Reader with a Cause discussion

In “What We Hunger For,” Roxane Gay talks about the Hunger Games and the importance of that series to her personally and to our cultural landscape overall.

“I identify with Katniss because throughout the trilogy, the people around Katniss expect her to be strong and she does her best to meet those expectations, even when it costs her a great deal…Just because you survive something does not mean you are strong.” (141-4)

Labels like “victim” and “survivor” come with a lot of connotations. People who have experienced domestic & sexual violence must have the freedom to heal in their own way, without having to live up to our expectations of what a victim or survivor “should” be.

“At times, I thought, This is too much, but I know something of the world now, and there are rarely limits to suffering. In this trilogy, suffering has few limits, and suffering has consequences that, all too often, we forget when narratives neatly imply that everything turns out okay, when narratives imply that it gets better without demonstrating what it takes to get better. In the Hunger Games, it takes everything.” (146)

What do you think about the way that the Hunger Games series characterized survival? How do you understand survival, healing, and moving forward?

"Just because you survive something does not mean you are strong."
I related to this so much. I drew it, wrote it over and over, came up with a tune to it.
I never read the Hunger Games, but I survived something unspeakable. I'm still working on moving on.