MOCKINGJAY AS FICTION SYMBOL IN SUZANNE COLLINS’S YOUNG-ADULT DYSTOPIAN NOVEL «CATCHING FIRE»

Abstract

The article deals with the investigation of the symbolic content of Suzanne Collins’s novel Catching Fire of the trilogy The Hunger Games in the young-adult dystopian genre. The young-adult dystopian genre is an interesting subject for discussions in the scientific circles, because it is relatively new and popular in the literature of the late XX - early XXI century. Modern literature is replenished by the works of this genre, which clearly presents all the nature of the fictional society and its dictatorial system that inspires people with fear.The practical part of the article is devoted to the reproduction of the symbolic parallels in the investigated novel, reconstruction of the author's hidden symbols. The problem of the symbol study is topical because of the universality of the concept. Verbal embodiment of the symbol in the work of art is the subject of many linguistic studies. In the novel the mockingjay appears as a key symbol. In the article the features of the fiction image representation by means of symbolic parallel “mockingjay – rebellion” are revealed. The conducted analysis shows the gradual deployment of the semantic content of a symbolic image of Mockingjay. Appearing first as a simple image on the brooch or on the walls, Mockingjay gets new meanings: from a fun reminder of the Hunger Games, the image of a bird becomes a conditional sign of the rebels, by which they communicate with each other, and inform that they are on cahoots. The image on the watch, in the shape of which is the arena of the Hunger Games, carries the additional meaning, it is a call to revolution. The symbolic meaning unfolds further, and at the end of the work a bird is identified with the main character Katniss, who becomes a symbolic character and represents rebellion.