YA Dystopian Heroine Character Comparison: Katniss Everdeen & Tris Prior

Maybe it’s unfair to compare these two just because they’re tough, capable female leads in popular dystopian series, but it’s kind of unavoidable.  As I read the Divergent books, I couldn’t help but think of The Hunger Games, particularly where our central characters are concerned.  (General premise spoilers for both series.)

Basic parallels first.  Katniss and Tris are both 16-year-old girls from the lowest totem poles of their societies (District 12 and Abnegation, respectively.)  The lives of both are changed at the major ceremony associated with their society’s whacked-out principles, the Reaping and the Choosing Ceremony (and, point of interest, their lives are changed based on their choices – it isn’t Katniss’s name that gets pulled out of the reaping bowl.  Even from the start, they’re not just victims.)  Both obviously know their way around a fight (despite their small statures and weak-looking appearances,) both are deeply damaged by their experiences, and both struggle with being a good person in situations that aren’t known for breeding good people.

When it comes to fighting, both girls are underestimated, but in different ways.  Katniss is quite the competent scrapper before she enters the Arena, an experienced hunter with mad survival skills.  It’s just her small size that makes her seem like an easy target, but she sets people straight on that as soon as they see her with a bow in her hands.  Meanwhile, Tris is genuinely one of the weakest Dauntless initiates.  The others are spot-on when it comes to assessing her original abilities, but they underestimate her determination to improve and pull her weight.

Similarly, though both girls get embroiled in regime-toppling rebellions, they come to it differently.  Katniss doesn’t set out to start a revolt; yes, some of her actions in the Arena, like her alliance with Rue, are considered dissident in the Capitol, but her big eff-you to the Gamemakers is ultimately a last-ditch gambit to survive, not a call to arms.  It’s the public who sees her as a symbol of defiance, and Katniss wrestles between keeping her head down to protect the people she loves and accepting her role as a rallying point for the resistance.  Tris, on the other hand, is a more active rebel as soon as she gets the opportunity.  It’s partly her Divergence – she can literally do things that most in her society can’t, and she can’t let her friends get brainwashed when she can do something to stop it.  While Katniss’s initial butt-kickery is to stay alive and get home (where she’s the chief provider,) Tris’s is to prevent genocide.  Heavy stuff.

Tris is a bit more trusting than Katniss, who has a massively hard time buying that anyone is actually trying to help her.  As such, Tris falls more easily into relationships, while Katniss keeps people at arm’s length long after they’ve proven themselves.  Katniss is better at thinking on her feet, and I’d say Tris is a better overall strategist.  Katniss is good at second-guessing herself and agonizing over her choices, and her tendency towards distrust causes her to miss potential allies.  Tris tends to be more confident with planning and tactics, but that can backfire as well, because she sometimes shuts people down when they don’t fall in line.  I love that both have flaws and blind spots; neither is Super Girl, and neither does the right thing all the time.  Katniss can be horrified by her own ruthlessness, and Tris beats herself up when she can’t always find the strength to do the selfless thing.  Despite the intensely-stressful crucibles in which the girls forge themselves, they don’t brush aside their failings.  Instead, they take hard looks at their character (maybe too hard sometimes) and try to figure out how to be better.  Let’s hear it for the girls!