Dressed for the Part: An Analysis of Clothing in Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games Trilogy

Abstract

SummarySuzanne Collins's Hunger Games trilogy presents a dystopia in which young people from less privileged socio-economic districts are sacrificed in murderous “games” in order to reinforce state power. Katniss Everdeen emerges from this context of oppression as the leader of a rebellion against centralised state domination. The series seems to flout well-established conventions of heroic fantasy, in which, traditionally, a male hero develops towards psychological maturity as he combats a social threat, apparently without concern for his appearance. By contrast, the Hunger Games trilogy places great emphasis on clothing, with the central protagonist undergoing several makeovers, each designed to customise her appearance for particular ideological purposes. In this article I explore this theme, which may be interpreted as too frivolous for heroic narrative, via a close gendered reading of the presentation of clothing in the text. I argue that the costumes worn by Katniss Everdeen on various occasions, demonstrating high degrees of glamour, are an index, not of her frivolity, but of the control exerted over her by the state of Panem. Katniss is not, in fact, a heroic rebel who forges her own path against a hostile social order; her choices are constrained by political exigencies, and allow her only a limited degree of agency.