"You're not leaving me here alone," I say. Because if he dies, I'll never go home, not really. I'll spend the rest of my life in this arena, trying to think my way out." -The Hunger Games
Katniss Everdeen is one of many heroines who has become incredibly popular in a young adult literature. However, there is a price for being a hero. Like those coming back from military service, the choices you make and the things you see can and often will haunt you forever; PTSD is common among veterans and hard to understand for those who do not suffer from it and even sometimes for those who do, as it can take different forms for anyone - and everyone.
Katniss Everdeen has perhaps the most obvious PTSD, as the reader witnesses the world of Panem from her mind and knows how she thinks, how she feels. The reader is aware of the nature of her nightmares and every detail of what haunts her from her experiences in the Games. However, even if the reader was not witnessing the events from her perspective, the reader could identify the signs of PTSD. The ADAA (Anxiety and Depression Association of America) gives three main symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder: reliving the traumatic experience (in ways such as flashbacks or nightmares), avoidance of people, activities, or places that are associated with the trauma, and "increased arousal," which presents itself as insomnia, difficulty concentrating, jumpiness, and being easily irritated or angered. Katniss Everdeen meets all these basic criteria: 1) she has nightmares throughout the Victory Tour, and, in the Catching Fire movie, she mistakes an animal she is shooting for Marvel and misses her shot, 2) Katniss cannot stay in her home in the novel when pressure gets high and conditions in Twelve worsen, so she goes out into the woods, which is not connected to her victory in the Games, and 3) Katniss frequently gets irritated and sometimes angry with Gale, Peeta, and the other Victors, and shatters a window upon President Snow's announcement that the 75th Hunger Games will have the Victors return to the Arena. Katniss experiences more symptoms than those basic three, however; she also experiences incredible and consuming guilt and feelings of worthlessness from her time in the Arena and stops participating in her regular activities, such as hunting with Gale.
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| Katniss Everdeen after a nightmare in District Thirteen |
But the true beauty of Suzanne Collins's portrayal of PTSD does not come from Katniss alone; it is that she is able to represent post-traumatic stress in all of her characters who have experienced the bloodshed of the Hunger Games and the horrors of the Capitol. Coping with trauma through alcoholism is a path taken by many veterans returning from war and Haymitch Abernathy alike; more than two out of every ten veterans with PTSD also develop Substance Abuse Disorder, and veterans have a tendency to become binge-drinkers. Alcoholism has become a major outlet for the pain war and tragedy leaves behind, and Haymitch represents this tendency along with the pain behind it perfectly.
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| Haymitch drinking while mentoring Katniss |
Substance Abuse Disorder connected with PTSD does not just mean alcoholism; drug abuse is also common with A SUD. Johanna Mason begins to abuse narcotics after being tortured by the Capitol. She has displayed prior symptoms prior to abusing the painkillers in District Thirteen; she claimed to have no one left she loved, a sign of the dissociation from reminders of the Games and perhaps just from society in general that she and Katniss both experience. Also, Johanna is constantly portrayed with a deep, burning hatred and anger towards the Capitol and those she could possibly associate it with. in the words of Jena Malone, who played Johanna mason in the films, "As soon as I started understanding what that horror is, what that anger is, I realized that she had developed all these ways to be able to survive. She's using her humor, her combativeness, and her unpredictability to keep people at arm's length, but also to protect herself."
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| Johanna Mason before Katniss's interview |
All characters - and all people - respond to traumas differently. Some people blame themselves, and some people blame others. Some people get angry with the world, and some fall into a depression. Some seek out medical help and others self-medicate. The price for being a hero is one that is always paid in novels and in life, and everyone pays that price in their own way. In the end, one lesson all books teach us is that pain is relative.
Want to read more about PTSD in The Hunger Games? Check out here and here!
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