What We Hunger For Roxane Gay Analysis

The book, Bad Feminist, written by Roxane Gay, is a collection of essays that argues about many topics of feminism and typical problems in today’s society. “What We Hunger For," is one of her personal essays. Gay reveals to her reader the difficult journey she had to endure as a teen, while also taking her reader through the cultural experiences that many girls endure but never talk about. She later explores The Hunger Games trilogy and its heroine Katniss Everdeen to emphasize the cathartic and sobering stories in young adult literature. Gay claims that through the use of young adult literature and movies that speak of true experiences and accomplishments, the dark past young adult endure can be unlock and resolved. Gay appeals to ethos, logos

She stated “I hate exercise…I work out and want to die…I knew I was in love with The Hunger Games when I did not want to get off the treadmill” (138). Her involvement with the text helped Gay to overlook the negative aspect being at the gym, making her a creditable source to encourage the audiences to realize literature can be used as a tool to surpass obstacles. Although Cox Gurdon, a young children book reviewer stated: “Young Adult Fiction has taken too dark a turn,” but Gay appeals to ethos by claiming, teens read book to escape dark aspect of reality (qtd Gay145). She quoted Sherman Alexie an American poet, who is a passionate writer who believes that, “There are millions of teens who read because they are sad and lonely and enraged,” to prove her argument against Gurdon (145). She successfully shapes her argument about kids reading book to escape reality, by telling the reader the reason she read The Hunger Game was because she likes the way the author placed people in their world. Gay quoted Sherman and revealed her interest for The Hunger Games. Which made her a creditable

In addition she uses Katniss Everdeen (a dynamic character from the popular movie “The Hunger Games”) as a symbol of inspirations to young teen who endure but never talks. Throughout the article, Gay use the appeals of ethos, logs and pathos to successfully shape her argument of literature being a stepping tool for young adults to overcome many obstacle. Which effectively cause the reader not to question her validity of this article. Although the struggles that Katniss was encumbered with were way worse that her own, she was able to survive through her strength and constant