Having recently read The Hunger Games in an admittedly obsessive fury, I can see how the successful portrayal of a complex character by an author can truly draw the reader into their world. This novel was written from the first person perspective of Katniss Everdeen, so the portrait painted of her personality was through her own eyes, relying on the reader's interpretation to put a name to her traits. If examining her character through the Big Five theory of personality, one of the first things one could note is her low level of agreeableness. Throughout the novels, she legitimately makes her own rules to thwart the plots of any and all authority figures to accomplish what she wants or deems morally right. She also was low on extroversion, preferring only to converse with those she knew and loved. Even then she didn't completely open up and tell them what she was truly thinking or feeling. The reader begins to sense a relatively high amount of openness to experience in Katniss' personality when she volunteers as tribute in place of her sister and is whisked away to the capitol. She faces all the knowledge, culture and challenges she can with an open and ready mind, even though her heart is still with her home in district 12.
Katniss had relatively high levels of neuroticism to begin with, but as she continued through the games it essentially skyrocketed as an adaption when the odds didn't seem to be in her favor. Another personality trait that strengthened over the course of the games was Katniss' somewhat high conscientiousness. Her conscientiousness mostly applied when she was breaking the rules to hunt, early on. She had to be neat, prepared and careful to not draw negative attention toward her illegal activities. As she had to hide her presence for the sake of survival and remember the qualities of different berries to avoid poison, her conscientiousness increased for the sake of survival.
I saw an interview done with Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Katniss, where they asked her if she imagined herself as Katniss. She said no, she just kind of imagined a face with a braid. Thinking back to how I first thought of the character while reading the books I never really did have a strong sense or idea of what she looked like. By writing through Katniss' perspective not a lot of weight was put in her own looks and we really got to find out more about her personality. I think you did a really great job analyzing her personality based off of the big five but I don't think she falls neatly into all the categories. For example she does have low extroversion but at other times she commands attention like when she goes to show off her skills for the gamemakers and shoots the pig. Because the book is written in first person we see many sides of Katniss, and just like us she has multiple layers to her personality. Great job!
I wonder what aspects of our personalities would be brought out if we were all in this situation!! You mentioned how her traits were strengthened throughout the course of the games due to the extreme conditions, and I think these extreme conditions would bring out different personality traits, for the better or worse, in all of us.
After reading the hunger games, I found that I can identify with Katniss, aside from her low level extroversion. One particular trait that I find interesting is our high level of neuroticism. I feel that there is a very negative connotation attached to it. It may just be my neuroticism speaking but I feel that this trait results in my competitiveness, motivation and determination. While envy and anger aren't always the best emotions to experience and sometime result in poor decision making, other emotions that are invoked from this characteristic have shaped who I am today.
Having said that, I find it very fascinating how well we are able to better understand others. Better understanding their traits make these individuals more relatable and human if they are forced to make difficult decisions that we might not agree with. This can come in handy while watching movies centered around characters who are very different from oneself.
Wow, great analysis of Katniss! With all of the details about how Katniss is supposed to look in the Capitol and such, one can easily get distracted from who she is as a person. Like some of the prior comments stated, the Hunger Games brought out various sides of Katniss' personality. This makes sense, because if I were thrown in an arena with twenty three other kids to fight to the death, I'd probably get pretty neurotic and conscientious pretty fast!!! This raises the debate of how much our environment plays a part in our personality. Obviously from this post, we can see that our environment can definitely affect our personality!
I loved your breakdown of Katniss' personality. It would interest me to see which of my traits would strengthen throughout something like the Hunger Games! I liked how you showed that her personality changed based on her surroundings and it's interesting to think that surroundings can even have an effect on your personality.
This is one of the best posts I've read this year! I love how psychology is so easily applied to everything, especially things that really interest me like the Hunger Games. I agree with you break down of Katniss' personality. It shows how her big 5 traits really came into play through out the story and the time in the arena.