Catching Fire

Catching Fire is incredibly violent. I think even more so than The Hunger Games. In the first book of the series, Katniss does very little killing. She knows, logistically, that everyone else in the arena will have to die in order for her to go home, but she is not okay with that fact and actually partakes in only two deaths. And only one was at her weapon.

In this book, however, she goes into the arena with a fixed plan, kill. Similarly to the first book, she is killing to save someone else. In the first book, she knows that if she does not make it back to District 12, her family will probably starve. In this book, her sole purpose is to make sure Peeta leaves the arena alive. She knows the reason everyone is in this situation is her refusal to kill Peeta the previous year. Now Districts are uprising and people are being killed.

The guilt she experiences is very real, but at the same time makes her seem a little naive. The Capital is angry, people in the Districts are beginning to see their rulers as the enemy, and it all started because Katniss refused to play by the Capital's rules. She knows this, but it is still hard for her friends and allies to explain why the people see her as a symbol. I can understand being reluctant to be the leader of a war that will result in the death of even more people than you already feel responsible for. I cannot understand her inability to see why those people chose her and now to begin the fight. This can be infuriating for someone like me, viewing this world from the outside, seeing the atrocities committed and then witnessing the heroine essentially wimp out.

That is not to say that Katniss is any less strong than she was in the previous book. She is still the only source of food for her family and many other people in her District. She is still a leader that other people look up to for decisions. She is still the one Haymitch takes orders from. But she appears weak when faced with her own leadership.

This of course all goes with the territory of being a 17-year-old girl. Especially one thrust into the spotlight as Katniss was, which makes for an honest experience, even if it can feel like yelling at the television.

But, as a genre, Young Adult (YA) fiction is full of honest experiences. That's what makes it great. Lately I have been hearing a lot of backlash against YA fiction, especially violent books like this trilogy. Apparently some people think that teenagers are not capable of separating fact and fiction in their lives and it worries adults.

Before I really delve into this argument, I just want to point out the incredible amount of privilege these writers are coming from. They tend to overwhelmingly assume that every teenager is in the same situation they were in. Writing about rape, eating disorders, molestation, suicide, body mutilation and murder is bad for teenagers because they are not already experiencing those things, so it supposedly makes them more interested in the dark subjects. But the truth is that teenagers' lives are much darker than these writers assume.

I have been reading a lot of YA recently, and I don't see that trend ending any time soon - it's a great escape from my required-reading English-major status. I am also not too far removed from being a teenager. Though I occasionally look at myself and wonder what the hell happened - last time I checked I was 16 - the fact is that I was still a teenager only 4 years ago. Looking back on my teenage years, I can still feel the loneliness and despair. I had friends and family that loved me, but I still felt alone. I still contemplated suicide. I still cut myself.

That is not to say that every teenager had the same experience I did. Some, thankfully, had it better. Some, unfortunately, had it worse. So to say that YA fiction puts these ideas into the heads of unsuspecting teenagers is ridiculous. It's sad, but every teenager probably knows someone who has cut themselves, or wanted to kill themselves. They probably have a classmate that is being molested or was raped. They probably know someone who was murdered.

It sucks, but that's the truth. YA does not normalize these horrible things. They are already pretty normal.

What YA does is give readers an outlet. Characters like Harry Potter and Katniss Everdeen provide a simulated friend for these people to relate to.

Maureen Johnson, YA author of many great books, provided a brilliant NPR smack-down of the Washington Post piece in a joint interview with its author. This article gives a play-by-play of the YASaves movement that Johnson started in response to the WP article.

The whole point of the YASaves movement is to bring to light the terrible things that are happening to teenagers. Of course, none are being randomly chosen to battle to death for our amusement, but that does not make The Hunger Games any less valid as a reading choice. They are still great books with strong characters and real emotions.

Teenagers don't need protected from their emotions. They need characters that feel them too. That's what YA's for; that's what it's good at. Catching Fire is no exception.