Girl On Fire: The Playlist
This is a playlist of Katniss. Her feelings, her thoughts, her struggles, her friends, her enemies, her relationships, her journey, her story. Music has always been important to me, even in adolescence, thus, across the pages of this website, lyrics from songs within this playlist will be used to further my argument alongside both pictures and text. There are a lot of songs in here though, so not all of them will actually be referenced, some are just for the playlist.
THE TRIBUTE
Katniss Everdeen
As an adolescent reading this book, I felt incredibly empowered and seen. Katniss starts as a seemingly ordinary girl but from the very first moments she was introduced I saw myself in her. Her unwavering loyalty and dedication to her family, her commitment to doing the right thing, her need to help others. I understood that Katniss went from not having a lot of power to then rising to being an important, influential individual, but the full importance and strength of her character were not yet fully understood by me. As I got older, it then turned into an empowering novel for me as I came to understand feminism and the importance of Katniss as a character. I came to see the many complex and complicated layers of Katniss as a character who is strong yet emotional, compassionate yet brave, clever yet defiant, and caring yet determined. Her character serves to demonstrate and illuminate the fact that heroes do not have to be perfect and flawless but rather that they can be a multitude of personalities and this in turn not only makes them more realistic but also more powerful as a character. Additionally, I came to realize that The Hunger Games is the first set of novels I read that actually had a full focus on a strong female protagonist. Reading The Hunger Games now as a scholar, it is clear that this novel is an excellent example of a strong, realistic protagonist as it tracks Katniss's journey from living a relatively simple life to becoming an empowered icon for all.
Katniss's journey begins at the reaping when her sisters name, one miniscule slip of paper within the thousands, is drawn and she is thus forcefully chosen as the next tribute. But then, in absolute shock and absolute love, Katniss steps up and volunteers to take her sisters place.
Reading this moment when I was younger I found it to be really sweet and touching. I immediately saw Katniss as this incredibly brave and heroic figure. But reading it now as I am older, it brings tears to my eyes and I feel it in such a way I cannot truly explain. Now, watching Katniss step up for her little sister Prim ignites something in me as I perfectly understand and recognize her decision. Katniss is not some distant heroic unrealistic figure to me anymore, instead I now find her incredibly realistic and relatable. I accept her decision to step up for her sister without question as I am now a big sister myself. I get it, and I get her. Katniss is mostly powerless against the Capitol, but in the moment her sister is essentially delivered a death sentence as she is chosen to compete in the games, Katniss claims all power she can as she steps up for her sister without a second thought and thus exemplifies her power against this repressive system that wants her to feel powerless.
Katniss does not understand the absolute power and incredibleness of her stepping up, but it is clear everyone else does in the quote that follows her volunteering as tribute in her sisters place, "Then something unexpected happens. At least, I don’t expect it because I don’t think of District 12 as a place that cares about me. But a shift has occurred since I stepped up to take Prim’s place, and now it seems I have become someone precious. At first one, then another, then almost every member of the crowd touches the three middle fingers of their left hand to their lips and holds it out to me. It is an old and rarely used gesture of our district, occasionally seen at funerals. It means thanks, it means admiration, it means good-bye to someone you love" (The Hunger Games 24). When Katniss steps up and takes her sisters place as tribute, she marks herself as someone who is brave, caring, and powerful and everyone sees that and respects her for it. Katniss herself does not understand or see it, but she is an incredible person and those around her see her for who she truly is even though she cannot see it herself.
THE GIRL ON FIRE
Katniss starts out as a tribute, but she is clearly different from the moment she volunteered to take her sisters place. Entering the press and preparation for the games, she becomes the Girl on Fire as her stylist Cinna creates an image of her through the way he styles her. This image of her actually reflects who she really is and thus her being known as the Girl on Fire truly marks and indicates the true nature of her character. The Girl on Fire marker on Katniss is the one I associate with her most because it is the most authentic her. The Mockingjay is her too but this is a symbol, an icon that is placed on her whereas the title of Girl on Fire is a more authentic depicter and representation of who she is. She is a tribute, a victor, a sister, a leader, a symbol, a rebel, a mockingjay, but Girl on Fire encapsulates all of this and so much more about her and that is why this is the title I utilize most across these pages for her.
Within the games Katniss becomes rebellious oftentimes without even realizing the full extent of what she is doing. This is seen in one instance after Rue's death in the lines, "I want to do something, right here, right now, to shame them, to make them accountable, to show the Capitol that whatever they do or force us to do that there is a part of every tribute they can’t own. That Rue was more than a piece in their Games. And so am I. A few steps into the woods grows a bank of wildflowers. Perhaps they are really weeds of some sort, but they have blossoms in beautiful shades of violet and yellow and white. I gather up an armful and come back to Rue’s side. Slowly, one stem at a time, I decorate her body in the flowers. Covering the ugly wound. Wreathing her face. Weaving her hair with bright colors" (The Hunger Games 236-237). Here, Katniss does say she wants to do something against the Capitol, but not for rebellion or anger, but to show that Rue was a person. To show that Rue is more than just another tribute. And this act of rebellion might seem small to Katniss, but it is huge to the Capitol as it is incredibly moving and powerful to all districts watching. Katniss's act here illuminates the fact that the tributes are not actually enemies, they have just been forced into a situation where they feel powerless to do anything other than fight and kill one another as this is the rule the Capitol imposed on them through the Games.
In her most defining moment as Girl on Fire of all, Katniss and Peeta are the only two left when the Capitol decides to retract their statement that there will be two victors and expect Katniss and Peeta to then fight for the title. Then this conversation between them takes place, " 'We both know they have to have a victor. '
Yes, they have to have a victor. Without a victor, the whole thing would blow up in the Gamemakers’ faces. They’d have failed the Capitol. Might possibly even be executed, slowly and painfully while the cameras broadcast it to every screen in the country. If Peeta and I were both to die, or they thought we were…My fingers fumble with the pouch on my belt, freeing it. Peeta sees it and his hand clamps on my wrist.
'No, I won’t let you.'
'Trust me,' I whisper. He holds my gaze for a long moment then lets me go" (The Hunger Games 344). Here, Katniss decided that they must fake act like they are going to commit suicide in order to survive. Katniss knows and perfectly recognizes that the Capitol cares too much about the games and having a winner to let them go through with it. Her decision and play here is brilliant, but it is also extremely dangerous as it is a clear mark of rebellion. The Capitol and Snow specifically are furious at her as she outplayed them in the Games. Following this, the Girl on Fire begins her transition into becoming the Mockingjay.
THE MOCKINGJAY
Katniss is a symbol of hope and possibility against the powerlessness and repression the Capitol places on everyone.
After unintentionally becoming an icon as the Girl on Fire, Katniss further establishes her status as a symbol and beacon of hope as she becomes the Mockingjay. This symbol is a direct callback to the first book and the quote, "They're funny birds and something of a slap in the face to the Capitol" (The Hunger Games 42). Katniss explains that they were genetically altered by the Capitol to be weapons but this went wrong and they were used by rebels to communicate and the Capitol's plan backfired. Thus, Katniss becoming a symbolic version of one is another way she rebels and claims power back from the Capitol.
And yet, as much as Katniss is perceived as this beacon of power and freedom, she is still not always in control as much as she appears to be to outsiders. One instance that represents this is, "It's an awful lot to take in, this elaborate plan in which I was a piece, just as I was meant to be a piece in the Hunger Games. Used without consent, without knowledge. At least in the Hunger Games, I knew I was being played with" (Catching Fire 385). Katniss recognizes here that of course she was being played and used in the games but that now she is being utilized in another way by the rebels as part of their plan to overthrow the Capitol. Another instance of this is in the lines Katniss remarks, "It isn't enough, what I've done in the past, defying the Capitol in the Games, providing a rallying point. I must now become the actual leader, the face, the voice, the embodiment of the revolution. The person who the districts—most of which are now openly at war with the Capitol – can count on to blaze the path to victory. I won't have to do it alone. They have a whole team of people to make me over, dress me, write my speeches, orchestrate my appearances--as if that doesn't sound horribly familiar--and all I have to do is play my part" (Mockingjay 10-11). Here Katniss illuminates that the rebels want her to be their symbol of freedom and possibility and yet at the same they want to limit her power and control her as their symbol. She would appear to have all this power and freedom to everyone else and yet she would actually be under instructions and control by the rebels and specifically from Coin. It is a weird, complicated paradox but it truly serves to illuminate why Katniss struggles so much with knowing who to trust and walking the line between being able to have power and feeling powerless.
Katniss walks a fine line between the struggle of powerful and powerless across these three books but in the end I believe she ultimately does get to a point where she does hold all her power. I think she always does, she just does not see it and oftentimes doubts herself which in turn leads her to unknowingly suppressing herself. The ultimate demonstration of her claiming her power and fully understanding herself and everything around her comes when she kills Coin near the end of Mockingjay. First, Katniss's thought process of what Snow told her about Coin in the lines, "What's irrefutable is that she's done exactly what he said. Let the Capitol and the districts run one another into the ground and then sauntered in to take power. Even if that was her plan, it doesn't mean she dropped those parachutes. Victory was already in her grasp. Everything was in her grasp.
Except me" (Mockingjay 368).
Here Katniss realizes Snow was right about Coin and starts to face the fact that Coin is no better than him even though she pretends to be. Coin was posing as the "leader of the rebels" and yet in the next few pages the fact that she is actually just another Snow becomes solidified as Coin suggests a new Hunger Games for Capitol children. In suggesting a new Hunger Games it becomes clear to Katniss and the audience reading that Snow was right about Coin all along. Coin simply used the rebels and their war with the Capitol to further her own agenda and goal of becoming President. She pretended to agree with them, and yet here she suggest they bring back the very core of what the rebels fought against. And Katniss recognizes this fact. Finally, Katniss heads out to execute Snow in the lines, "The point of my arrow shifts upward. I release the string. And President Coin collapses over the side of the balcony and plunges to the ground. Dead" (Mockingjay 372). She executes Coin instead of Snow because she knows no one else sees what she does and that she cannot let Coin become President or the sick, twisted cycle will just continue.
One of the most important moments across these novels comes in Katniss's thoughts in the lines, "I begin to fully understand the lengths to which people have gone to protect me. What I mean to the rebels. My ongoing struggle against the Capitol, which has so often felt like a solitary journey, has not been undertaken alone. I have had thousands upon thousands of people from the districts at my side. I was their Mockingjay long before I accepted the role. A new sensation begins to germinate inside me. But it takes until I am standing on a table, waving my final good-byes to the hoarse chanting of my name, to define it. Power. I have a kind of power I never knew I possessed. Snow knew it, as soon as I held out those berries. Plutarch knew when he rescued me from the arena. And Coin knows now. So much so that she must publicly remind her people that I am not in control" (Mockingjay 90-91).
Katniss is mostly ignorant of her power and influence and so here when she finally does recognize it is a very powerful moment. She starts to understand what those around her have seen in her all along and she now sees her true powerful, brave, incredible self.
