rural poverty, Appalachia)  Effie – female advisor  Cinna – male, tribute stylist  Haymitch – male, alcoholic, previous Hunger Games winner, mentor to Katniss and Peeta tributes. Characters

6.   “Heteronormative ideals of tough males and submissive beautiful females are often present in YA fiction [and film] girls are passive and peripheral…and often tied to traditional feminine norms and representations… needing rescue and confined to domestic roles.” - Journal of Youth Studies (16. 8) 2013  Katniss Everdeen, heroine in Hunger Games, defies these ideals. Young Adult Lit and Film

7.   Literally, as she climbs beyond the barbed wire limits of District 12 to hunt in the forest  Figuratively, as she goes beyond feminine gendered norms. She asserts herself, rather than passively deferring to the masculine by taking risks and taking the advice of loving paternal proxy figures. Katniss violates boundaries

8.  Katniss commands attention by shooting the apple

9.  Nagging judgmental maternal figures: “Proper manners, behavior, etiquette and appearance”…ILLUSIONS! Effie

10.   Haymitch: warnings about the arena and cornucopia  Cinna: belief in Katniss and she prepares to be reborn Paternal Proxies

11.   (over)exposure/vulnerability  Silence: Deafness and Drowning Rebirth and rites-of- passage

12.  Katniss’s “rebirth” into the Arena: mean girls, bullying and Walmart