Katniss Everdeen she experienced when her father was fighting in the Vietnam War. In the novels, Katniss is extensively knowledgeable in foraging, wildlife, hunting, and survival techniques. Collins knew some of this background from her father, who grew up in the Great Depression and was forced to hunt to augment a scanty food supply, although Collins saw her father bring home food from the wild during her own childhood as well. In addition, Collins researched the subject using a large stack of wilderness survival guidebooks. Katniss and the other tributes are, in their time before participating in their Hunger Games, compelled to
Strong female character authors to avoid creating female characters with realistic weaknesses. According to Carina Chocano, the strong female character has become a "cinematic cliché", resulting in character archetypes like the "alpha professional" whose laser-like focus on career advancement has caused her to become a "grim, celibate automaton", and the "gloomy ninja with commitment issues". By this metric, the strong female character is a woman with the gendered behavior taken out. There is no clear consensus on the definition of "strong female character". Some believe it describes characters with powerful physical abilities, such as those of Buffy Summers or Katniss Everdeen. Others believe