浅析《饥饿游戏》三部曲中女主人公的生态意识

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摘 要

苏珊.柯林斯（Suzanne Collins）是美国成功的儿童电视节目编剧，也是全球知名的畅销作家。她所创作的《饥饿游戏》三部曲记叙了一部战争、奴役、反抗的历史。小说中以女主人公凯特尼斯为代表的青少年反抗压迫、亲近自然，且不断建立和扩大与他人的认同，这一主题蕴藏着深刻的生态意识。

本文旨从三个方面探讨凯特尼斯的生态意识：意识凯特尼斯生态意识形成的外部因素，这主要帕纳姆国失衡的生态现状以及凯特尼斯的父亲、搭档皮塔及妹妹波利姆三人对其产生的重大影响；二是分析凯特尼斯生态意识的觉醒，主要体现为她亲近大自然、背起饥饿游戏的残暴规则以及反抗极权政府等生态实践；三是阐释凯特尼斯的生态意识在《饥饿游戏》三部曲中的深化过程，即不断扩大自我认同对象范围的过程。凯特尼斯逐步将家人和朋友、地区的民众直至麻木不仁的都城市民纳入认同圈，其生态意识在这一不断扩大的认同中得深化。

关键词：《饥饿游戏》；苏珊.柯林斯；凯特尼斯；生态意识

Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………1
2. Literature Review…………………………………………………………1
3. The Ecological Status Quo of Panem………………………… …………..3

3.1 Disharmony between Human and Nature …………………………………..3

3.2 Alienation among Human Beings…………………………………………...5

4. Influential Persons in Shaping Katniss’s Eco-consciousness……………..6

5. Awakening of Katniss’s Eco-consciousness………………………………...6

5.1 Getting Close to Nature……………………………………………………..6

5.2 Deviating from Rules of the Hunger Games………………………………..7

5.3 Fighting Against Governmental Oppression………………………………..7

6. Deepening of Katniss’s Eco-consciousness………………………………...8

7. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...9

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………...11

1. Introduction

Suzanne Collins is an American television screenwriter. She is also best known as the author of The New York Times best selling series The Hunger Games trilogy, including The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay. The Hunger Games trilogy takes place in Panem, the remains of a North America where a highly civilized central city named the Capitol reigns supreme over its 12 outlying, impoverished districts. As a punishment and reminder for a prior districts’ rebellion, two tributes from each district –a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18 are selected via lottery called the reaping to fight to death in a high-teach arena in the annual nationally televised Hunger Games. Only one victor remains. The story follows the narration of the heroine Katniss who volunteers to replace her young sister to join the 74th Hunger Games.

This thesis is a cortical analysis of Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games trilogy. Throughout the series I want to explore the shaping and development of the heroine Katniss’s eco-consciousness.

2. Literature Review

To date, the study of The Hunger Games trilogy mainly concentrates on such aspects as theme, culture, philosophy, politics, games theory, metaphor and ecological perspectives.

As far as its themes are concerned, some topics have been investigated such as gender, morality and ethics, war, identity, classical themes and ecological themes. In “A Literary Criticism of the Classical Themes and Allusions Found in the Hunger Games”, Mary McGunigal pays attention to the first novel of the Hunger Games. She writes that “although set in a futuristic society, the chief inspirations for its narrative structure and themes are drawn from the ancient Mediterranean world. Classical themes and allusions permeate the first novel”. In “Katniss and the politics of Gender”, Jessical Miller makes a clear distinction between sex and gender, probes into the blend of gender in Panem and values both masculine and feminine roles, regardless of who fills them. George A. Dunn conducts a study on the relationship between morality and luck in “Morality and luck in the Games Trilogy”. Dunn argues that luck plays an ineradicable role in the fate of the characters in the trilogy. Lindsey Issoe Averill turns to care ethics in her “Katniss and the Feminist Ethic”. According to Averill, the present understanding of morality focus on impartial reasoning and abstract ideals, while feminists come up with a moral theory known as feminist care ethics or simply the ethics of care arguing that care is an equally valid basis for moral decision making. A debate on what should guide our conduct in a natural state is carried out in Joseph J. Foy’s “Morality and the War of All in the Arena”. Foy introduces two opposing arguments proposed by Thomas Hobbes and Immanuel Kant respectively, sums up their ideas and asserts that “a justification for brutality and inhumanity robs us of the dignity that makes our lives worth living”. As Foy studied on the war of every man against every man, Louis Melancon examines the morality of the bigger war, namely, the rebellion against the Capitol in his article “The Just-War Tradition and the Rebellion against the Capitol”. Meclanceon contends that the Mockingjay revolution which stumbles into peace was not a just war. Another aspect of interpretation is explored in “The Problem of Identity in Panem.” Also, Sandra Makaresz (2009) examines three young adult fictions, including The Hunger Games in his MA thesis “Skydweller and Representation of Adolescent Crisis: Group Identity Versus Alienation”. Bases on Newman’s identity theory, Makaresz probes into the adolescent crisis Katniss went through: her alienation resulting from common identity that constructed in Collin’s dystopia, moving from a state of foreclosure to being force into a crisis of group identity versus alienation, and in the end retreats to the safety of her alienation self. Another article of significance to the study of The Hunger Games is written by Pramod K. Nayar.

Apparently, criticism on The Hunger Games trilogy abroad is still limited, so is the situation in China. A Chinese translation of the series was done by Prof. Geng Fang. Since the two films adapted from the first two novels in trilogy were open to Chinese audience in 2012 and 2013, Chinese critics and readers began to study the fiction out of mere interest and curiosity. However, Chinese scholars have rarely lucubrated on the novel or the adapted film systematically and theoretically. There are only some superficial articles available to express the authors’’ impressions on the fiction and film.

Though criticism on The Hunger Games trilogy and the adapted films are limited, the cover a relatively wide range of aspects including identity, gender, morality, war, rising art, entertainment, classical, allusion, and social action. However, another brand new aspect to be discovered is the ecological concern and consciousness embodied in The Hunger Games trilogy. Through the trilogy is richly laden with references to nature world, there have been surprisingly few “environmental studies” of Collins’ fiction whose sole purpose has been to address the novel’s treatment of natural environment. Moreover, in the vast majority of cases where nature is addressed, the context is usually other than nature and from a non-cortical perspective.

3. The Ecological Status Quo of Panem

The Hunger Games trilogy takes place in a country-Panem. The ecological status quo of Panem is very negative. The government separates the residential area deliberately from nature, cutting off both the external and internal connection between human and nature. Artificial modification of land in constructing arenas for the Hunger Games adds to the situation. Scientific and technological manipulation of animals pushes the tension between human and nature to the critical point. Also human beings are alienated from each other. District civilians are constantly kept under hunger and forced into slavery, while the Capitol citizens are cold and numb towards the suffering in districts. But all above, the tributes selected from the reaping fight each other without mercy to death for survival in the arena.

3.1 Disharmony between Human and Nature

The relationship between human and nature is deteriorated in Panem. There has already been ecological crisis in its history. “He tells the history of Panem, the country that rose up of the ashes of a place that was once called North America. He lists the disasters, the droughts, the storms, the fires, the encroaching seas that swallowed up so much of the land, the brutal war for what little sustenance remained”(Collins, 2008:18) Those disasters are direct the results of the deteriorated relationship between human and nature. While the whole country of Panem survived the disasters, ecological crisis has never withdrawn. The tension between human and nature is intensified and comes to a new height. The disharmony between human and nature can be shown in three aspects: deliberate segregation of nature, artificial modification of the land, and scientific manipulation of animals.

The deliberate segregation of nature proclaims the opposition between human civilization and nature in the dystopian world of Panem. This act of government in the Capitol has direct effect on citizen’s perception of nature. Effie, escort of district 12 from the Capitol, thought what if we put enough pressure on coal it turns to pearls. When it comes to people in districts where the wilderness are separated from residential area, nature is generally conceived as a scary, forbidden place full of danger. Katniss concluded the reaction of people in District 12 towards nature in one brief sentence, “District Twelve. Where you can starve to death in safety” (Collins, 2008:6)

Another aspect of the disharmony between human and nature we can see in artificial modification of the land, that is, constructing arenas, where tributes fight each other to death, the high-teach and artificial “natural" surrounding controlled by the game-makers in the Capitol. At the beginning of the story, it was told that the twenty –four tributes will be imprisoned in a vast outdoor arena that could hold anything from a burning desert to a frozen wasteland. What is more, Katniss tells us that “ A life-time watching the Hunger Games lets me know that certain areas of the arena are rigged for certain attacks” (Collins, 2008: 175). Therefore we can come to the conclusion that the government, represented by the game-makers, modifies the land into whatever they want to be.

The vicious interaction between human and nature can be also traced in the scientific and technological manipulation of animals in the Capitol. While the deep ecologists regard animals as having intrinsic values, hence, “the best course of ‘action’ is to let being been, to let them take care of themselves in accord with their own natures”. However, the Capitol adds scientific changes to the animals and turns them into deadly weapons against tributes and district civilians.

3.2 Alienation among Human Beings

Alienation of human nature means that people can not control their own humanity and not be manipulated by their own desires. The influence of alienation in the realistic society is also very obvious. Most of them will under the influence of alienation was enslaved by the desire, and in the film "the Hunger Games series includes Titus and Katniss. Many people own humanity swing between God and beast, especially Katniss often produce contradictory and complicated mentality. Although she has brave quality and good nature, the emulative heart, desire to survive, deception, jealousy and so on. Those will affect the nature of her kind, and the girl‘s performance is very easy to let the audience to associate their mental activities and produce the identity sense. Before participating in the Hunger Games, she has to worry about the family"s food all day, but Katniss is free and happy, especially when she is hunting with Gail. With the harvest festival approaching, katniss had never thought to escape. She loves her young sister Prim. She could not abandon her young sister and mother to live a free life. If she does not bring food to them, they all have starved to death. It is a sense of responsibility to Katniss. Because she loves her young sister, she replaced Prim as a tribute in the Hunger Games. Because of her sister"s and mother"s love make although become more powerful in the game. But although just an ordinary person and not a perfect figure, she must to be strong that is only way to survive in the arena. Under the influence of this desire, Katniss is no longer insists her human nature then alienated. According to Katniss’s memory, Peeta had saved her life when she was being starved in the District 12. But in the brutal game she still has to protect herself, so she decided to kill Peeta when the situation is necessary. Then whatever Peeta has how outstanding performance that was considered to be "objective" behavior in katniss’s eyes. At the moment, Kettenis has become a liar and the lie becomes the important way to make her survive, which is an important embodiment of Katniss’s humanity alienation. With her awakening, Katniss is no longer willing to be the capital"s plaything, let others control their human nature. She couldn"t kill Peeta to survive alone. She finally returned to the original Katniss, she put her life beside and bravely challenges the authority of capitol. At the end of the key moment, she came up with a good idea that she and Peeta ate a poisonous berry at the same time and make a decision to die together, because the game’s maker must have a winner. At this time, katniss and Peeta have been indifferent to life and death, katniss bet that with her life: capitol will not let her and Peeta die, they need a final winner. Finally, katniss won the bet and then she and Peetta to survive and become the winner of the competition. At the beginning of the first game, Most of the tributes have a kind and beautiful human nature, but during the game they were losing themselves. Finally, Katniss waked up, Katniss and Peeta to be the winner, this action was against the Capitol’s authority. This is a great progress in the history.

4. Influential Persons in Shaping Katniss’s Eco-consciousness

The shaping of Katniss’s eco-cousciousness is inseparable from the influence of three persons who are of great important to her: Katniss’s father, partner Peeta, and her young sister. Though an ordinary miner, Katniss’s father knew much about the natural world. He brought Katniss with him into the woods and taught her how to survive in a nature and learn how to appreciate the beauty of it. While Katniss’s father acted as her childhood mentor of nature, Peeta, Katniss’s partner in the Hunger Games, lets Katniss know what nature is and how to maintain one’s nature. Katniss’s young sister is also a key person in the shaping of Katniss’s eco-consciousness. Throughout the trilogy, Katniss has been trying to protect Prim and her kindhearted nature and compassion towards animals and Prim is the hope of eco-centric world all the being coexists harmoniously. Her death is a fall back in human beings’ way to oneness and makes Katniss realize the real evil in the existing world.

5. Awakening of Katniss’s Eco-consciousness

5.1 Getting Close to Nature

Katniss was born in District 12, on the outskirt of which lie pockets of semi-widerness. Since the control of Capitol is relatively weak here, Katniss can sneak into the woods through a loose stretch in the electrified fence. Her early experience in the woods bore a close relationship to her father. After her father died, Katniss hunt alone until she encountered Gale. She is deep connected with nature both emotionally and spiritually.

The wood is a place filled with happy memories which Katniss and her father spent together and also a place where Katniss hunted and collected and to support her family, and a place where she enjoys happiness and peace. Only in the woods can she be her real self. “Gale says I never smile except in the woods” (Collins, 2008:6). The woods were always a harbor of refuge for Katniss before the Hunger Games and after she was crowned the victor. She is still hunting in the woods though she is wealthy off as a victor.

Her survival skills in the woods have given her great advantage in the Hunger Games, for example, getting herself food and water, chewing the inner bark of pine tree for food and setting snares using wire in the bush to catch rabbit. She knew that eating raw rabbit can get rabbit fever. She tracked game with the help of mud, which is also useful for bee stings. She purified the water with drops of iodine before drinking it. She can climb trees to escape from attacks. Therefore she survived in the hazardous arena.

5.2 Deviating from Rules of the Hunger Games

Due to a prior districts’ rebellion against the Capitol, the Hunger Games were held as a yearly reminder that the history would never be repeated. The rules of the Hunger Games are simple. In punishment for the uprising, each of the twelve districts must provide one girl and one boy, called tributes, to participate. The twenty-four tributes will be imprisoned in a vast outdoor arena that could hold anything from a burning desert to a frozen wasteland. Over a period of several weeks, the competitors must fight to death. The last tribute standing wins. (Collins, 2008:18) Katniss took Prim’s place in the reaping and became the girl tribute of District 12 in the Hunger Games. Finally, Katniss and Peeta won in this game. Her holding out the berries was later conceived as an act of rebellion across the districts.

5.3 Fighting Against Governmental Oppression

Government oppression is severe in Panem. The Capitol kept district civilians under hunger, forced them to work for extremely low pays, held the annual Hunger Games and intimidated the victors into sex trade. However, people in districts chose to be silent and stood whatever form of suffering the Capitol imposed. Katniss also acted the same way. Cautious as she was, Katniss still could not protect Prim from the reaping. Therefore she volunteered to take prim’s place in the 74th Hunger Games. In the arena, Katniss defied the Capitol by decorating Rue’s body in flowers and saving both Peeta and herself. However, after she returned to district 12, Katniss started acting as before. She was terrified when President Snow visited her house and had a conversation over her action in the arena. Katniss promised that she would behave in the Victory Tour and convince people in districts that she was just mad in love with Peeta. But the spark had developed to the fire beyond Katniss’s control, and her thank-you speech in District 11 added to the fire. Anyhow, she failed to meet the requirements of President Snow. Back from the Victory Tour, Katniss caught the news of uprising in district 8 by accident in the Mayor’s house. She started to meet an escape plan for her family and her friends. But the brutality of the Capitol makes her face the reality. Gale was whipped almost to death for hunting, and more people were going to be hurt the way he did. In Katniss’s own words: “I must know it isn’t enough to keep myself, or my family, or my friends alive by running away. Even if I could, it wouldn’t fix anything. It wouldn’t stop people from being hurt the way Gale was today” (Collins, 2009:118). She made up her mind to join the uprising in other districts. The announcement of the next Hunger Games pushed Katniss over edge. She was to be back in the arena. The rebels later broke several tributes out of the rebellion. The revolution turned out to be successful. People stumbled to peace and liberty.

6. Deepening of Katniss’s Eco-consciousness

As to Coin, the Capitol citizens are merely a necessary existence for the country. She deemed them as having only the values that she assigned. Since holding another Hunger Games by using Capitol children “seemed to balance the need for vengeance wit the least cost of life” (Collins, 2010: 369), Coin did not hesitate to sacrifice them. Whatever she did is all for her own interest, namely, to be the next president of Panem. Only Katniss did not buy her word. The time of an eye and a tooth foe a tooth is gone, for Katniss gained a broadened and widened sense of self, that is, the ecological “Self”.

According to Warwick Fox, there are three bases of identification: personal, ontological, and cosmological. Personally based identification refers to experiences of commonality with other entities that are brought about through personal involvement with these entities. Warwick Fox said that we generally tend to identify most with those entities with which we are often in contact. We experience these entities as part of “us”, as part of our identity.

While the externalized revolution against government oppression makes great progress, an internalized revolution is going on in Katniss simultaneously. Her eco-consciousness is deepened through widening identification with people. Lindsey Lssow Averill argues in his article, “Throughout the Hunger Games trilogy, Katniss extends this sense of responsibility to encompass a larger circle of people, eventually even putting herself at grave risk for a stranger” This thesis contends that Katniss’s act of extending “this sense of responsibility” is a process of identification following the track of sacrificing for relatives and intimate friends, sympathizing with district’s civilians, and finally identifying with Capitol dwellers.

7. Conclusion

Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games trilogy not only presents a history of war, oppression, and rebellion, but also to shape the awakening and deepening of the heroine Katniss’s Eco-consciousness.

The Hunger Games trilogy is widely read around the world, criticism on The Hunger Games trilogy and the adapted films are still limited. However, it covers a wide range of aspects including theme, culture, philosophy, politics, game theory, heretical principles of Deep Ecology, intends explore the formation and development of Katniss’s Eco-consciousness in The Hunger Games trilogy. As Glotfelty defined, “eco-criticism is the study of the relationship between human and nature which is inharmonious and human beings are alienated from each other. The oppressive government deliberately separates the residential area from nature, modifies land into unnatural arenas and manipulates animals’ for evil purposes. The shaping of Katniss’ Eco-consciousness is also influenced by three persons: Katnisss’s stepfather, partner Peeta and Katniss’s young sister. Her stepfather serves as the mentor who led Katnisss into the natural world. He has a gift for painting; Peeta approached the natural world with great respect. Katniss’s young sister not only identifies with animals, but also cares for human beings.

The awakening of Katniss’s Eco-consciousness is marked by three aspects: first, getting close to nature; second, deviating from the rules of the Hunger Games; third, fighting against governmental oppression. Unlike other district civilians, Katniss shares a deep connection with nature. Naess contends that “we may be said to be in, of and for Nature from our very beginning” (1995:14). The rule of the Hunger Games requires that only one victor remains, which throws the tributes into a situation of opposition. One survival then the rest twenty tributes must be dead. Katniss saved both Peeta and herself by playing a little trick. Besides, Katniss made up her mind to join in the rebellion against oppression. She is not only fighting for the happiness of her family and close friends, but for the freedom and welfare of the whole country. Katniss’s Eco-consciousness is deepened through expanding identification and the realization of the “Ecological Self”. Her identification circle expanded from family and close friends to districts and eventually to those living in the Capitol. Katniss accomplished her identification with all beings in her world.

Through textual analysis, she successfully led the revolution against oppression and anti-slavery then acquired freedom and equality. Katniss’s Eco-consciousness has developed from the state of awakening to mature within the novel.

Works Cited

[1] John Wiley amp; Sons. A Critique of Pure Treason, 2012.162-176.

[2] Buell, L. Environmental Crisis and Literary Imagination, 2005.

[3] Suzanne. Collins. The Hunger Games. 2008.

[4] Suzanne. Collins. Catching Fire. 2009.

[5] Suzanne. Collins. Mockingjiay. 2010.

[6] Desidrdins. Environmental Ethics: An Introduction to Environment Philosophy. 2006:202-203.

[7] 孟琳. 《饥饿游戏》小说到电影. 电影文学, 2013(11).

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