Essay On Gender Roles In The Hunger Games

Gender roles are a set of societal norms that determine how a specific sex should think, speak and act. Society often portrays women as the housewife who nurtures the family while portraying men as the breadwinner who provides the family. Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis and Suzanne Collins’ novel, The Hunger Games, both portray unconventional characters that defy the universally accepted gender roles. By allowing their characters to surpass the stereotypical expectations, Kafka and Collins challenge the ideas of traditional gender roles that have created certain requirements and restrictions on both men and women. Kafka and Collins illustrate the theme of role reversal to exemplify that there should not be any defined gender roles. They try to

Katniss Everdeen, the protagonist in the novel, is shown as a dominant character. Katniss is in charge of her family and is the “woman of the house”. She defies the customary gender norms that state that a male would be the “man of the house”. Katniss hunts food for the family and “as soon as [she’s] in the trees, [she] retrieves a bow and sheath of arrows from a hollow log” (Collins, 9). Although Katniss’ father took care of the family, in the beginning, Katniss has been in charge ever since his death. This illustrates how easily gender roles can be reversed. Collins establishes a theory that a female can provide for the family as much as a man can. This proves that gender roles are not as absolute as society makes them

Collins portrays Peeta, as having feminine characteristics by showing him to be as emotional, romantic and more passive than Katniss. In the novel, Peeta “blushes beet red and stammers out” his love for Katniss on national television. He confesses that he has a crush and he tells the interviewer that his crush “[is] here with [him].” (Katniss, 130) Whereas Katniss’ reaction to Peeta’s confession is to “slam [her] palms into his chest” (Katniss, 135). This illustrates Peeta’s emotional personality and compares it to Katniss’s cold personality. This disproves the idea that gender roles are exactly true, and men cannot have similar features to