Author of "Agency in the Hunger Games"
.jpg)
Gale Hawthorne, from Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy, is one of those characters that readers cannot help but to love. In the beginning, Gale presents himself as the clear love interest for Katniss Everdeen. He is strong, dark, tall, and handsome. Plus, he has a fire burning deep inside of him that readers may equate to passion. However, as time passes, Gale’s character evolves based on his access to social power.
Unlike personal power that grants one the ability to control oneself and their intimate surroundings, social power is power over others. It is social power that Gale seeks.
Gale’s physical and mental capabilities are often unmatched. He is brave enough to hunt in the woods, strong enough to endure work in the mines, and smart enough to design and create snares and traps. Gale is personally powerful in many ways and yet, in others he is extremely powerless. He cannot stop Katniss from volunteering, he cannot provide for his family without his brother taking out tesserae, he cannot even start a revolution until Katniss clears the way.
In a past Instagram survey with 23 participants, 15 said that Gale was Powerless as opposed to Powerful by the end of the trilogy.
In a newer survey, the poll came back 50/50 with some voters expressing extreme love for Gale.
Throughout The Hunger Games, Gale struggles between enacting power and having power exercised over him. While he starts as a strong protagonist, he eventually fades away at the end of the trilogy, working in District 2.
In chapter 5 of my upcoming book, The Agency Games, I discuss Gale’s dismissal of personal power and his quest after social power. In the end, I determine which is more efficient when it comes to personal agency. Do we need social power in order to enact our own desires and actions?
©KaylaAnnAuthor
© KaylaAnn and KaylaAnnAuthor.wordpress.com, 2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to KaylaAnn and KaylaAnnAuthor.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Gale Hawthorne, from Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy, is one of those characters that readers cannot help but to love. Even after Gale’s actions become questionable, readers still defend him. Gale’s physical and mental capabilities are often unmatched. He is brave enough to hunt in the woods, strong enough to endure work in the mines, and smart enough to design and create snares and traps. Gale is powerful in many ways and yet, in others he is extremely powerless. He cannot stop Katniss from volunteering, he cannot provide for his family without his brother taking out tesserae, he cannot even start a revolution until Katniss clears the way.
In an Instagram survey with 23 participants, 15 said that Gale was Powerless as opposed to Powerful by the end of the trilogy.
Throughout The Hunger Games, Gale struggles between enacting power and having power exercised over him. While he starts as a strong protagonist, he eventually fades away at the end of the trilogy, working in District 2.
©KaylaAnnAuthor
© KaylaAnn and KaylaAnnAuthor.wordpress.com, 2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to KaylaAnn and KaylaAnnAuthor.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
The Agency Games is a nonfiction book which analyzes human agency within the popular Hunger Games trilogy. I will be doing in-depth character analyses of individuals such as: Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark, Gale Hawthorne, Haymitch Abernathy, Cinna, Primrose Everdeen, and more in trying to understand how human agency is discovered, maintained, tested, lost, and regained in a dystopian society and how that relates to us as readers.
The goal is to write approximately 500 words per day so that I can meet my goal of 75,000 wordsby May 31st to send to the publishers.
In sticking with my original plan to write 500 words a day, I needed to write 15,500 words by April 22nd (meaning I should be at a total of 70,700).
On April 4th, 2018, I finished the last chapter of my book and I was at only 62,000 words. Not quite my goal.
So, I decided to take my own advice. Remember when I encouraged you to NOT edit, but to RE-WRITE instead?
Well, that is exactly what I did and am still doing. I pulled up a blank word document, set it next to my current manuscript, and I started over, re-writing every single line. And along the way, I found places that naturally needed expansion. Sometimes, it was a single word or a single sentence. But sometimes, it was a whole paragraph. So after two weeks of rewriting, I have re-written the introduction, the first six chapters and started working on my appendixes.
I have a total word count of . . .
I didn’t quite hit my goal of 70,700 words, but I’m pretty proud of what I have accomplished! Plus, it’s a little slow going with re-writing everything.
I’m getting closer to completing the fourth draft of this manuscript and then I plan to print it out and double check errors before sending it out. I won’t lie, some days I really feel like this . . .
Thank you to everyone for your continued support! I can’t believe this is almost over!
Meanwhile, I’ll just be over here like . . .
Haymitch Abernathy is known by every single person in Panem as the Drunk Mentor for District 12. One of his most infamous moments is when he took a head-dive off the stage during the reaping for the 74th-Hunger Games. To most he is a fool, a drunk, and a blubbering, staggering idiot. But is that all he is?
If you love Haymitch, you will want to read my chapter on his character titled, “It’s All a Big Show” to learn the truth behind Haymitch’s clandestine motives and hidden agency in a society of “un-reality”!
BONUS: This is one of the GREATEST FAN-MADE videos of content from The Hunger Games. MainstayPro portrayed the Second Quarter Quell in which Haymitch is the winner and let me tell you, it does not disappoint. All images and content from the below video are property of MainstayPro, I am just sharing their magnificent work.
WARNING: Graphic images for young or sensitive viewers.
©KaylaAnnAuthor
© KaylaAnn and KaylaAnnAuthor.wordpress.com, 2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to KaylaAnn and KaylaAnnAuthor.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
The Agency Games is a nonfiction book which analyzes human agency within the popular Hunger Games trilogy. I will be doing in-depth character analyses of individuals such as: Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark, Gale Hawthorne, Haymitch Abernathy, Cinna, Primrose Everdeen, and more in trying to understand how human agency is discovered, maintained, tested, lost, and regained in a dystopian society and how that relates to us as readers.
On January 22nd, 2018, I posted by first update. I was at a total of 22,000 words and 88 pages.
The goal was to write approximately 500 words per day so that I can meet my goal of 75,000 words by May 31st to send to the publishers. As you might remember, I had a slight bump in the road when I had to completely re-do my Cinna and Haymitch chapter.
There were 31 days in between January 22nd and February 22nd, meaning that at 500 words per day, I should have written approximately 15,500 words with a grand total of 37,500 words. So, let’s see how I did. . .
As great as this feels, I cannot slack off now! I still need 34,000 words and that requires the same level of dedication and accountability as before. I would love to finish all the rough drafts early so that I have more time to go over it as a whole before sending it to the editors, but we shall see!
**A Special Shout-out to TShaw who has been my writing buddy for months and E. Michael Helms who continuously reminds me to stay on track with my writing goals!
The Boy with the Bread?
A Tribute?
A Victor?
A Lover?
A Mutt?
A Hufflepuff? (We all know it’s true)
With so many different roles, it may be hard to discern who Peeta Mellark truly is. In Chapter 5 of my book “The Agency Games” I will demonstrate exactly who Peeta is and how his identity relates to agency.
Hey Everyone! I have a favor to ask!
My rough draft for this book is due to the publishers on May 31st and so to help keep myself accountable, I will be posting my progress here. Every couple of weeks, I will do my best to give an update on my book, my chapters, and my word count. SO, what is this favor you might ask?
Help keep me accountable. If you happen to realize that I haven’t posted an update in awhile, nudge me. Remind me to be accountable to my followers. I would greatly appreciate it!
The word count goal for my book is 75,000 words or approximately 300 pages.
Currently, I am at 22,000 words and 88 pages. I have 130 days until May 31st when my book is due.
That means that I need to write approximately 500 words a day.
So here I go! Wish me luck and please help keep me accountable!
Words cannot begin to express the love I have for this series. Reading them in High School, I originally took the books at face value, but as I grew older and more scholarly, I realized the magnitude of the series itself. Desiring to learn more and investigate this series more thoroughly I wrote my Master’s Thesis on Human Agency within the series. However, this was not enough for me. I researched a combination of over one hundred books, articles, essays, and online forums. I discovered a lack in the scholarship. While many scholars analyzed Katniss Everdeen, Collins’s protagonist, few to none examined other characters such as Prim, Peeta, Gale, Haymtich, Cinna, Rue, or Finnick.
Noting this gap, I wrote a query letter and proposed a book idea to investigate agency throughout this multitude of characters. I am pleased to share that I signed with McFarland & Company Publishing to publish this book in late 2018. While it is still considered a “working-title” with the publishers, I hope to title my scholarly book The Agency Games: A Character Analysis of Human Agency.
Therefore, over the next year, I plan to regularly share Hunger Games themed posts. I hope you enjoy them!
My first Hunger Games themed post will be published tomorrow and will discuss the differences between the first novel and movie!
KaylaAnn 
You must be logged in to post a comment.