You Burn With Us: How Fire Functions in Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games Trilogy

This paper examines Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy and how fire behaves as a multifaceted element that constructs, exposes and transforms power. Through tracing the development of the protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, this research explores how fire evolves from a weapon into a symbol for revolution. This analysis uses the framework of other dystopian novels, and previous character analysis of The Hunger Games, to understand Katniss’s role in the revolution of Panem. It does so through three main behaviors: the construction of Katniss’s “girl on fire” persona that commodifies her for the capitol’s gain; the exposure of the state’s brutality and those in authority against its citizens; and the eventual transformation that the whole of Panem, but most importantly Katniss’ character, undergoes. By examining the narrative alongside real world revolutionary practices, such as in the Philippines, and defining key political campaigning tactics, like propaganda, this paper argues that Katniss’s story is fundamentally defined by the role of fire through three main behaviors. It is these behaviors that uncover the aspects of Collins’ series that make it popular amongst younger audiences, as they are inspired to fight back against those who oppress them.