The Hunger Games

Katniss Everdeen-

The main character of recent film 'The Hunger Games' is Katniss Everdeen, who has been described as

" The heroine that the world needs right now"

Wired.com writes that even bigger than Katniss' challenge to win the Games using only "her bow, her arrow and her wits', is the challenge of proving that she is a heroine who can hold her own with the big boys, and hoping that pop culture will embrace this.


Katniss is quite different to the large numbers of female characters who are shown in films purely as 'sex symbols'. She is strong, smart, tough, compassionate and fierce: characteristics that stereotypical girls in movies and television have been lacking for so long.
She is not a typical, traditional superhero either. She does not possess special powers, or come from a comic book, and neither does she sacrifice herself like many female action-film characters (such as Trinity in the Matrix trilogy).
She is a true female hero, both physically and emotionally strong and 'The Hunger Games' does not follow the stereotypical storyline of the female hero obsessing over her male counterpart.

Determined, compassionate and both mentally and physically strong-
Katniss Everdeen is a perfect example of a not so stereotypical female character.

It is so important to have characters like Katniss in the media, as young girls are heavily influenced by what they see. Having more strong, confident, female characters like Katniss means better role models for the female audience who may be used to weaker, more passive female characters. The fact that she is a normal girl with a normal appearance, who wears every day clothing and isn't heavily made up and scantily dressed, ensures viewers are given a fairly realistic view of a teenage girl.


The Hunger Games has proved an outstandingly popular movie, with a fan base of mainly teen-aged males and females, and the majority of these viewers "root for" Katniss, ie. they support her and want her to win. And this isn't because she is outstandingly good looking, wears next to nothing, or acts dumb to catch a boy's eye. It's because she is a strong-minded, smart and brave character, who's story and background is developed so that the audience grows to know and love and support her.


The Hunger Games movie and the character of Katniss are very influential as they are putting across a non-stereotypical character who dresses and looks fairly average, and who is brave and has a good brain. Unfortunately characters like Katniss are still fair and few between, as often if a female character is the 'hero', she dresses in suggestive clothing, and smart girls in the media are often portrayed as unpopular and 'ugly' people (who usually go through some sort of transformation throughout the film where they dumb themselves down, and "become beautiful").

But Katniss Everdeen is a strong, smart, brave and heroic character who teenage girls all over the world should look up to as a role model.