Mockingjay: Please tell me this is going to get better.

[alexandral]

I am through about 40% of "Mockingjay", and dear friends list, I am getting seriously annoyed. Katniss is undergoing what is probably the worst ever character development in the history of fiction.

Where is Katniss that was a strong survivor? Where? When was she replaced by this whiny clueless mess:

- "No-one is telling me anything! My life is a woooooooooe!" Me: no-one is telling her anything because she is naïve beyond any belief (to the point where her naivety has become brain-deficiency) and throws tantrums all the time?

- "EVERYONE IS EVIL! Capitol is EVIL! Rebels ARE EVIL! Everyone is evil! Even Haymitch! How dares he to try to keep me alive! Even cats are evil!". Me: I am eye-rolling so hard my eyes are in danger.

- "Everyone died because of Meeeeeeeeee! I should have died! Died!" . Me: Katniss, get a grip on yourself. Please get a grip.

- "Oh no! Look at poor me suffering so much when watching Peeta tortured on TV! I passed out! And I raged! " Me: Peeta is tortured. PEETA. How come it is all about YOU?

Leaving my "I am so annoyed at this" feelings aside and trying to be rational: the character development of Katniss is that of Sansa Stark (A Song of Ice and Fire) in reverse. Sansa starts as young and terribly naïve and grows into a survivor. Katniss starts as a survivor and disintegrates into a puddle of jelly with no brains.

Please tell me this is going to get better. As it stands now, I think Katniss is as good a role model to young girls as Bella (Twilight), just in a different way (no brains, tantrums, "me me me" attitude)! I am so horrified that this is supposed to be "a feminist book for young adults".

PS: Shall I keep listening? There are 6.5 more hours of this! Or shall I give up, find the spoilers, and move on to some better books?

Comments

[sunbrae.livejournal.com]

are only interested in dresses!

Is Katniss interested in dresses, though? I thought the dresses/clothing she wore served a purpose and somewhat determined her role in the games. During the pre-Games events, Katniss's clothes—Peeta's, too—served to establish her presence within the games and gather the attention of the viewers. When Katniss interviewed with Caesar Flickman, her moments of "Look at my pretty dress. *twirls*" were due to Cinna's coaching. Then, after Katniss and Peeta won the first Games, Cinna had Katniss wear a demure dress in her interview to portray her as a young schoolgirl in love, instead of a young woman who defied the Gamemakers.

The same can be said for the second Games, where Katniss goes on about her pretty wedding dress. Again, that act was due to Cinna's coaching and played upon the audience's emotional investment in the tributes. She's not the only one who did that, either. Each tribute, in his/her interview, appealed to the audience's emotions—can't Snow do something about the games, since you all love us so much?, etc. Katniss's approach was through her dress, because the Capital citizens were all about fashion, but she (through Cinna) turned the wedding dress into a defiant symbol of rebellion.

In Mockingjay, the emphasis on clothes is only to show how functional Cinna made them so she could play her role in the rebellion. Additionally, in the books (I can't remember which one. Catching Fire, I think.), Katniss says she's thankful her "talent" as a tribute is dressmaking, because it's something Cinna could do on her behalf. That doesn't sound like she's interested in dresses to me. Just the opposite, in fact.

I don't think Katniss is stereotypically stupid, either. I agree that Katniss's lack of emotional insight can be annoying at times, but she's a girl who spent her life ensuring her family's survival, and she didn't have a lot of time to analyze her feelings or others' motives. As for her distrusting Finnick/Johanna/the other tributes in CF, I don't blame her. The truth is that she had, again, one goal: Peeta's survival. She was single-minded in her approach, and trying to accomplish her goal in the arena didn't allow for much introspection, especially when you consider the point of the Games is for the tributes to murder one another. As she said, whatever moment of solidarity the tributes had on the pre-Games interview show disappeared the moment the buzzer sounded.

Post Games, you have to admit Haymitch did use her, and without her knowledge. That has to bring up some trust issues. And nobody would let her rest. I know you don't think Katniss suffered more than anyone else; it doesn't matter if she had it better or worse than others, because her pain was still valid. She did suffer from being in the Hunger Games twice, and that's not something I'd expect her to analyze in a, "Look. Peeta/Haymitch/Finnick/etc. were in the Games and they survived, too. I guess I shouldn't complain" way.

I agree with fauxkaren: instead of allowing her to emotionally, mentally, and physically heal, she's become yet another pawn in Coin's/Haymitch's/Plutarch's games. I can't fault her for not being able to decide who to trust, what the ultimate goal is, or others' motives.

I didn't mean to sound like I'm attacking anyone or invalidating a different opinion. I just wanted to add my perspective, because I love Katniss and think she's definitely one of the stronger women I've read in fiction lately.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

The descriptions of dresses and outfits were too lengthy, too detailed, too loving, and too MATERIALISTIC. I found them to be very hypocritical because in the same book the author is trying to criticize materialism.

I thought Katniss was "not really stupid" at first, but in Mockinjay I was practically rolling my eyes.

Post Games, you have to admit Haymitch did use her, and without her knowledge. That has to bring up some trust issues.

BUT HE SAVED HER LIFE (and not just for the rebel cause). Well, this is what I mean about "clueless" - how would she not see that the plan would have never worked if she knew! Because, let's face it, she is so naive there was no chance for her to be able to hide anything (or not to start throwing tantrums).

But in seriousness, this series is such a terrible case of broken expectations for me that I honestly am all just "grgrgrgrgrgrgrgr" and other incoherent stuff. It started so well and disintegrated into such a mess! And I am not even talking about problems with worldbulding and narrative. Or with the fact that Collins "borrowed" so much from various sources. I am just raging about the "murder" of Katniss' character in this post.

[thehibiscus.livejournal.com]

Um... that's the point of the descriptions. To make the reader aware of the materialism rampant in the Capitol.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I am afraid you misunderstand my meaning. What I mean is: the way I read it, Collins is so much in love with the numerous, abundant and beautiful descriptions (there are so many of them it seems as if I am reading a fashion magazine) of Cinna's dresses that this clashes with her attempt to criticise materialism . This smells of hypocrisy.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

and think she's definitely one of the stronger women I've read in fiction lately.

You see, this is the PROBLEM. If she is one of the strongest, what about the others? When even the strongest woman is still weaker than a man (Peeta, for example)?

[geeklee.livejournal.com]

Wow. It seems I missed the fireworks. Since others have already shared it, I was also disappointed by katniss' character arc. While I agree EVERYONE (not just girls) is entitled to their feelings and it is always valid but books so frequently show the female characters being extremely emotional. I loved early katniss because she was different. She showed so much courage and strength when she was so young. It's hard to enjoy her falling apart, regardless of how realistic that may seem.

Lots of fans of "PTSD katniss" talk about how tired they are of she-roes. Are there really that many? And wasn't she more of a she-ro at 14 than she is now? (shakes head) Ok, she is bound to feel trauma from being in the arena twice. But I agree with you alexandral, others aren't hiding in closets. Sure they all have their crosses to bear but they appear to be handling it better. Again, the girl of the story isn't managing as well.

Her actions in district 13 makes me question how she did so much in the first books. I do believe we all have our breaking points and I guess it was all just too much for katniss. Even if all the others managed to pull through. That's the part that pisses me off about katniss. She's the only one hiding in the closet.

I also agree she's been horribly manipulated by the capital but goodness hasn't everyone who entered the arena or had a member of their family enter it? She started off so amazing and now she's so broken. So yes Collins, we get it. Life sucks.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

EEEEEEEE! Your comment is everything I wanted to say, but expressed beutifully. THANK YOU.

Also re: she-ros. I hate the term. I have always worked in a male-oriented field myself and I want more ladies doing more "male-oriented" stuff.