مشخصات پژوهش

The novel The Hunger Games, published in 2008, gained great popularity and arose a lot of interest in Young Adult Literature among young readers and also adult readers throughout the world. The book was sold in 38 countries with its translation into 26 languages. The reason for its approval as a bestseller can be interpreted as the successful depiction of the protagonist and the supporting characters as well as the blend of fiction with mythological aspects, which is a source of attraction for many readers all over the world. Hero journey, which is acknowledged as one of the most interesting fields of concern in literature, attracts many people through its depiction in modern novels which usually include signs and symbols of the worldwide known mythological patterns. Katniss, the protagonist of the novel, is worth analyzing in terms of the monomythic pattern of The Heroine’s Journey, which deals with the completion of the self of women. The journey of a woman indicates the stages of maturation and completion the self, a monomythic paradigm that is believed to realize that everyone’s life dates back to ancient patterns retold in many mythologies of all cultures. Also, Peeta, another character in the novel, is worth analyzing in terms of the monomythic pattern of The Hero’s journey, which deals with the completion of the self of men, too. The heroic model created for the women does not indicate that the heroine should necessarily be extraordinarily strong or armored with supernatural powers, but she should be open to her inner voice and restore the hurt or missing parts of her Self to be considered a heroine. The reason to focus on the female character more in this study results from the researcher’s experience of the prior research concerning the role of genders in which female characters are rarely addressed. This focus, as a consequence of the gap in the mainstream research, encompasses several unexplored dimensions that lately have attracted research attention in