In Suzanne Collins’s dystopian novel “The Hunger Games”, she portrays a post-apocalyptic world in which 12 Districts in a nation known as Panem are oppressed by the rich ruling class in a city known as the Capitol. In societies such as these, great heroes are needed. One such hero is the protagonist of the novel: Katniss Everdeen. She is quite an unlikely hero, as she is from one of the poorest districts in Panem, but she has many heroic traits and shows them throughout the novel during her journey. She shows compassion towards many people and displays this throughout the novel. Katniss also shows her courageous and brave side of her even before she takes her sister’s place in the Hunger Games. Finally, the protagonist displays many acts of kindness, even towards those that have hurt or tried to hurt her before, showing that this teenager is in fact, the hero in the novel.
Firstly, Katniss shows courage not only in the arena of the Hunger Games but also in District 12. For example, in Katniss’ district, where not many people have the money to buy food, some people result in going into the woods, which is out of bounds for the residents of the oppressed district. Some of these people include Katniss and her friend, Gale, who both hunt in the woods “[even] though trespassing in the woods is illegal”. Sometime after Katniss started going into the woods to support her family, “[she] foolishly challenges a black bear over the rights of a bee hive.” This shows that Katniss is brave enough to take on a bear to get items that her family needs and will do whatever it takes to support her mother and sister. In conclusion, Katniss is a very brave figure not just because of what she went through to survive in the Games, but also because of her history of breaking the law to help her family.
Secondly, compassion— a heroic trait —is shown throughout “The Hunger Games” by Katniss. At the beginning of the novel in District 12 of Panem, Katniss tries to protect her younger sister, Prim, from the reaping, which is a ceremony that chooses tributes for the Hunger Games, in which 24 people (known as tributes) fight to the death in an arena. For those from the poor districts, where there is no training for the Games, death is almost certain. Unfortunately, Prim gets chosen as a tribute, so Katniss pushes Prim away during the reaping and yells: “I volunteer as tribute!” to stop Prim from becoming one of the tributes. Katniss also shows compassion in the arena when she becomes allies with Rue, the smallest tribute in the Games. Rue is from District 11, where the residents do not get much to eat. When Katniss and Rue eat what they hunted the day they become allies, Katniss insists that Rue takes another grossing (a wild bird) leg on top of the one that she already had because she “bet that meat hardly ever comes [her way].” It is clear that Katniss shows the heroic trait of compassion towards people, no matter if she is in District 12, or the arena.
Another heroic trait that the protagonist of the novel shows is kindness, which she shows towards quite a few people, giving her respect as a hero. For example, before the rule of only one victor in the games was lifted, Katniss did not want to help Peeta, as he was allied with the Careers. However, when that rule was changed, Katniss was determined to make sure that Peeta and she would be crowned the victors of the Games and even insists that “[Peeta won’t] die” after she finds the tribute severely wounded and camouflaged amongst a “muddy bank full of weeds”. Because of their kindness that Katniss had, she proceeded to take care of Peeta for the remainder of the Games. Katniss also shows kindness near the end of the Games, when the mutts find Cato (one of the last tributes) and slowly eat him. Katniss eventually kills the “raw hunk of meat”, as “pity, not vengeance sends [her] arrow flying into his skull”. If she didn’t have any kindness, she would have left him to be tortured, making his death more lengthy and painful. To sum up, Katniss is a character that shows the heroic quality of kindness, which she shows throughout the novel.
To conclude, Katniss is the true heroine of “The Hunger Games” novel and shows many heroic traits to prove it. Katniss shows bravery at the beginning of the novel when she hunts in the woods to provide for her family. This leads to the second heroic trait that she shows: compassion. The protagonist shows compassion towards others, such as her family, and even people that she had never met before, such as Rue. Finally, Katniss shows kindness towards others in many different ways, whether it comes in the form of healing someone back to health or sparing someone a painful death by quickly ending their life. These traits that Katniss shows make her gain respect as the heroine of this story.