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
The Hunger Games (film) views on whether the film represents feminist issues. Historically, among the "top 200 worldwide box-office hits ever ($350 million and up), not one has been built around a female action star". Manohla Dargis sees Katniss Everdeen as a female hero following in the lineage of "archetypal figures in the literature of the American West" such as Natty Bumppo, as well as characters portrayed by American actors such as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. Katniss is also seen as defying normative gender roles: she exhibits both "masculine" and "feminine" traits equally. Dargis also notes that Katniss is a female character with