Literary Analysis Sample 1
Loss of Innocence in The Hunger Games
The loss of a child’s innocence is never ideal or easy. In Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, Katniss demonstrates the effects of this firsthand. Katniss Everdeen experiences a loss of innocence when her father dies in an accident, and she is left to take care of her family. Due to her mother’s inability to cope with grief, Katniss is forced to take charge of her family from a young age. The initial death of her father destroys her innocence, and this is furthered by her unfortunate loss of faith in the other parental figure. This loss of faith in authority figures, resulting in the loss of innocence, continues throughout the novel with almost every “authority” figure in her life. From the moment her father dies, she is failed by her mother and other adults in the community. Following that into her teenage years, when she is selected to participate in the Hunger Games, she is again let down by the adults she is supposed to rely on. Haymitch is meant to protect her, but he is a sloppy drunk in the beginning. Effie is too absorbed in the capital to understand the danger that Katniss is in (due to her own upbringing), and the entire capital itself (the utmost authority) is basically trying to kill her to make a point. Time after time, each authority figure fails her and continues to destroy her faith in humanity, resulting in her entire loss of innocence.
Works Cited
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. Scholastic Inc, 2008.
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