I finished The Hunger Games trilogy yesterday. Quite the good read. Of course, given my latest obsession, I started to wonder if any of these folks fit into the outsider hero trope. I have my ideas, but I’m curious what you all might think about this.
So, a poll! Given the definition we’ve been working with (a person who isn’t part of the society that he or she finds him/herself in, but saves the day or has an influence in how people change their way of thinking), what you do you think?
M. Fenn 
Can’t wait to see your thoughts!
I’m thinking!
I think it depends on how you define society! You could say that everyone but those who live in the capital are outsiders to the people there. If “society” is district 13, then I think Katniss at least starts as an insider — maybe not of Peeta’s part of distric 13, but of her own. When they return they’re isolated, but I’m not sure if that’s the same thing.
When the extreme stratification of society is so woven into the story… I don’t know. Nobody is, or anyone is, as they move between environments.
Very good points! I wonder, too, if the tributes are all outsiders, given that they’ve been chosen to be murdered by their society. One of the things we see is how broken the victors are when they come together for the Quarter Quell, really unable to blend back in with the people in their districts, except for maybe a few. They’re even segregated to Victors’ Villages. Whether they’re heroes or not? That depends, too, of course.
Well, and I wonder… they’ve been set apart, but in a celebrity sort of way, in addition to / rather than an outcast sort of way. Can you be an outsider with everyone’s eyes on you all the time? I feel like “sometimes, yes”… but I’m not sure here.
I think you can, especially in this case where, celebrities though they are, they’re still marked for murder. There’s a distance between them and the audience for both reasons. I really felt that with the way Cinna set up Katniss’s and Peeta’s entrances and costumes.
::nods:: Separation between the person and the image…
Indeed. I loved Cinna’s quiet (well, maybe not so quiet) subversion of all the ritual. What was it he said about how he doesn’t cry, he puts his emotions into his designs? And it turns out there was an historical Cinna who was a conspirator against Caesar. Off topic, but Collins had to have meant that.
Huh!