Catching Fire Katniss Analysis

For the characters within Nineteen Eighty Four and Catching Fire, Orwell and Collins use devices such as symbolism, imagery and language techniques to reflect how the characters are controlled within their dystopian societies by their totalitarian governments. The characterisations within the novels either reinforce this control or oppose it and push the boundaries. Although I agree that Winston and Julia are ultimately controlled mentally and physically by their totalitarian government, I believe that the character of Katniss is only restricted physically by her totalitarian government, yet, Collins ' characterisation of Katniss enables her character to loosen the "iron grip" of the "Capitol 's" physical control. One way that Collins shows

Throughout the novel, Collins has Katniss adopt the label of “the girl on fire”, which leads to being a "symbol of rebellion". I believe Collins does this to challenge the idea of control and restriction within the novel and above all the totalitarian government within Katniss’ dystopian society. Arguably, Collins uses the substance of fire as it is a substance without boundaries and therefore cannot be controlled, making the character of Katniss "as deadly as fire itself". Fire is a symbol of chaos, war and destruction, the semantic opposite of what the Capitol government is trying to enforce upon the character of Katniss Yet, it can be argued that Collins partially contradicts this when the character of Katniss enters the arena for the first time and sees the "water spreading out in every direction", which is "no place for the girl on fire". The water was placed in the arena by the "game makers" to resemble an ocean. The ocean is a sign of power and strength, which dominates all other symbols of water due to its intensity. I believe that Collins uses the symbol of the ocean to portray the totalitarians power as it tries to control the character of Katniss through force. Furthermore, Collins use of the juxtaposition within the phrase of “the girl on fire” to show how the characterisation of Katniss is able to oppose the “Capitol” as the gender stereotype of a girl comes with connotations of weakness, submissiveness and passiveness. In contrast fire has connotations of anger and hatred, which are ideas that juxtapose with the gender stereotype of a girl. Similarly, it can be argued that Orwell’s characterisation of Julia could represent rebellion and defiance to Big Brother within Oceania due to her opinions of the party as well as the influence the character of