Jamie Janosz

One of my facebook friends was questioning the right of Katniss Everdeen, of Hunger Games fame, to serve as a female role model. She felt like Katniss's choices, which in the first book of the series, were brave and admirable, became exceedlingly less so as the series progressed. Her comment came the day after my daughter and I went to see Pixar's latest release: Brave . The movie tells the story of Merida, a fiesty, fiery, red-headed princess who does not want to be betrothed. She likes to ride horses, shoot arrows, and climb mountains. She abhors needlepoint and wearing restrictive queenly costumes. I couldn't help but note the similarities between Merida, the pixelized heroine of Brave, and the flesh and blood portrayal of Katniss Everdeen. Both of them have adoring, if sometimes misguided, mothers. Both of them are experts at archery. Both of them prefer male to female companionship. Both of them are fighting for the right to their own des...

If you haven’t read this runaway successful novel, I’ll fill you in. The story follows the brave and unexpected adventure of a teenage girl named Katniss. She lives in a futuristic society that also seems slightly medieval. This is a world of oppression, where the government cruelly orchestrates the lives of ordinary people. Katniss struggles to provide for her mother and younger sister by illegally hunting. What she doesn’t realize is that she is soon to be hunted herself. The governing body has ruled that every year there will be an event called The Reaping. On that day, one boy and one girl from every district is entered into The Hunger Games – a deadly event that requires contenders to fight to the death. The Reaping reminded the English teacher in me of Shirley Jackson’s chilling story “The Lottery”, while the Games themselves were reminiscent of Richard Connell’s short story “The Most Dangerous Game.” The act of hunting becomes a gritty reality when the hunter and hunted are...