So, I totally read spoilers for this (not just yours) but because I haven't read the book, I was unable to argue with all the people saying "It would be unrealistic for Katniss to be active, because she's traumatized and that makes you passive."
I've heard arguments that Katniss' inability and unwillingness to do anything was realistic because Katniss was (understandably) traumatized. But here's the thing: for one thing, PTSD doesn't always take the same form, and there's no reason that traumatized!Katniss had to equal passive!Katniss or hopeless!Katniss. And choosing that particular symptom of trauma felt to me like a bad dramatic choice, because (and yes, I keep harping on this) it left us with a main, POV character who spent all her time sleeping in supply closets.
Yes! Traumatization takes many forms! It can also make people inbued with manic or self-destructive energy, for instance. Or it can not hit until long, long after the crisis is over.
Katniss struck me, in the first two books, as very much the type of person who grits her teeth and perseveres and compartmentalizes and denies, and could take an enormous amount of trauma without it having a visible (to outsiders) effect until a very long time afterward. As in years.
Seriously, sleeping in supply closets? I had heard people complaining that she spends a long time drugged and in the hospital - can BOTH be true?
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-09-13 12:33 am (UTC)I've heard arguments that Katniss' inability and unwillingness to do anything was realistic because Katniss was (understandably) traumatized. But here's the thing: for one thing, PTSD doesn't always take the same form, and there's no reason that traumatized!Katniss had to equal passive!Katniss or hopeless!Katniss. And choosing that particular symptom of trauma felt to me like a bad dramatic choice, because (and yes, I keep harping on this) it left us with a main, POV character who spent all her time sleeping in supply closets.
Yes! Traumatization takes many forms! It can also make people inbued with manic or self-destructive energy, for instance. Or it can not hit until long, long after the crisis is over.
Katniss struck me, in the first two books, as very much the type of person who grits her teeth and perseveres and compartmentalizes and denies, and could take an enormous amount of trauma without it having a visible (to outsiders) effect until a very long time afterward. As in years.
Seriously, sleeping in supply closets? I had heard people complaining that she spends a long time drugged and in the hospital - can BOTH be true?