THE MONOMYTHIC JOURNEY OF A NEW HEROINE IN THE HUNGER GAMES

Suzanne Collins’ novel The Hunger Games has as its central metaphor the
monomythic journey of the hero. This research focuses on the novelist’s attempt to
redefine the monomyth in terms of gender, and on the ways in which Collins’s retold
version represents human experience in the contemporary world. This study presents
Collins’s protagonist, Katniss, who embarks on the traditional heroic quest and
confronts multiple challenges and frustrations on her journey to success. During her
heroic enterprise, Katniss turns inward, discovers and embraces her feminine nature
and seeks a satisfactory life paradigm as a result of which she attains the inner
integration and reconciliation of both masculine and feminine aspects of her
personality; she also understands and accomplishes her purpose in life. By recognizing
the mythical and archetypal situations, which are subverted or inverted in the novel,
Collins revises the significance of private and public achievements in the
contemporary community.