“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself,” Joseph Campbell, author of the essay “The Hero’s Journey: A Summary of Three Steps,” writes. According to Campbell, every character will experience the same or similar stages. It begins with “departure,” then goes to “initiation,” and then ends with the “return” stage. These three stages can be seen in Suzanne Collins novel The Hunger Games, all of them sharing a common theme of rebellion.
These three phases demonstrate how a hero can defyy rules yet still conquer the enemy. “Departure” is the first stage the hero will experience. The “Call of the adventure” is the first significant part within “departure,” which Joseph Campbell defines as “the point in a person’s life when they are first given notice that everything is going to change” For example, in The Hunger Games, when Primrose, Katniss” little sister, was chosen to fight in the Hunger Games, Katniss was shocked, but without hesitancy, she spoke up and volunteered as tribute to take Prim’s place, even though Katniss knew that “the word tribute is pretty much synonymous with the word corpse, [and] volunteers are all but extinct” (Collins 22).
This is Katniss “Call of the adventure.” She realizes at this point that her life is going to change. This ties in to one of the main themes in this book: rebellion. For example, when Katniss walks up to the stage in order to officially take Primrose’s place, the crowd reacts in an unexpected way. Instead of applauding like they usually would, she is welcomed with silence. While this may not seem serious, it is District 12’s way of stating that they do not approve with what the capital is doing and that what they are doing is wrong. The crowd further defies the capital by placing three fingers up to their lips and then holding it up to Katniss, which is a sign of thanking the person and saying good-bye to a loved one (Collins 24.) This scene is significant because it shows, for the first time, that Katniss’ actions made the district want to rebel against the mighty capital, thus beginning Katniss’ “Call of the adventure.” Another significant part in “departure” would be “Supernatural Aid.” Campbel describes this as a “guide and magical helper.”
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In The Hunger Games, Katniss’ mentor is Haymitch, a District 12 tribute that previously won the Hunger Games. Haymitch does not seem like a good a mentor at first because even though he was a prior victor, when we first encounter him, he is always drunk and disordered. This is seen when, after Katniss volunteers to take Prim’s place in the games, Haymitch stumbles across the stage and shouts, “T like this one” (24). Katniss describes him as a drunk and that “it’s been a long time since he bathed” (24). Since one of the themes of this book is rebellion, and Katniss seems to break the rules and be rebellious, Haymitch appears to be the perfect mentor for Katniss. This is shown very early in the book. After stumbling onto the stage, Haymitch states that Katniss is someone with a lot of “spunk.” He then looks into the cameras, shouts “more than you,” and points straight into the camera (24). This part is important because it shows how much Haymitch already rebels against the capitol.
The next stage the hero will encounter is “initiation.” An important part of the “initiation” phase is the “road of trials,” where, as Joseph Campbell states, “Often the person fails” at one or more of the trials or tasks. We can see this when Katniss struggles with the tasks of saying and preforming the right things when it came to her interviews. During one of these interviews, for example, the interviewer asks her about Primrose; Katniss immediately feels an “icy rigidity taking over her body, and she coldly says that she promised she would win for Prim. Katniss does not like the capitol people; therefore she was not warm or welcoming when she talked to them, unlike some of the other tributes who tried to win over the audience because they wanted to get the people on their side (28.) Another example showing Katniss’ “road of trials” is when she trains for the games.
She performs multiple tasks in the arena with the capitol Gamemakers judging her by how good she is with her weapon of choice: the bow and arrows. Katniss quickly becomes angry because this competition could mean life or death for her, and they are not even paying attention to what she is performing like they are with other tributes. So, without hesitation, she shoots an apple into a dead pig that is brought in and placed on a table by the Gamemakers. They stare in disbelief while Katniss mockingly says, “Thank you for your consideration” (103) and then leaves without being dismissed. This part is important because this scene shows the protagonist already rebelling against them; she shows no fear of the capitol and defies their rules. Another significant part in “initiation” would be with the “Atonement with the father.” “[T ]he person must,” according to Campbell, “confront and be initiated by whatever holds the ultimate power in his or her life.” In Katniss’ case, this person is President Snow.
He is the tyrannical, ruthless nuler of Panem. He held the ultimate power over Katniss’s life because he is in control of the system and knows all of Katniss’ secrets and weaknesses. This is an example of where we see the theme of rebellion come to play in the b0ok. Whenever Katniss rebels against the capitol, she rebels against Presidents Snow since he is the leader of Panem and, thus, the Hunger Games. For example, when Rue, a tribute from District 11, is brutally killed in the arena, pure defiance stirs inside Katniss that makes her want to shame the capitol and make them accountable for forcing the districts to kill one another for their mere entetainment. Katniss says how, for the first time, she understands that the capital does not own her and that “Rue was more than a piece in their games,” and so is she (236-237.)
This part is very important because this is when Katniss first feels the actual uprising of rebellion within her, and she wants to make the capitol pay for the wrong they have done to everyone, especially those she cares about. “Return” is a third stage the hero will experience on his or her journey. “The magic flight,” a part of the “return” stage, is defined by Campbell as “[being] just as adventurous and dangerous returning from the journey as it was to go on it.” We can see what he means by this when Katniss and Peeta win the 74th Hunger Games and a dreamlike ship takes them away from the brutal game. The only reason Katniss and Peeta are both allowed to win is because they force the Gamemakers to change the rules of the game.
They do this by threatening to kill themselves by eating poisonous berries, which would kill both district twelve tributes, meaning there would be no winner for the capitol’s Hunger Games: “they have to have a victor, without a victor the whole thing will blow up in the Gamemakers’ faces” (344.) She wants the Gamemakers’ to suffer for the horrors that they put the tributes through. Katniss and Peeta’s actions highlight the theme of rebellion and are essentially because, due to their noncompliance towards the Gamemakers and their rules, Katniss and Peeta now face the possible wrath of the capitol. Freedom to live” is another important aspect to the “return” stage.
Campbell states, “Mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the freedom to live.” Katniss and Peeta thought they might die because of their threat to eat the poisonous berries, but they are instead told that they will both live and leave the games. Katniss knew she could defy the Gamemakers’ rules because she knows they need a winner for their games, and this is shown when she tells Peeta to trust her (344). Katniss’ constant rebelling and ultimate triumph is signiticant because it shows the other districts that if a girl from the lowest district defied the capitol and still came out winning, then they could also have the power to rebel and succeed against the unfair rules that were forced upon them by the capitol. While Joseph Campbell has more than three stages that a hero may face on his or her journey, three important phases are “departure,” “initiatio,” and “retum.” Applied to The Hunger Games, these three stages can be seen, and all phases encompass the theme of rebellion.
Works Cited
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic Press, 2008. Print.
