Katniss Everdeen, Role Model? Morality and
Ethics in the H unger Games Trilogy
Katniss Everdeen, the protagonist o f the Hunger Games trilogy,
is one o f the most populär female characters to come out o f young adult
fiction in a long time. Young women have latched onto this teenage
character, who has fulfilled a powerful need for strong, young, female
role models. Girls want to be Katniss, as they have proclaimed on
Facebook and through their choice o f Halloween costumes. Sales o f
archery equipment and archery lessons have spiked since the first
installment o f the movie came out.1 There is indeed much to like about
Katniss: strong, brave, independent, talented, self-reliant, protector o f the
weak, and rebel against tyrants, while maintaining, at times, an endearing
vulnerability. And yet as I read the books, I had some reservations about
Katniss as a role model. These reservations nagged at me throughout the
trilogy but finally came to a head in the third book, when Katniss makes
a seemingly shocking decision. She votes to hold another hunger games,
only this time with the children o f the Capitol as tributes. President Coin
has just announced that many o f the rebels do not think that executing
“hundreds” o f high-ranking officials in the Capitol is repayment enough
for seventy-five years’ worth o f hunger games.2 So as a way to quench
the bloodlust o f the people, some o f wh