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This thesis is a cortical analysis of Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games trilogy. Throughout the series I want to explore the shaping and development of the heroine Katniss’s eco-consciousness.
2. Literature Review
To date, the study of The Hunger Games trilogy mainly concentrates on such aspects as theme, culture, philosophy, politics, games theory, metaphor and ecological perspectives.
As far as its themes are concerned, some topics have been investigated such as gender, morality and ethics, war, identity, classical themes and ecological themes. In “A Literary Criticism of the Classical Themes and Allusions Found in the Hunger Games”, Mary McGunigal pays attention to the first novel of the Hunger Games. She writes that “although set in a futuristic society, the chief inspirations for its narrative structure and themes are drawn from the ancient Mediterranean world. Classical themes and allusions permeate the first novel”. In “Katniss and the politics of Gender”, Jessical Miller makes a clear distinction between sex and gender, probes into the blend of gender in Panem and values both masculine and feminine roles, regardless of who fills them. George A. Dunn conducts a study on the relationship between morality and luck in “Morality and luck in the Games Trilogy”. Dunn argues that luck plays an ineradicable role in the fate of the characters in the trilogy. Lindsey Issoe Averill turns to care ethics in her “Katniss and the Feminist Ethic”. According to Averill, the present understanding of morality focus on impartial reasoning and abstract ideals, while feminists come up with a moral theory known as feminist care ethics or simply the ethics of care arguing that care is an equally valid basis for moral decision making. A debate on what should guide our conduct in a natural state is carried out in Joseph J. Foy’s “Morality and the War of All in the Arena”. Foy introduces two opposing arguments proposed by Thomas Hobbes and Immanuel Kant respectively, sums up their ideas and asserts that “a justification for brutality and inhumanity robs us of the dignity that makes our lives worth living”. As Foy studied on the war of every man against every man, Louis Melancon examines the morality of the bigger war, namely, the rebellion against the Capitol in his article “The Just-War Tradition and the Rebellion against the Capitol”. Meclanceon contends that the Mockingjay revolution which stumbles into peace was not a just war. Another aspect of interpretation is explored in “The Problem of Identity in Panem.” Also, Sandra Makaresz (2009) examines three young adult fictions, including The Hunger Games in his MA thesis “Skydweller and Representation of Adolescent Crisis: Group Identity Versus Alienation”. Bases on Newman’s identity theory, Makaresz probes into the adolescent crisis Katniss went through: her alienation resulting from common identity that constructed in Collin’s dystopia, moving from a state of foreclosure to being force into a crisis of group identity versus alienation, and in the end retreats to the safety of her alienation self. Another article of significance to the study of The Hunger Games is written by Pramod K. Nayar.