The Uprising of the Marginalized Society and Its Relation with Knowledge
in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
SarjanaPendidikan
Fiona Ferdiana
112009009
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
Fiona ii
The Uprising of the Marginalized Society and Its Relation with Knowledge
in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
SarjanaPendidikan
Fiona Ferdiana
112009009
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
The Uprising of the Marginalized Society and Its Relation with Knowledge
in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
SarjanaPendidikan
Fiona Ferdiana
112009009
Fiona iv
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Copyright@ 2013. Fiona Ferdiana and Danielle Donelson-Sims, M.A
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The Uprising of the Marginalized Society and Its Relation with Knowledge in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
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The Uprising of the Marginalized Society and Its Relation with Knowledge in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Fiona Ferdiana
Abstract
Analyzing Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, this paper draws on postcolonial theory, paying particular attention to the work of Edward Said about power and knowledge, to analyze the districts‟ uprising. Postcolonial criticism generally examines the relationship between the center and the marginalized. Edward Said, in his theory Orientalism, examines how the center sees the marginalized in the networks of power and its inseparable relation with knowledge. In Catching Fire, the Capitol is the center and seen
as superior and theDistricts in Panem are the marginalized and seen as inferior. Based on the theory above, applying it to the novel set in the future,
will make us think not only about how Said‟s theory about power and knowledge is not always true with the presence of humanity, but also how the
existence of colonialization is still happening and will present in the future.
Keywords: Postcolonial, The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Said, Power, Knowledge, Humanity.
I. Introduction
In March 2012 I watched a movie entitled The Hunger Games due to my curiosity in the novels‟ popularity in the United States. A news article in Jezebel stated that the Hunger
Games trilogy of novels has surpassed J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter saga as the best-selling
books (in both print and digital formats) of all times on Amazon.com. Publisher, Scholastic,
has also said that, as of July 19, 2012, the books had sold over 50 million copies (23 million
copies of The Hunger Games, 14 million of Catching Fire, and 13 million of Mockingjay) of
Collins' books around the U.S (Barry-Jezebel).Of course, it has been one of the hottest topics
on the internet as well, as the movie reached $672 million at the worldwide box office
However, after watching The Hunger Games, I didn‟t really get the attraction of why
the novel was overwhelmingly popular. I believe that when there are films based on novels,
usually the judgment goes to the book as being better since it has more clarity and detailed
explanations. Therefore, I decided to read the trilogy and found it really interesting that it begins in a future U.S. In the movie, the history and other important details weren‟t clearly
explained and those who haven‟t read the novel might find the movie confusing or even
boring. After reading the books, I re-watched the movie and it seems to make more sense than before. It‟s interesting to learn the kind of government, different lifestyles, conditions
and rules, along with the totally new tradition that they convey.
The tale of KatnissEverdeen, who is the narrator and the protagonist in the trilogy,
grabbed my interest. I like her personally for she is a tough first born child with a strong
survival ability and is very protective of her family, that consists of her little sister and her mother. Reading through, I deeply followed Katniss‟ actions and thoughts in her adventures
and struggles, and it prompted me to think critically about her surroundings. Actually, if
you read the trilogy, the injustice and huge gap between the Capitol and the 12 districts under its reign can‟t be missed. The Districts are clearly marginalized with the capitol‟s
government at the center of the oppression. Realizing the gap of power presented, the first
theory that crossed my mind was Postcolonialism Theory which in this case happens in the “future”. It‟s funny to think that if „Post‟ means „after‟, how can this be applied to the
future? Why do we never pass it and still have possibilities to continue struggle with it in
the future? However in this paper, we will see more of the relationship between power and
knowledge in Catching Fire through a Post-Colonialist reading.
The pioneer of Postcolonialism, Edward Said, stated that power and knowledge are
inseparable. That makes sense because when you have at least a higher level of knowledge
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the trilogy, this statement keeps bothering my mind. It is quite obvious in the third book,
Mockingjay, that as Katniss‟ knowledge about the government of the Capitol increases, her
power in rebelling also increases. However, Katniss‟ situation is very different in the first
and second book where she knows nearly nothing about Capitol‟s government and how to
rebel against it but her actions give a huge impact to trigger an uprising among the Districts
to stand against the Capitol which is very disturbing and upsetting for President Snow.
Before she realized it, Katniss was already powerful enough to create quite a stir in the
Capitol and even Panem. The second book, Catching Fire, interests me the most since in
this book the main character is actually set to be the main part of the rebellion without
knowing she is involved in the plan.
This thesis will examine the second book of The Hunger Games Trilogy, Catching
Fire, and excavate answers to the following question: How is it really possible for one to
have power to fight for an equal place in society without having proper knowledge about
gaining power? I will also make use of Postcolonialism theory to investigate the possible
answers. Furthermore, since academic papers about Postcolonialism in Catching Fire are
extremely rare compared to its first book, The Hunger Games, I believe that this research is
badly needed. The trilogy was released in 2008, so it is not surprising that there has been little
research done and theories applied to the trilogy. However, since its popularity remains high
and the Catching Fire movie will be released in November 2013, research about it is
important. Moreover, the study of Post-Colonialism continues to develop to suit the diverse
modernity in our era and the era after us. Therefore, this paper may prove useful for other
people in the future who are interested in the similar theme and aim to study a text with
post-colonial studies, for it is important since we live in the world of inequality where huge gaps
exist between races, the rich and the poor, men and women, also the Western and Eastern
II. Literature Review
Postcolonialismhas become one of the most exciting, expanding and challenging areas
of literary and cultural studies today. The world today is a world of inequality and much of
the difference falls across the broad division between a center group of people who are
dominant and other groups who are marginalized. As an example, Western countries are
placed in the dominant group and other countries in Middle and Far East areas are classified as „Other‟ or „Orient' or, in another word, marginalized. From this, a study called Orientalism
emerged (Khan, p. 2). As a founding text of Post-Colonial studies, Orientalism examined the
Western depictions of the Orient.
Orientalism was first defined by Edward Said, who was also the originator of the term
Postcolonialism. Orientalism is the term used by Edward Said for the assessment of the
attitudes and perspectives of Western scholars or Orientalists to legitimize colonial
aggression against intellectually marginalized and dominated Eastern peoples (Khan).
Orientalism itself is a discourse that raised the issues of power, knowledge, representation
and various other Postcolonial issues. Postcolonialism, however, is more applicable to other
colonial discourse, a theory which analyses the discourse of colonialism and colonialisation;
which demonstrates the way in which the theory points out the deep ambivalence of as well
as the way in which the criticismconstructs both colonising and colonized subjects (Ashcroft,
p. 15), and other marginalization cases whether one side is West and the other is East or not.
Orientalism is more likely to compare the dominant group somewhere in the West and the
marginalized group somewhere in the East, while Postcolonialism is broader than that being
concerned with how marginalization can happen in the West itself, not always outside the
West. Also, Orientalism is no longer used because it is seen as racist and less appropriate.
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explain that Postcolonial studies starts from Orientalism and both of them were first brought
up by the same person: Edward Said.
The ground of Post-colonial studies would not be what it is today without Edward Said‟s work. His work made a very influential statement on the nature of identity formation
in the Postcolonialism that people know today. The term Postcolonialism means to propose
both resistance to the colonial and its discourses continue to form cultures whose revolutions
have overthrown formal ties to their former colonial rulers (Khan). It is not surprising if
Post-Colonial Theory is often used to analyze the marginalized and exploited side in making
revolutions. Moreover in an unequal world, it is no wonder that this theory developed so well
and thus other Postcolonial critics like Gayatri C. Spivak, Homi K. Bhabha, and Frantz Fanon
have appeared, influenced and transformed the theory (Khan, p. 1).
Postcolonial criticism has embraced a number of aims: most fundamentally, to
reexamine the history of colonialism from the perspective of the colonized; to determine the
economics of both the colonized people and the colonizing power (Habib, p. 738). Marxist
theory, which stated that money means power, has also been closely related to Postcolonial
criticism. Both theories have been used to investigate literary works; such as Oliver Twist,
Jane Eyre, Mansfield Park, etc. to examine their processes of „colonialisation‟. In The
Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms, Ross Murfin and Supryia M. Ray stated
that an analysis of literary texts produced in countries and cultures that had come under the control of colonial powers at some point in their history is involved in „Postcolonial
Criticism‟. Postcolonial Criticism, therefore, often examines countries and previously
colonized places in both past and present times, and probably will continue to do so in the
Yet, the theory has continued to expand. This is because there are various groups of
people that are still marginalized at the time the theory was developed; for example the slaves
in the past, the poor people, the immigrants, and also other oppressed members of society that still exist today. However, with the theory expanded it doesn‟t mean that colonialization has
been overcome; it still happens nowadays in many ways and in many forms and the end is
still nowhere to be seen. Moreover, in this case, The Hunger Games Trilogy is written in a
futuristic setting and colonialization is even represented there. It shows that the power of
colonialization, related to knowledge, is not just something that happened in the past but is
still a very real problem for humanity which often happens and will likely continue to happen
in the future. In this paper, therefore, I will apply postcolonial criticism based on Edward Said‟s theory, examining the interrelation between power and knowledge in the uprising of
the colonized group in Suzanne Collins‟ Catching Fire, the second book of The Hunger
Games series.
If we discuss about power in accordance with the philosophies of Michel Foucault and
Edward Said, that knowledge should be considered along the line of power. They established
that power and knowledge are the inseparable components of the intellectual binary
relationship, and so the applied power of such cultural knowledge allowed Europeans to
re-name, re-define, and thereby control Oriental peoples, places, and things, into imperial
colonies (Orientalism, p. 208).The power–knowledge binary relationship is conceptually
essential to identifying and understanding colonialism in general. It is basically said that
along with knowledge, the colonizer could control the colonized people which then gave the
colonizer more power to obtain the knowledge they needed and control which knowledge is
for their private use and which is allowed to be shared to others. Without proper knowledge
about gaining power, one cannot gain power that matters from the other party. Without power
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knowledge. Therefore, power and knowledge always work in mutual directions in order to
obtain control of colonized people.
As stated before, Said established how power and knowledge are the inseparable
components of the intellectual binary relationship (Orientalism). Indeed those who have
higher knowledge have higher chances to control the others because they know how to do it. Therefore, those who have power of controlling others‟ knowledge usually have political
privilege too. The circle goes between acquiring knowledge, gaining power, controlling others to gain more knowledge and oppressing the others‟ knowledge, and so gain more
power to monopolize information to become more powerful and so on. This circle generally
explains the mutual relationship between power and knowledge. However, that is not entirely
applicable to every single case of colonization outside the European colonization. There are
other aspects that draw power as strong as knowledge and draw knowledge as delicate as
power. Those are strong will, humanity, courage, and others. Thereby, this study is taking its
concern by looking at some special cases where the mutual relationship between power and
knowledge is not conceptually essential.
For Said, the willingness to acquire knowledge is the key and he argues that it is essential
to know and distinguish between the wish to understand and enable peaceful co-existence and
the use of knowledge to dominate and for malevolent ends (AmalTreacher). Now, apart from
what motivations and consequences there are to acquire knowledge, the question is: Is
knowledge the only key to gain power?
The intention of this research is to analyze the colonized people, the oppressed ones,
who are dehumanized in the The Hunger Games: Catching Fire against their rulers called
theory, I will examine how far knowledge influenced their power in the process to stand up
against the Capitol. The point of view of the book is taken from the perspective of the
colonized, but this paper is first going to verify the way they are mistreated by also analyzing
how the Capitol and its government maintain their power. Then secondly, to answer the
following questions: How far is the role of knowledge inseparable with power in the uprising
of the rebels? Is there any avenue to gain power other than knowledge?
III. Summary of the Text
The Hunger Games Trilogy takes place in an unidentified future time period in North
America after it is destroyed and replaced by a totally new nation known as Panem. The story
of the protagonist, KatnissEverdeen, starts in the first book, entitled The Hunger Games and
builds more complicated conflicts and actions in the second book, Catching Fire. This thesis
will apply the theory of Postcolonialism to analyze the rebels in the second book of The
Hunger Games Trilogy: Catching Fire, where the uprising of the oppressed districts ignites.
There are some details from the first book that are important to know before we begin
to look at the second book. Panem, the new nation that replaced North America in an
unidentified future, is led by the Capitol which is surrounded by 12 districts that are forced to
produce different resources for the Capitol. Once, the districts rebelled against the Capitol but
the twelve of them were defeated and the thirteenth was allegedly destroyed. As punishment
and commemoration for the districts and as entertainment for the Capitol, one boy and one
girl between the age of twelve and eighteen from each districts must participate annually in
the Hunger Games, either being selected in a lottery or volunteering as a tribute in an event called „the reaping‟. The rules of the Game are simple, being released in a dangerous outdoor
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his/her district will be rewarded by the Capitol. The Games are televised nationally and the
whole of Panem must watch it from the beginning to the end.
Coming from District Twelve, 16-year-old KatnissEverdeen volunteers as a tribute in
the 74th Hunger Games to replace her sister who had originally been chosen.Katniss is taken
along with PeetaMellark, who has had a secret crush on Katniss since they were kids, and
they are both mentored by an alcoholic, Haymitch Abernathy, District 12‟s only living victor. Haymitch later demands Katniss and Peeta to act as if they‟re lovers to capture the sponsors‟
sympathy because it is only from sponsors that the tributes can receive all the help needed
during the Games. In the arena, Katniss does an impromptu memorial when her one and only
ally is killed which is seen as an act of defiance against the Capitol. The Gamemakers later
change the rules so that if both tributes from the same district survive to be the final two standing, they‟ll both be declared as victors. Katniss then teams up with Peeta; they both
spare each other lives and are the final two standing from District 12 when the rule changes
back so that there can only be one victor. Unexpectedly, Katniss gives Peeta some nightlock
(poisonous berries) to commit double-suicide. It urges the Gamemakers to declare them both
to be victors even though then their act is seen as a huge defiance.
In the second book, Catching Fire, 9 months has passed since Katniss and Peeta were
declared victorious. Everything at home in District 12 has changed, including Katniss'
relationship with Gale Hawthorne, her best friend and hunting buddy. Also, she and Peeta
still have to pretend they're in love because before the “Victory Tour” of the country,
President Snow threatens Katniss that he will hurt the people she loves if she can‟t convince him and Panem‟s citizens that the nightlock action was nothing like a rebellious action. If
Panem sees it merely as done because they‟re both madly in love, the Districts will not be
In the fourth chapter of the first part – „The Spark‟ of Catching Fire, Katniss and Peeta‟s
first stop in the Victory Tour was in District 11. It was the District where Rue and Thresh
were from, so there was much for Katniss to say since Rue, who reminded Katniss of her
sister, was the first alliance she had in the Games and Thresh once spared Katniss‟ life in the
Games. Rue and Thresh both were killed by other tributes.
After saying a scripted thank-you provided by the Capitol, Peeta gave personal comments
about Rue and Thresh and how Katniss and him were indebted to them. Then he added that
he would like for Rue and Thresh‟s families to receive one month of Katniss‟ and his own winnings every year for the duration of Katniss and Peeta‟s lives. A month of tribute
winnings could easily provide a family for a year, which means that, as long as Katniss and
Peeta live, they will not hunger. It made the crowd gasp and murmur. This attitude of
gratitude has never been done before and no one knew whether that was legal or not.
The ceremony continued and when it was about to end, Katniss stumbled forward because
of a sudden realization that she would be accursed if she said nothing and let Peeta do the
whole speech. Her impromptu speech was unexpectedly touching as she was very thankful
for Rue and Thresh, and also for how District 11 sent her bread during the Games.
After a long pause, someone whistled Rue‟s four-note mocking-jay tune and then, in
complete unison, every person in the crowd pressed the three middle fingers of their left
hands against their lips and extended them to Katniss. It was the District 12 sign of the last
good-bye Katniss gave Rue in the arena. Katniss‟ speech of gratitude unintentionally
provoked the districts. She had elicited something dangerous: an act of dissent from the
people of District 11 when she was supposed to be defusing any kind of rebellious action as
President Snow had threatened that she must do. Realizing the effects she might cause,
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mayor had taken over, leading Katniss and Peeta back toward the doors. Katniss turned
around as she remembered she forgot her bouquet and saw a pair of Peacekeepers dragging
the old man who whistled to the top of the steps, forcing him to his knees before the crowd
and put a bullet through his head.
Katniss and Peeta do what they can do; Peeta even proposes to Katniss at the end of
the tour, but still, the sparks of rebellion are now catching the fire and the Mockingjay pin she
wears in the arena has becomes the symbol of the rebellion itself without her knowing.
District by district begin to stage uprisings against the Capitol. One day, Katniss encounters
some runaways from District 8 who believe that District 13 is not entirely banished but they
live underground instead. These runaways are surprised that Katniss, the rebels‟ main inspiration whom many Districts call as The Mockingjay, doesn‟t even have a clue about it.
There is also this Quarter Quell which is held every 25 years which is a special edition
of the Hunger Games. In this 75th Hunger Games, the 3rd Quarter Quell, the 24 participants
will be reaped from the living past victors as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest
among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol.
Katniss and Peeta come back to the arena. At Haymitch‟s urging, they agree to team
up with some of the victors and later form the more skilled ones called Career Tributes. What they don‟t know is that the tributes they team up with are all rebels undercover that have
planned their escapes from the arena with their alliances outside. Just before the helps come, things get mess up and make Katniss panics which causes her to blow the arena‟s force field
on her own without knowing the rebels‟ plan.
The book ends with Katniss, along with FinnickOdair from District 4 and Beetee from
District 3 being rescued by the rebel forces from District 13. All of them have actually
the survivors that consists of Peeta, Johanna Mason from District 7, and Enobaria from
District 2 are captured by the Capitol. On the very last page, Gale comes to visit and informs
Katniss that, though he got their families out in time, District 12 is now completely destroyed.
IV.
Analysis
A. Power, Knowledge, and Control: Capitol
Following Foucalt‟s belief, Said stated in his book, Orientalism, that power and
knowledge are inseparable. Both Foucalt and Orientalism have been highly influential in
Postcolonial studies and, for some cases, the statement above makes sense. The one that has
power and knowledge can control and colonize, and if we are talking about the one who has
both power and knowledge,like the colonizer in Catching Fire, we are definitely talking
about the Capitol.
The Capitol got power because they also attained and controlled knowledge. In the Capitol‟s case, not only did they control the districts people‟s knowledge about each other,
but they also seized the district people‟s rights in order to colonize the districts. These are
some examples of the previous statement. First, Peeta had the scripted thank-you under the
supervision of the Capitol instead of his own words (Collins, p. 94). That limitation clearly shows that Capitol did control the knowledge and seized people‟s rights. The Capitol
controlled the districts‟ knowledge for the sake of maintaining their power by seizing Peeta‟s
freedom of speech because his speech was broadcasted to all of the districts.
Second, Katniss had to regret her effort of expressing her personal thanks to Rue and Thresh‟s families because a powerful party sees it as a rebel encouragement (Collins, p. 99).
The Capitol seized Katniss‟ right by giving ultimate judgment that what she did, speaking out
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we say the right of his very life, because it leads to our third example, how the old man in
District 11 was killed.
The man who started the unifying act was killed because his attitude was seen as a trigger
of rebellion that affected district people to follow his courage and united (Collins, p. 100). That powerful party, the Capitol‟s government, wouldn‟t allow freedom of speech or
anything in the Districts that may threaten their power and authority. They made themselves the „highest‟ by stomping the Districts down, seizing their right to speak and even to live if
they dared to stand against them.
Another example of seizing Districts people‟s rights to know what happened is when they
limited the information broadcasted. The Victory Tour was supposed to be broadcasted
nationally from the beginning to the end, but the footage was cut off when the unifying act
happened, so when the old man got shot, it was also off the record (Collins, p. 99-100). If the
other districts knew what happened, it would be a kind of encouragement to stand against the
Capitol, according to the government. This is also evidence that the colonizer also controls
the knowledge of the colonized so that the colonizer can stay in its powerful position.
Thus, Said‟s statement that power and knowledge are inseparable is right in the case of
the Capitol. The Capitol must obtain and control all knowledge to keep the power to colonize
and their knowledge in order to maintain their advantage in colonizing; they should have the
power to do so. This discussion of the link between power and knowledge leads into the
focus in the next section; the main discussion being on how the districts could do an uprising against the Capitol with limited information, which is in contrast to what Said‟s theory
suggested.
Postcolonial theory is partly a response to, and a resistance against, the endurance of
colonialism and is unashamedly political with its intent to change political, cultural and social
structures to enable democratic societies for all (AmalTreacher). It basically says that
Colonizers often do not allow democratic societies to develop among the colonized side or
between the colonized and the colonizer. The Capitol ruled the whole of Panem, redefined
their cultures and social structures, and thereby controlled them by monopolizing their
resources to benefit the Capitol; Panem is obviously not a democratic society. However,
when the oppressed society has been suffering for so long, when to live is harder for them than to die, they no longer have a fear of death and it‟s only a matter of time until someone
gives the spark and an uprising is inevitable. Now what does a person need to give that spark
of rebellion? I imagine Said would answer that if you want to produce power then the
knowledge of how you are doing it shall be a necessity. However, all examples from Katniss,
interestingly, show the opposite.
Katniss and her speech in District 11 was one example of a circumstance when a spark of
power wasproduced by someone who wasn‟t even aware of or had knowledge about any
rebellion. From the colonized party, we have Katniss and Peeta, teenagers from District 12
who had never been close to the Capitol, its concerns and anything related to it. Even until
they were chosen as tributes in the 74th Hunger Games, being in the Games once would not help them to gain any more knowledge about the Capitol‟s system of government or the
„inflammable‟ situation around the Districts after the Game. According to Said‟s theory, one
is supposed to know either about how to plan an uprising or execute and organize a rebellion
to gain power.However in contrast, Katniss and Peeta didn‟t know how to unite people or
start an organized rebellion. The only thing they knew at that time was that President Snow
had threatened Katniss. Therefore, they acted in-love to prove that the night-lock action was
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they gave in the District 11 was also their first personal speech ever and they had no idea how
to do it in a provocative manner. However, as a result of their speech, they created trouble for
the government in the Capitol by unintentionally giving the spark, the power, to rebel.
This Peeta and Katniss‟s case in Catching Fire, especially Katniss who unintentionally
created a strong response of unity among the people in District 11, is the first evidence of
how power can be obtained by the colonized side without them having any adequate
knowledge on how to make it happen. She didn‟t even know that the rebellion had started
everywhere, but she succeeded in encouraging the rebels even more. The man indeed got shot
because of the Capitol‟s power to control the masses, but before that, innocent Katniss had made unexpected trouble for the Capitol‟s government.
The second example, which also proves that power doesn‟t always necessarily go with
knowledge, comes along with the runaways from District 8 when they met Katniss. The
rebels had made her Mockingjay pin as their symbol, so that whenever they see the symbol,
they automatically have Katnissin mind. Even though the whole of Panem knew that, Katniss didn‟t.
When the runaways from District 8 showed Katniss the symbol printed on bread, the
following is her first response:
It‟s a Mockingjay. It makes no sense. My bird baked into bread. Unlike the stylish renderings I saw in the Capitol, this is definitely
not a fashion statement. “What is it? What does that mean?” I ask harshly, still prepared to kill. (Collins, p. 212)
Up to that point, she only knew that her pin was used for fashion purposes. Even after
“It means we‟re on your side,” says a tremulous voice behind me. I didn‟t see her […] “That cracker in your hand. With the bird.
What‟s that about?” I ask. (Collins, p. 214)
The mockingjay bird became a mascot for Katniss and she herself became the mascot
of the rebellion towards the Capitol. Apparently, Katniss did not recognize the mockingjay to
be used as anything other than a fashion statement in the Capitol. To confirm it further,
below is Katniss‟ response after one of the runawaysquestioned her knowledge about the
rebellion, mockingjay and all.
“Don‟t you know, Katniss?” Bonnie appears genuinely surprised. They recognized me. Of course they recognized me. My face is uncovered and I‟m standing here outside of District 12 pointing arrow at them. Who else would I be? “I know it matches the pin I
wore in the arena.”
“She doesn‟t know,” says Bonnie softly. “Maybe not about any of it.” (Collins, p. 215)
She definitely didn‟t have any clue about her pin being a symbol of rebellion as
Bonnie stated it clearlyin the last quotation. Katniss still knows nothing about the power she
actually possesses to lead, or at least ignite, the rebels. The other case that is related to the
second example is in the interview with Caecar when Katniss wore her burnable wedding dress that Cinna, her stylist, managed to design it so that when she‟s spinning the true design
could be revealed. Caecar, the interviewer, helps us to imagine what the true design is.
“Feathers,” says Caecar. “You‟re like a bird.”
“Mockingjay, I think.” I say, giving my wings a small flap. “It‟s the bird on the pin I wear as a token.” (Collins, p. 391)
Now we know that the true design actually made her similar to a Mockingjay. Just at
this time Katniss realized something big was about to happen.
“A shadow of recognition flickers across Caecar‟s face, and I can tell he knows that the Mockingjay isn‟t just my token. That
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What she does not quite get is that the Districts rebellion is going on already. Above all,
she thought Cinna was disappointed because Katniss had to join the Games two times in a
row that he conveyed the message of disappointment through his work. She never thought
she really was the Mockingjay, the bird that mocks the Capitol, flying free and voicing
rebellion throughout Panem. She was the one who was in the real danger.
[…]and suddenly I am so afraid for him. What has he done? Something terribly dangerous.An act of rebellion in itself. I remember his words.. “Don‟t worry. I always channel my emotions into my work. That way I don‟t hurt anyone but
myself.” (Collins, p. 391-2)
Interestingly, her having a little knowledge about the connection between Mockingjay
and Rebellion still didn‟t make her realize that she had the power to ignite the districts‟
uprising. She could not be convinced yet that she was the districts‟ Mockingjay. She sensed that her Mockingjay seemed to have significance, but that didn‟t make her feel like she was
even involved, let alone to believe that she was the spark of the rebellion.
The last example is taken from the moment Katniss went back to the arena. At Haymitch‟s urging, Katniss and Peeta agreed to team up with some of the victors. What they
didn‟t know was that the tributes they teamed up with were all rebels undercover who had
planned their escapes from the arena with their alliances outside, including people from the
supposedly destroyed District 13. Katniss had an advantage of knowing about the force field‟s chink, and just before the help came, Katniss panicked and blew the force field on her
own to save Peeta without knowing the rebels‟ plan (Collins, p. 587). It made the rescue only
half succeed with the other three survivors captured by the Capitol. Haymitch was so angry at Katniss for messing up the rebels‟ plan without knowing.
In this example, to clarify both situations of Katniss and the rebels, there are two
outside which are equipped with knowledge. On the other side is Katniss who relies on her
instincts. She had no certain knowledge to plan a good escape nor did she know about the
undercover rebels, but her spontaneity helped her through. Unfortunately, their plans collided without any of them knowing each other‟s plan so both goals failed. I can‟t say which group
is better in this case, because their methods are different. A group of adults in the colonized group had the knowledge in order for there to be power for the Districts‟ uprising, but we
have to keep this in mind that before Katniss showed up, they didn‟t dare to make a move at
all. The rebels needed Katniss to continue giving the spark, because she was the Mockingjay
and if she lived, the revolution lived. In light of the crucial role of Katniss, it is she whom we
will focus on.
With our focus on Katniss, who had the tendency to do things with her own conscious, we noted that in this example Katniss blew the rebels‟ plan. Things didn‟t end
well and Haymitch was angry at her for being reckless. Then how exactly is this being an
example of power produced without knowledge? It seems like an example of her failure from her lack of knowledge and so there won‟t be uprising produced as the outcome. However,
such a point of view is too short-sighted of Katniss, because this reckless action then became the start of Katniss‟ blatant rebellion to inspire all rebels throughout Panem. The rebels were
actually planned to blow the force field, Katniss did it a bit too early and caused Peeta and
two others to be captured by the Capitol first. At the risk of spoiling the story‟s development in the next book, Katniss‟ reckless action draws the strongest powerful effect as the districts‟
sympathy grows when they learn Katniss will do everything to save Peeta, including openly
fight against the Capitol, which leads to the biggest encouragement for the Districts to revolt
and so, rebellion continues and is even stronger in the next book.
Fiona 19
Having recognized that knowledge is not always required to have the power to rebel,
another follow up question appears: then how would the districts ever rise up and fight back
against the colonizer as they would have no or limited knowledge if the Capitol controls the
knowledge? There is certainly another aspect in Katniss‟ case that draws power as delicate as
knowledge and draw knowledge as strong as power. Said implied that to have the power to
trigger or even be a symbol of a rebellion, one must have a proper knowledge about what
he/she is doing: organizing a careful planning and making it happen. Or does it? If we look
back to the beginning, the triggers Katniss made without knowledge or a plan to revolt are
following this sequence: the impromptu memorial when Rue was killed, the nightlock suicide
attempt, and the impromptu speech in District 11. All of which were done out of human
spontaneity to express a certain feeling to other humans.
The answer to the question above is relatively simple; it‟s because there is another aspect
that is as strong or probably stronger than knowledge. In the Catching Fire case, that aspect is
humanity, as in to humanize other humans, respect their rights and treat them like what they
are, human beings. This could override the belief in Said‟s statement because it demonstrates
that power and knowledge do not always have to be present to create a mutual relationship
for the colonized to ever hope to fight against the colonizer.
Katniss‟ sense of humanity is the reason why she did the impromptu memorial in the
arena when Rue was killed, the nightlock suicide attempt, and the impromptu speech in
District 11. Katniss showed an appreciation tohonor Rue because she was a dead human child
and not just a dead tribute. Next, one should have other choice than just to kill his/her partner
because a party makes a rule which says so. The suicide attempt was also a sincere human
response to show that the Capitol doesn‟t own them; they are more than just a piece in the Capitol‟s Games (Collins, p. 141-2).Both Katniss and Peeta have the rights to refuse to kill
also an act of showing her attitude of humanizing the dead friends‟ family after being forced
to congratulate the victors of the Game who were probably responsible for the death of their
children. Therefore, her sincereact was against the colonizer, the Capitol, which always
dehumanized the colonized, and this draws a powerful response without her even knowing about the Districts‟ uprising.
Humanity turns out to be a powerful force to draw power as well as (or probably stronger
than) knowledge. Once again, do not get this wrong. To make clear, this is not about pointing
out that Said‟s statement is one big mistake, but to think beyond that by also looking at cases
where his statement does not work out; thatin some cases it is true, but in others it is too big a
generalization that must be made more specific and contextualized depending on the
examples. In other words, power and knowledge‟s relationship can be mutual in some contexts, but this is not the case with humanity. Humanity can be a power but one doesn‟t
have to have power first to have humanity.
V. Conclusion
Using Postcolonial perspective, this study has analyzed Catching Fire which is set in
the future, yet it happens to show us that colonization is there as well as in our era. To make
this conclusion section organized, the aims for this study will be divided into three parts. First is for the readers to not only absorb what is presented in today‟s popular culture, but also to
think critically using another perspective about what is beyond each literary work. It is
recommended because the greater the popularity of a story, the more it reflects both change
and stability in our culture (Popular Culture). In other words, it tells us what society we are
now, what we have been in the past, and where the two overlap to define what we may always be. It‟s like a saying I once heard from my literature lecturer, Danielle D. Sims, “Art
Fiona 21
also to be seen from different theories, to switch our view while we try to see the story in a way we‟ve never done before as the popular story reflects our society.
The second purpose of this study is to remind the readers of the possibility that
colonization, in various forms, is still an issue and will likely be a problem in the future. It is
interesting to point how even in future times, like the setting for The Hunger Games, they are
still addressing the same issues/problems. If only people think of this as a cause and effect
situation, it will cross our mind that because people in our era and before our era closed their
eyes and turned their head away from the gaps within our society, the center and
marginalized society will always be here in our era and there in the era after us. This research
is done with a hope that it will eventually move the reader, in whatever society they are, to
uphold humanity as a means of power too. If only there is one thing that the colonizer and the
colonized can have in common, it should be humanity. As long as both sides have humanity,
their gap can be minimized until there is no center or marginalized side anymore. Knowledge
that is acquired without humanity will result in greed of power and power that is acquired
without humanity will result in dehumanizing others. Definitely, greed of power and the act
of dehumanizing others are not making a better world for us and our offspring to live in.
Finally, the third purpose of this study is for the sake of future research. As stated before,
Postcolonialism is still a developing theory; this paper is intended to contribute to that
development. This research is necessary because of the intellectual needs that are changing,
especially in this twenty-first century, where education systems are wider and more diverse and theories from the 1960‟s are not so suitable anymore. As for future research suggestion, a
Marxist theory can be used as a tool to examine The Hunger GamesTrilogy. It is particularly
suggested to analyze Catching Fire using Marxist Theory to examine the class status there based on money, because in this book, Katniss and Peeta‟s families were moved to live in the
Katniss‟ sense of humanity interestingly minimized the class status gap between her and her
former neighbors and acquaintances. However, her relationship with her best friend, Gale
Hawthorne, was changed as she moved from one social status to another. It could also be suggested that Feminist Theory be used to examine Katniss‟ equality or superiority in the
story. However, it is most suggested to use Post-Colonialism to analyze the third book,
Mockingjay, as some people might still wonder if Katniss‟ humanity is enough. If the undercover rebels hadn‟t planned the breakaway nor have the knowledge about District 13,
would the rebellion have been possible? It is still debatable. The knowledge that the rebels
had about the existence of District 13, which specialized in nuclear technology and mining
graphite, only lead them from one form of dehumanizing to another because, at the risk of spoiling the story‟s development in the next book, District 13 had become an underground
district that accepted refugees as breeding stock. With a very strict lifestyle, the people were made thrifty by a dictator President. Eventually, it was again Katniss‟ humanity that
eventually put an end to the dehumanizing. Therefore, it will not be exaggerating if we say, again, that the districts‟ uprising is stronger if based on humanity than if based on knowledge.
For the final word, hopefully this research moves the readers to think more critically
toward literary works, increase their awareness of the marginalized people, create better
understanding about our society and later prove that humanity can change the broken world,
Fiona 23
Acknowledgement
I would like to express my deep gratitude to my thesis supervisor,Danielle Donelson-Sims, M.A. and
my thesis examiner,Suzana Maria L.A.F.,M.Hum. for their patient guidance, enthusiastic
encouragement and helpful critiques and comments of this research work. I would also like to thank
Duncan and Emily for their advice that has been a great help in keeping my progress, correcting the
technical mistakes in my practical learning andwritten terms. My grateful thanks are also extended to
my big family members for their material supports, preventing me from any kind of shortages so that I
could focus on completing my study well.Oma, Aunt Lily, Uncle Hian, Uncle Sien, Aunt Lucy, Mom,
P. Agung and Fender, I can‟t thank you enough.
I would also like to offer my special thanks to my friends whoarelike a family to me now for giving
me support and encouragement throughout my study. Thank you Liz and Dwi for being there in my
four years of university and sharing the most precious and unexpected sisterhood I‟ve ever had. Thank
you my fellow ailurophile Danielle and Brandon Donelson-Sims for teaching me critical thinking and
lighting up everyone‟s world with your overflowing excitement and kindness. Thank you Duncan,
Alison, and Janti for ears that listen and the loving hearts, also for offering a warm home. Thank you
Mariana, Amanda,Jessyca, Diane, Rut, Donna, Winona, Emily,Yurinaand other girl-friends I made
here and from my hometown for the mood-booster. I also thankAland, Herman, Steve, Alvin,
Thomas,Don, Daniel, Adityaand other guy-friends too for the brotherhood and strength-booster. My
thanks are also extended to Niners, all FBS students in my year, 2009, for the togetherness and the
helping hands.
Finally, I wish to express my gratefulness to God for all of his blessings in my life. I thank You for
giving me strength and being a wonderful grip and provider, also for giving me chances to know
myself better from the people you sent and making me a bigger person at heart and mind. Now I‟m
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