Positive Deviance
On the heart of The Hunger Games trilogy lies the story of its fierce protagonist — Katniss Everdeen, described to be a strong, selfless leader who puts everyone else’s life before her own (Devi, 2021). This is first witnessed during the 74th hunger games — when her sister, Prim was contested to be the tribute, Katniss exits from her line and cried out, “I volunteer”.
Based on Suzanne Collins’s popular book trilogy, the four movie adaptations of The Hunger Games show an astounding piece of science fiction illustrating social conflicts in capitalism, which is highly influenced by the Marxist-based social conflict theory and embarking on the non-conforming framework on the social institutions — deviance per se. The movie adaptations open in the premise of a dreadful battle, a televised pageant of death in the name of honor, courage, and sacrifice of what the dystopian society of Panem calls, “a remembrance of their past and safeguard of their future (Collins, 2008)” — The Hunger Games. The twelve districts by which Panem is divided, were annually required to randomly send one boy and one girl to take part in the media spectacle where there can only be one sole victor. Katniss whose name and character bear an organic reference to a tall plant “with leaves like arrowheads”, is known for her rational disregard for rules which developed out of necessity rather than an inherent defiance. Katniss’ volunteerism as a tribute in place of Prim, sparks the sequence of events that later unravels a nationwide uprising — making her a potential threat to the Capitol, even though she primarily doesn’t want to be. For Katniss, Panem’s state of bureaucracy must have been “a fragile system if it can be brought down by just a few berries (Collins, 2008)”. This is in context of her final act of deviance in the 74th hunger games, that brought her victory alongside with her district’s male co-candidate, Peeta Mellark by which they intend to eat poisonous berries — emancipating a double suicide in a way that they go out of the arena on her terms and not of the Game-makers’ (Devi, 2021). Throughout the storyline, Katniss’s character reflects a sense of departure from the socio-political norms, that has inevitably transcended to some far-reaching, desirable effects, impacting social change as what Goode (2015) implies as “positive deviance”.
Among Heckert’s typology of positive deviance (1998), Katniss character manifests “deviant heroism” which constitutes her innate characteristics, sense of altruism and charisma. Wolf and Zuckerman (2012) as cited in Goode (2015), discuss deviant heroes as altruistic individuals who violate unjust or oppressive rules to act as agents of social change. Over the course of Hunger Games trilogy, Katniss altruistic character is constantly expressed through the instances by which she selflessly offered herself to the protection of the people she cared
about (the kind of attitude that threatens the oppressive government of Panem) — her emanating desire to save Peeta and being a guardian of the weak when she allies herself with people like Rue and Wiress in the games (Steele, 2020). As elaborated by Mullen (2020), Katniss selflessness is embodied through times when she took over as the head of the family after her father died in the mines, buried and paid tribute to her ally Rue in the games, risked her life to get Peeta’s medicine, suggested that she and Peeta both eat the poisonous berries, jumped in front of a whip for Gale and begged Haymitch to save Peeta in the Quarter Quell. From taking her sister’s place, to marrying Peeta, Katniss personifies the people’s mockingjay, a symbol of the rebellion which calls for social change.
The extent of Katniss’ positive character, may however be legitimately referred to as a form of “deviance” — operationalized to a degree of consensus of the social reactions observed on her behavior (Labelling theory). The functional consequences of deviance whether positive or negative according to Goode (2015), may imply negative reactions such as in Katniss’ case as she was rejected, ridiculed and stigmatized by her fellow tributes for rising above the odds despite belonging to the poorest of Panem’s social hierarchy — District 12. President Snow perceives her as a threat to the then-contemporary power structure that exposes the brutal inequality among inhabitants of the twelve districts of which breeds strife and creates main conflict, as foreseen in the differences of the lifestyle of those in the districts and the Capitol. The growing deviance and misdemeanor of Katniss that is primarily ensued due to the conflict between the social classes, not only leads to the ever changing relations within the existing social structure, but the entirety of the social system undergoing transformation through conflict. Tucker (1968) argued that there is a greater propensity for charismatic leaders to emerge during periods marked by a burden of stress, such as economic problems, alienation, or emotional distress. As the people of Panem (audiences) view their system to be unjust and oppressive, Katniss character — by her innate charisma and altruistic attitude — became a symbol and catalyst of social change in a totalitarian society.
It is then apparent for Katniss character to both mean exclusion and inclusion in the society. She was ostracized by the government of Panem (especially by President Snow who schemes a plot for her to die in the arena.) and yet at the same time was loved and adored to be the “darling of the Capitol” and the “mockingjay” of the people. The first moments in the film when Katniss volunteers, gives the people of Panem, hope, the concept which Snow is trying to contain so as to maintain the status quo. Regardless her spitfire personality, I think it is her innate humanness and the ability to execute such personality (among anyone else) that makes us believe that the odds were indeed on her favor.
References
Collins, S. (2008). The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic Press.
Cruz, A. (2020, December 22). Things only adults notice in the hunger games. Looper.com. https://www.looper.com/300860/things-only-adults-notice-in-the-hunger-games/
Devi, V. (2021, January 2). The Hunger Games: Katniss’s most inspirational quotes. ScreenRant. https://screenrant.com/hunger-games-katniss-most-inspirational-quotes/
Goode, E. (ed.) (2015). The Handbook of Deviance. West Sussex, UK:Pearson Education, Inc.
Heckert, D. (1998). Positive deviance: A classificatory model. Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology, 26 (1), 23–30.
Katniss Everdeen character analysis in the hunger games | SparkNotes. (n.d.). SparkNotes: Today’s Most Popular Study Guides. https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/the-hunger-games/character/katniss-everdeen/
Mullen, A. (2020, January 26). The hunger games: 10 most selfless & heroic things Katniss ever did. ScreenRant. https://screenrant.com/hunger-games-selfess-heroic-katniss-everdeen/
Ross, G. (2012). The Hunger Games. Lionsgate
Social Conflict Theory and The Hunger Games. (2019, Sep 08). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/social-conflict-theory-and-the-hunger-games/
Steele, A. (2020, June 4). The Hunger Games: 5 most inspirational Katniss scenes (& 5 where fans felt sorry for her). ScreenRant. https://screenrant.com/the-hunger-games-inspirational-vs-pitiable-katniss-scenes-gale-peeta-prim/
Tucker, R.C. (1968). The theory of charismatic leadership. Daedalus, 97 (3), 731–756.
Wolf, B., & Zuckerman, P. (2012). Deviant heroes: Nonconformists as agents of justice and social change. Deviant Behavior, 33 (8), 639–654.
