English Honors Papers

Document Type

Restricted

Advisor

Marie Ostby

Publication Date

2025

Comments

Access to this paper is restricted to the Connecticut College campus.

Winner of the 2025 Oakes and Louise Ames Prize.

Abstract

The media we consume sets our expectations for who we ought to be and what we ought to do, especially the books we read and shows we watch as children. Using The Hunger Games Trilogy (2008-2010), the dystopian young adult novels by Suzanne Collins and Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008), the animated television series for children created by Bryan Koniezko and Michael Dante DiMartino, this thesis explores how and why contemporary American children's speculative fiction makes children responsible for saving the world against impossible odds. It also examines how their protagonists' more 'childish' qualities-play, humor, imagination, creativity, and joy-influence their development, and the development of their societies over the course of their stories.

Chapter 1 discusses The Hunger Games as well as its sequels and prequels. Using Paulo Freire's theories ofliberation in Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970), I argue that protagonist Katniss Everdeen fights in two kinds of revolutions against the authoritarian Capitol. One of them is unsuccessful, devoid of compassion, and merely reproduces the injustice of the dystopian world she already lived in, the kind that fashions war into a game and "sacrifices its children to settle its differences." The other is a quieter kind of liberation, one which is genuine and helps her reconstruct her childhood, her relationships, and her sense of self. This liberation is fueled by different "games," the kind she plays with her friends rather than against them: Freirean games. They sing songs, they make art, and they run in the meadow that sits atop the mass graves of their people. These games restore Katniss's childhood, and they help her teach her own children about violence "in a way that will make them braver."

Chapter 2 discusses Avatar, which takes place in a similarly violent and broken world, but infuses it with humor, with fun, and with life. I examine how the series depicts the plight of children in times of war and how children inherit the burdens of their ancestors. Whether they are parentified in the absence of role models, slated to inherit an evil monarchy, or the actual reincarnation of the most powerful figure in the setting, the pressures they face are intense. Yet instead of focusing only on the burdens children bear in times of war and genocide, Avatar renders the expectations placed on children as cartoonishly over-the-top and completely absurd: the show makes the audience laugh instead. This laughter, this play, when infused with the young character's compassion, creativity, flexibility, and desire for freedom, becomes the ultimate weapon against the forces of empire.

This is a thesis about what I believe to be the radical "power of friendship" and the importance of the games we choose to play with one another. When we play the oppressor's games, we only reproduce oppression, violence, and hatred: no one ever wins. The only way to break the cycle is to fight like children, and make up our own games

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The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author.