As I mentioned above, both stories are centered on two powerful and active female figures that without doubt, are great examples of heroines in American Literature. The importance of the captivity genre for the American tradition is undeniable in the same way that the figure of the frontier hero is one of the bases of several fictional and non-fictional texts. The most representative example is Natty Bumppo, the protagonist of the popular The Last of the Mohicans, written by Fenimore Cooper in 1825 after the American Independence. The representation of the frontier hero in opposition to the Indians – always portrayed as the others – is what makes these figures the best representation of the American identity, which is based on those heroes, examples of the best ideals of that self-made society. Mary Rowlandson “fought” …show more content…
In addition, in these literary works, and because they are narrations, there are some motifs – which are different in each story but relevant in both – that are used to “guide readers through the text.” (Henthorne, 27). In THE HUNGER GAMES there are so many of them and some become very important in the development of the characters and the story in the whole trilogy like the songs and the mockingjay, but it is out of the scope of this dissertation and I will not go deeper on them. However I will be focus on the food and the importance that it has in the whole story of Katniss like readers could discover in different stages of the book. The food, mainly embodied by the bread and the berries, become something else and become “spiritual food” that saves the heroine more than once in her life. The similarity with Mary is clear if we think in the main motif of her narration, the bible – more specifically the Psalms – as her spiritual food that saves her from starvation, encourages her to survive in the Indian camps, and keeps her attached to her strong beliefs and her Puritan lifestyle. As Pharr & Clark say, “religion