Hi friends! I've had in mind for a while now to start writing up posts about fictional characters & how I relate to them specifically. Because I think that's really one of the most beautiful things about fiction, really-- all stories are good for helping open our minds to new ideas, but now & then there's something special that draws you in & it's like you get to live more life, in a way.
Disclaimer: you know I like MBTI stuff, & maybe you like MBTI stuff too, but this isn't about typing characters. Part/most of it will be aspects that could be labeled under such terms, but it's not really the point-- I want to keep it more universal, more about anything that makes me feel a connection. (In this case in particular, part of why I relate to Katniss isn't even just about her, but also the characters around her & how she feels about them, & that has nothing to do with MBTI, sorry.)
(I do think Katniss is maybe ISTJ. But I think she suffers a bit from what I like to call Mulan-syndrome: sometimes she's just The Character that the Story Needs Her to Be.)
Disclaimer #2: SPOILERS INCLUDED, okay. I want to be able to get specific. & I figure if you care about how I relate to Katniss, you probably care because you already know about Katniss.
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I am not actually sure when I first heard about The Hunger Games. I think someone I know had just found out there was going to be a movie made based on the book, & was looking for someone with whom he could talk about how similar it was/wasn't to Battle Royale (which I have read, more recently, & they really aren't particularly similar except for the bit about kids having to fight to the death). What I do remember is slouching around the ol' apartment & DEVOURING the trilogy in a matter of days. & it's not that they're the greatest books, really. I was actually a bit bugged about at least one particular writing choice, & I still think that the movies are better than the books so far (I've only seen the first two)... but what really got me, what made the story mean a lot to me, was how deeply & how quickly & how specifically it made me feel a connection with Katniss.
One of the first things the story establishes is that Katniss has a best friend, Gale. Gale is a little older than she, they met when she was a younger teen, he's an idealist & gets angered by injustice, they can talk together about everything or nothing, they're always there for each other.
I had a Gale in my life, too, & immediately made that connection.
Katniss cares about injustice & so forth too, she's just super practical about it. She & I don't dwell much on things that we can't affect ourselves. (& we're not out-of-the-box thinkers, so there's not much we DO think we can change in the world.) She/I will do ANYTHING to do what we see needs to be done, like Katniss hunts/sells/lawbreaks/keepshersisterintheclear. Our heart is in doing our absolute best in what we see as our place. It's not that we're lazy, or don't care about the world as a whole, we're just not that broadly ambitious! We'd rather commit to what we see as the most important, analyzing our present circumstance, & dealing with things as they come. We have limited resources, & don't want to lessen the good we can do in our chosen little causes by trying to do more good in more places. It's a weakness/strength.
Then, before too long, we meet Peeta. It didn't take me long to identify him with the Peeta in my own life. He cares so much, on a personal level, about everything. Because he sees in everything how it matters to the people around him. He's rarely actually happy, because his happiness is so closely tied to the feelings of everyone else. He doesn't see himself as anything particularly good or special or worthy... as long as there are still people hurting, he'll still feel a need to be better, so that he can help them. He has a way with people, of understanding what is really going on, & knowing what to say. So people listen to him.
I had mixed feelings when the whole love-triangle thing became a thing. WHY CAN'T THEY JUST LET A GUY & GIRL BE FRIENDS, I screamed internally. But, let's be real... when I was her age, I thought maybe I'd end up with my Gale. So. It's not so much that I was mad about the trope, as I was mad about my connection to the story getting deeper. Truth is, I've lost my Gale. I knew that no matter what happened to her relationship with him, I was going to have feels about it. I already warned you about spoilers, so I can go ahead & say that when they found him whipped nearly to death, I was about as close to crying over a book as I've ever been in my life. He's not even one of my "favorite characters", he's just one of the most REAL, well real to me anyway. Katniss freaks out & tries to do/feel/think everything, & goes a little crazy feeling helpless. It feels right to me, though I've not quite been in that sort of scenario myself.
One of my favorite things about Katniss is summed up by Peeta: she has no idea, the effect she can have. Ahhhhh, how refreshing to find a character who is oblivious & yet not considered better/worse for being so. There's this whole trend of having the socially-oblivious character be somehow endearing because of this flaw, but I like that it isn't used to make her adorably awkward (well, maybe just to the characters around her, for that bit in the second book), it's just a part of who she is. I can relate to that so much more. It is NOT generally accepted as adorable in real life to be that clueless to social cues. Not having any speck of intuition is NOT CUTE in everyday life. It's hard, & people usually just misinterpret your misunderstanding as something negative that you don't actually mean. So. GREAT to see it not represented as a GOOD THING.
...but somehow, yeah, "the effect she can have". This is where the Mulan-syndrome comes in. Why is Katniss somehow deeply loved/respected by 90% of people, even though she doesn't come across as very nice? Because the story needs her to. But hey, it's kinda flattering, from the perspective of someone who relates to her, haha. (I do feel like, VERY RARELY, I somehow instantly win people over for no particular reason, & it doesn't matter how awful I come across, they see in me the admirable things. But I consider that more of a good thing about them than about me-- their ability to interpret what I really mean has nothing to do with my own efforts.)
She really does need Peeta... she & I both. I married mine, too. We need someone who is nicer than we understand, the kind of nice we wish we could be but have no idea how it functions in real life. We need that buffer, someone who gets along so well with the rest of the world in the ways that we don't, someone who understands the goodness in us that doesn't always translate to others. It's a special teamwork-- they give us a much-needed perspective on the rest of the world, & we try to give them a perspective on their very self.
I think sometimes the story gets it right, that her best moments are when she can be thoughtful in details that make a difference. Trying to think of everything that would make life easier for everyone. Not the big outside-the-box change-the-world thinking, just the little what-can-I-do things. & I see heroism when she tries things outside her comfort zone. There's just a bit of disconnect when she does the occasional big flashy plot-driving thing... but hey, you've got to move a book along somehow. (In a lot of stories, if the main character was like me, it would NOT end the same way at all. ;-) Some huge beast guy says don't go in the West Wing? NO PROBLEM, I'LL BE IN THE LIBRARY.)
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So there you have it! The Hunger Games trilogy is special to me because almost everything she thinks/feels/does makes sense to me on a personal level, & I see in her two closest friends two of the people I've loved most in my own life. Her story feels like I could have lived it. Yay for good stories!
Bonus fun facts:
-The second book is by far my favorite of the three
-My favorite characters are actually Cinna & Haymitch
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