ACTIVITY 5: IDENTITY CRISIS IN POPULAR MEDIA
The hunger games took place in the dystopian future of what used to be North America. The capitol of Panem holds the Hunger Games, a televised death-match, to remind the Districts that they lost the war between the Capitol and the Districts. Every citizen has to watch the youths from different districts fighting each other to death until only one remains on live national TV. Every district has to send two tributes, a girl and a boy to join the Hunger Games.
Katniss Everdeen is a sixteen-year-old girl, the main character that replaced her sister, Prim who was chosen as a Tribute. Katniss alongside with Peeta Mellark, a boy and her future potential love interest were then finalised to be the Tributes for District 12. Katniss remembered that Peeta used to help her as a child and she decided to keep her distant as she knew she had to kill Peeta in the arena. Both of them were sent to the capitol along with Haymitch, the only winner of Hunger Games that was from District 12.
For the Opening Ceremony of the Hunger Games, Katniss’ stylist told them to hold hands to show rebellion towards the Capitol and acted as ‘together and a team’. Katniss and Peeta were given survival and weapon training during the day and their coaches extracted information about the other tributes during dinner.
Listening to Haymitch’s advice, Katniss ran away as soon as the game started to make a camp. While running away from Career tributes, the tributes from the rich Districts, Katniss encountered Rue which helped her to get rid of the two Career tributes. She remembered one of them had bow and arrows, thus she went to pick it up. Katniss then encountered Peeta and he told her to escape as Cato, a strong Career tribute from District 2 attacked them.
Katniss met Rue again and they decided to form ally by devising out a plan to kill the Career. Rue lit up a decoy fire and while the Careers went to look at the fire, Katniss blew up their food supply. When Katniss was on her way to look for Rue, Rue was stabbed to death by the Careers and Katniss killed one of them.
When it is announced that two last survivors of the same district can win the game, Katniss went out to look for Peeta. Peeta was very injured after his fight with Cato. During the game, Katniss and Peeta have the reputation as the ‘star-crossed lovers’ because Katniss used the ‘romance strategy’ advised by Haymitch. While struggling and fighting for her life, she wondered if she has any feelings towards Peeta because she has been focusing on surviving all this while.
Both Katniss and Peeta outlasted other tributes. After Katniss healed the injured Peeta, the rule change was revoked and only one victor shall remain which means they have to fight one another. Thinking that the Capitol would not want no victor in this game, Katniss suggested to pretend eating Nightlock berries to poison themselves and commit suicide. As risky as it sounds, the act worked and both Katniss and Peeta were crowned as the victors of The Hunger Games.
Katniss does show signs of identity crisis by adolescents. According to Erikson (1963), ‘the adolescent mind is essentially a mind or moratorium, a psychological stage between children and adulthood, and between morality learned by the child, and the ethics developed by the adult’. Katniss’ behaviour in the movie seemed a bit impulsive. Their poor condition has influence of Katniss where she does not simply retract. During the reaping, Prim was chosen as the tribute for their district however Katniss quickly volunteered herself to be the tribute instead. Katniss is also confused about her feelings as she is not sure of her feelings towards Peeta since she has only focusing on surviving instead of romance. And when Katniss found the injured Peeta, she kissed him while still being confused. Katniss has not acquired fidelity as she has not completely committed to herself and accept the others.
According to Marcia’s identity status, Katniss has the status of identity foreclosure. It is where Katniss is willing to make some commitments about her role tribute of District12 and her goals in the future which is to survive the Hunger Games. In this stage, she has not fully experienced an identity crisis. Katniss has not explored the possibilities of options due to her living condition where District 12 is one of the poorest districts in Panem. She also conformed to others’ expectations to win the Hunger Games by using the ‘romance’ technique taught by Haymitch which made Peeta feels hurt.
There are not much of family interaction that involved in this movie. Katniss is protective of Prim and volunteered herself to go as the tribute instead of her sister and her quick decision to do so made her seems impulsive. She did not show many signs of rebellion other than complying to the people and rebelled against the Capitol.
Katniss who rather avoid people during the start of the game, formed alliance with Rue to fight the Careers. She made a friend but unfortunately Rue was killed by the Careers while carrying out their plans. This left Katniss being depressed about the situation. Katniss at first was unsure about getting close to Peeta as she knew they would have to kill each other in the arena. However, she got close to Peeta during training and even went to find him after change of rule stated that last two surviving tributes from the same district will be counted as victors. Her decisions lead to finding herself being aware of her feelings and ended up confused as she has not thought of romance before.
REFERENCE:
KMF1043 Human Development Psychology Group 3 