Psychoanalytic Interpretation of The Hunger Games Movie

This essay provides a psychoanalytic analysis of the movie "The Hunger Games," examining the characters, their behaviors, and the underlying psychological concepts. It explores the application of Freudian theories, including the levels of awareness (conscious, preconscious, and unconscious), defense mechanisms, and the roles of the id, ego, and superego. The essay analyzes how characters like Katniss Everdeen navigate the challenges of the Hunger Games, prioritizing their survival and making decisions influenced by their ego and superego. The essay further discusses the author's portrayal of trauma and mental illness, highlighting the impact on young characters and the broader implications for understanding psychological responses to extreme situations. The analysis references key sources to support the interpretations of characters' behaviors and motivations.

Hunger Games through
Psychoanalytical Freudian lens

Introduction of the film
• Hunger Games is one action movie that is directed by
Gary Ross .
• It is about the traditional game called ‘Hunger Games’
where young girls and boys from each district
participate.
• Katniss Everdeen is the main protagonist of the movie.
• The movie employs psychoanalytic theories of
awareness levels, the defense mechanism, the
personality components and psychosexual stages
(Toliver, 2018).

The behaviors and attitudes of the characters
• The movie starts with the awareness levels
such as preconscious, conscious and the
unconscious.
• The conscious is considered as the working
memory which people think always and it is
accessed easily.

Repressed feelings, actions and emotions
• There are many players who are trying to survive
anyways.
• These actions are due to the Id, Ego and Superego.
• Id is founded on unconscious psychic energy working
to satisfy the basic psychological requirements.
• The ego has no such idea of the right or wrong and
anything that can achieve at the end is good.
• The super Ego is that part of mind standing for values
and morals.

Psychoanalytic concepts in Hunger Games
• Katniss tries to have safety and go beyond the
eyes of players. But, other players want to have
victory prioritizing their Ego.
• Katniss plays the role of a player like others and
does what she thinks to be satisfying at the end.
Notably, she survives at the end (Egan, 2017)..
• SuperEgo is prioritized when Katniss helps Rue
in surviving together even after the fact that she
needs to become the winner and the survivor.

The psychological being of the author
• It can be said that the novel is an effort of the
author’ spreading of mental illness awareness.
• The author has taken the initiative of showing
the way trauma can affect people specifically
the young children and adults (Rasyid &
Wardhani, 2018)..
• The author has focused on the silence that has
surrounded the issues related to mental illness
along with a lack of education.

Reference
• Egan, C. (2017). Analysis and Application of The Hunger Games.
Heroes, Heroines, and Everything in Between: Challenging
Gender and Sexuality Stereotypes in Children's Entertainment
Media, 51.
• Rasyid, M. R., & Wardhani, D. T. M. (2018). An Analysis of
Commisive Act in the Hunger Games. PIONEER: Journal of
Language and Literature, 10(1), 13-26.
• Toliver, S. R. (2018). Alterity and innocence: The hunger games,
Rue, and black girl adultification. Journal of Children's Literature,
44(2), 4-15.
• Turnbull, R. (2019). Preserving the Trauma Narrative of The
Hunger Games: as based in the novels, the films, and morality.