Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

It is the fiftieth annual Hunger Games but it is also the Second Quarter Quell, meaning twice as many tributes will be reaped: two boys and two girls from each district. Taken "off to the Capitol for slaughter." It is also Haymitch Abernathy's sixteenth birthday. His plans, besides the reaping, are to spend time with his girlfriend, Lenore Dove.

Haymitch lives with his Ma and his ten-year-old brother Sid. His Ma takes in laundry to make ends meet. His pa is buried in the Abernathy family plot in the miner's graveyard. He died in a fire in the mines that some say was an act of resistance.

Haymitch visits Hattie Meeney whom he helps with her illegal distillery business. She gives him a bottle of white liquor as a birthday gift. He doesn't drink, but Haymitch knows he can trade this off for something else. He then meets up with his girlfriend, Lenore Dove who is one of the Covey, in the meadow. Lenore has been raised by her uncles, Clerk Carmine and Tam Amber, after her mother died during childbirth. Lenore gives Haymitch a flint striker shaped like a "C" with two animals, a snake and a long-necked bird facing one another.

Just prior to the reaping ceremony, Haymitch's mother gives him a year's supply of flour sack underwear and a new pocketknife while Sid gives him a piece of flint rock. 

The reaping ceremony takes place at the square in front of the Justice Building. There are posters as well as many Peacekeepers who are checking in the young reaping candidates - those children aged twelve to eighteen. Attendance is mandatory for everyone. Haymitch has twenty slips of paper in the reaping. The additional slips are due to his getting extra food for his family, so the odds are not in his favour. After the Panem anthem, Mayor Allister readers the Treaty of Treason. Then Drusilla Sickle, the escort for the  District 12 tribunes each year, does the draw. Thirteen-year-old Louella McCoy and Maysilee Donner are chosen for the girls, while Woodbine Chance and eighteen-year-old Wyatt Callow are chosen for the boys. Each makes their way up to the dias, when suddenly Woodbine, known for his ability to run fast, sprints down an alley, only to be shot in the head by a sniper. 

This causes chaos and the feed on the TV screens goes dark as there is a five minute broadcast delay so that the rest of the country isn't able to witness what's happening. Everyone is ordered on the ground while the Peacekeepers remove anyone with gore on them from the square. When Haymitch gets up to protect Lenore as she's trying to help Woodbine's distraught mother, he gets hit with the butt of a rifle. Furious, Drusilla orders him as the replacement for Woodbine and attempts to have Lenore shot. However, Plutarch Heavensbee, responsible for doing promo for the Games, intervenes, telling Drusilla he wants to keep Lenore to publicize the tearful goodbyes.  

The broadcast resumes with the naming of Wyatt and Haymitch. He is relieved to see Lenore spared due to bribes from Clerk Carmine and Tam Amber. Maysilee's father unsuccessfully attempts to bribe anyone to save his daughter. Haymitch's ma is distraught as is his little brother Sid.  Drusilla refuses to allow the families to say goodbye to their reaped children as is usually done. Again Plutarch intevenes, telling her he needs more shots for his recap.This gives Haymitch the chance to hug his Ma and Sid and say goodbye. As the train pulls out of the District 12 station, he sees Lenore Dove, screaming in rage into the wind.

On the train Haymitch, Louella, Wyatt and Maysilee watch a recap of the reaping from all the districts. There is no evidence of what really transpired in District 12. Plutarch tells them that he's attempting to help them out,  by selling them to potential sponsors. When they see the well fed, well trained, "Careers", children from Districts 1 to 4 who have been trained to win the Hunger Games, Haymitch feels intimidated. However, Plutarch tells him that brains, skills, strategy and luck all factor in to who wins. Haymitch believes Plutarch is simply manipulating them for the Capitol's gain.

At the Tribute center, each tribute is "prepped". Haymitch's team is comprised of Proserpina and Vitus who are university students. District 12's stylist is Magno Stift who has a terrible reputation for doing nothing and provides them with smelly black miner overalls and plastic miner hats. They are taken to the stables where each district's tributes are loaded into twelve chariots. Haymitch and his fellow District 12 tributes are placed into "a rickety chariot drawn by a quarter of skittish gray nags." With Maysilee and Louella at the front and Haymitch and Wyatt at the back their chariot enters the arena last. A firework explodes in front of their chariot, causing the horses to break into a run, colliding with the spiked wheels of District 6. Hamitch and Louella are thrown out, killing Louella instantly. Wyatt and Maysilee are also thrown out but uninjured. 

Furious at Louella's death, Haymitch takes her body dodging Peacekeepers and tributes, runs towards the president's mansion at the end of the arena. He hijacks District 1's golden chariot and races it to just underneath the mansion's balcony where he lays Louella's body. In an act of defiance, Haymitch claps, demonstrating to President Snow that her death is on him. This challenge to President Snow will not go unpunished, as Haymitch is soon to learn and will have devastating consequences for everyone he loves.

Discussion

Sunrise on the Reaping is the second prequel to Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy. It tells the story of Haymitch Abernathy during the fiftieth Hunger Games and the Second Quarter Quell. Haymitch seeks to resist the ongoing yearly murder of young people from the districts but in doing so, he sets himself up as the target of President Snow's revenge with devastating consequences. 

This novel explores the role of propaganda and lies, and the use of terror to control and subjugate a population to prevent it from rebelling against oppression and tyranny. It also asks readers to consider what motivates a population to finally decide to rebel under such total control?

One method of propaganda is the use of posters, a theme that carries throughout the novel by Haymitch Abernathy. The first description of propaganda are the posters that Haymitch describes in the square where the reaping ceremony is held. The Capitol has plastered the square in District 12 and likely in the other districts, with posters with the theme of "No Peace". They read, "NO PEACE, NO BREAD!" or "NO PEACE, NO SECURITY!", "NO CAPITOL, NO PEACE!" A huge banner with the face of President Snow promotes him as "PANEM'S #1 PEACEKEEPER."  Haymitch sees similar posters at the train station in the Capitol but this time geared to the residents there. as though the Capitol has to convince it's own citizens that this how things must be. The message is that without the Capitol there will be no peace, no security and no bread. Even more important, "NO HUNGER GAMES, NO PEACE!"  It is an ongoing attempt to maintain the status quo - that is - the annual reaping of young boys and girls from the districts as reparation for the rebellion against the Capitol years ago. But Haymitch is determined to paint his own poster and not allow the Capitol to use him as a "poster boy".

In an attempt to make it seem that the Capitol has total control over the districts and that they willingly comply, broadcasts of the reaping and the Hunger Games are manipulated and sanitized. When Woodbine Chance is murdered at the reaping, Haymitch realizes for the first time that the broadcast is not live, but that there is a five minute delay so they can whitewash any dissent or rebellion. Instead of showing the murder of Woodbine, the unrest in the square, the intervention of Haymitch to protect Lenore, and Drusilla's order to shoot Lenore, the broadcast is halted and evidence quickly removed. Haymitch is ordered to be the replacement for Woodbine and once the gore is cleaned up, the broadcast resumes, complete with canned applause. Later on the train Haymitch admits to being sickened by the false narrative that Plutarch has created. "I watch, both fascinated and sickened by the flawless transition from Maysilee's drawing to Wyatt's and mine. Not even a hint of Woodbine's shooting or the turmoil that followed. And there's my name, and there's me, and there's Ma gasping, Sid crying. Lenore Dove with her hand clasped over her mouth." He tells Plutarch, "That's not what happened." but Plutarch merely states that he changed things around to help them get sponsors. However, the reality is that people in the Capitol and the other districts do not know that a young boy was murdered trying to flee the reaping. Likewise Haymitch and everyone else in Panem do not know if there have been other similar situations in other districts. This serves President Snow's desire for power and control. If others witness acts of rebellion, they might be encouraged to resist too.

The tributes themselves are also used as propaganda. Plutarch arranges for a beautiful birthday cake to be presented to Haymitch, but Haymitch knows what Plutarch is doing. "Clearly, Plutarch wants to capture my delight so he can broadcast it all over Panem. Look how well the Capitol treats the tributes. How forgiving they are to their enemies. How superior they are to those district piglets in their stinkholes." Haymitch refuses to cooperate and be a part of that propaganda and turns his back. He won't be a poster boy for how thoughtful the Capitol is towards the tributes whom they are sending to their death.

Haymitch has no doubt about his part in the Hunger Games. "I'm entirely the Capitol's plaything. They will use me for their entertainment and then kill me, and the truth will have no say in it. Plutarch acts friendly, but his indulgences -- my family's goodbyes, his fancy sandwiches -- are just a method to manage me..."  He remembers what his Ma reminded him about his Pa's message to a girl reaped, "Don't let them use you, Sarshee. Don't let them paint their posters with your blood..."

When chaos occurs during the chariot parade resulting in the death of Louella, Haymitch decides he wants to show the Capitol citizens what really is happening and who is to blame. He sees the Peacekeepers rushing to take away Louella's body and decides to act. " They want to take Louella away, to hide her tidily in a wooden box along with their crimes, and ship her home to District 12. They don't want to feature this death on the Capitol's watch, unplanned and highlighting their incompetence. This is not the blood they want to paint their posters with."

And so Haymitch takes Louella's body and lays it below the balcony where President Snow can see her, in front of all at the parade. He then applauds, placing the blame for Louella's death on Snwo.  While the people in the area see what's happened, Haymitch has no idea if what's happened is actually being broadcast because on one screen all he can see is himself from the waist up clapping. Later, in an attempt to thwart Haymitch's actions, President Snow has a replacement, a body double of "Louella McCoy" brought in so that people will believe Louella survived. However, this young girl is likely the child of traitors. She's been physically altered, drugged and programmed but who seems to still know that the Capitol is murdering children.

The recap broadcast during Haymitch's Victor Ceremony is also grossly distorted and leaves Haymitch stunned and disillusioned. The recap deviates from Day 2. "Timelines are twisted. Connections misleading. It's less flat-out lying than lying by omission." This manipulation of what actually happened distorts Haymitch's actions. "What they showed during the Games, I don't know, but in the recap, I'm not even attempting to protect any of my allies." Haymitch along with Ampert is involved in a plot to break the arena, however the damage they inflict is not shown. The distortion around Maysilee and Maritte's deaths make Haymitch wonder, "Does no one remember? Do they just not care? Or during the Games, did they show the audience a different sky? Or none at all?...The Gamemakers must have been scrambling like crazy to control the narratives by this point. Whatever the case, the audience here in the auditorium has embraced this version, cheering and jeering on cue. Their lack of discernment transforms the recap, validating it as truth. I hope those in the districts can still see it as the piece of propaganda it is, but no telling what they've been fed."  The recap doesn't paint Haymitch as a rebel, but possibly as a cheater or a rascal. 

The novel's title Sunrise on the Reaping is a reference to Lenore Dove's question to Haymitch as to why they should accept the current situation; that every year the sun will rise on yet another reaping. She asks why is this acceptable?  Like most people in the districts, Haymitch is resigned to the fact that every year there is a reaping and this year there is the second Quarter Quell which means twice as many kids. "No point in worrying, I tell myself, there's nothing you can do about it...No way to control the outcome of the reaping or what follows it...They've taken enough already."  Lenore Dove challenges Haymitch when he says everything is going to be fine. "...Because the reaping's going to happen no matter what I believe. Sure as the sun will rise tomorrow."  However, Lenore tells Haymitch, "Thinking things are inevitable. Not believing change is possible." is part of their trouble. She asks him, "Can you imagine it rising on a world without a reaping?"  It is a request she will reiterate later in the novel.

Collins uses the character of Plutarch to question why people accept tyranny and what pushes them to rebel. During the training session, Haymitch realizes that the tributes outnumber the Peacekeepers and could easily attack them. He is dismayed when he thinks about how " Every year we let them herd us into their killing machine. Every year they pay no price for the slaughter." Plutarch, overhearing Haymitch and Ringina asks them why they didn't act. Haymitch realizes he's not just questioning them not acting in the training gym but also why they don't resist in the districts. It is a challenge similar to that posed by Lenore Dove. Ringina states that it's because of the guns, but Plutarch presses further since the districts outnumber the Capitol. When Haymitch and Ringina state that it is the Capitol's firepower that forces them to submit, Plutarch counters, "I see the hangings and the shootings and the starvation and the Hunger Games...And yet, I still don't think the fear they inspire justifies the arrangement we've all entered into. Do you?...Why do you agree to it? Why do I? For that matter, why have people always agreed to it?"  Haymitch and Ringina have no answer.

However, as the events in the novel demonstrate, the districts do not fight back because Snow and the Capitol have absolute control and create absolute terror. Any act of defiance or resistance is brutally punished as evidenced by what happens to Incitatus Loomy, Haymitch, Beetee and Ampert, as well as Mags and Wiress. At the presidential mansion, Snow reveals that he plans for Haymitch to die in the Hunger Games for what he did during the chariot parade, indicating that Haymitch's death will mean that "...Lenore Dove and your family should be free to enjoy long and happy lives."  When Haymitch survives to win the Fiftieth Hunger Games, he knows all who he loves will suffer and all who helped him will also be punished. "I don't dare think about my loved ones back home. Everything I did, every choice I made, was based on the knowledge that my death protected them from harm.,,,This I know: I have been publicly challenging Snow and his Quarter Quell since I landed in the Capitol."  If Snow poisoned his own parade master for botching the chariot parade, Haymitch wonders just "what feast must he have in store for me and mine?"

Prior to returning home, Haymitch sees that even those who helped him do not escape unscathed. At the Victor's Ceremony, Haymitch's sees that his mentors, Mags and Wiress have been tortured "...Finally, Mags arrives in a wheelchair while a still-mobile but distressed Wiress twitches her head about in a birdlike fashion, a steady stream of words spouting from her lips. Very bad things have been done to them."

He quickly experiences the violence of Snow's revenge upon his arrival in District 12:  his mother and brother Sid die in a fire. After the Hunger Games, Haymitch has been able to learn that, Snow, who seemed to know about the Covey, knew and loved the Covey girl from District 12 who won the Tenth Hunger Games. Her apparent betrayal makes Haymitch fear for Lenore. "Oh , Lenore Dove, what have I done to you? How will you pay for my surviving the Hunger Games?"  

Lenore Dove, as she is dying from poison, begs Haymitch to not let the sun rise on another reaping. But Haymitch is so devastated by her death that he begins drinking heavily. The depth of his loss is portrayed by his remembrance of a song ( Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven) he learned on her last birthday. No one can help or heal Haymitch, not even Plutarch who hopes to recruit him to help grow the rebellion.  Haymitch refuses Plutarch's request to help them change things, because he believes he is "...living proof that the Capitol always wins. I tried to keep that sun from rising on another reaping day, I tried to change things, and now everybody's dead."  Haymitch doesn't trust Plutarch because he creates the propaganda that sustains the Capitol. At this time, Snow's brutal suppression of any hint of rebellion is still working to maintain power and control.

This prequel is another well written novel in the Hunger Games series, with believable characters, many of them endearing, some of them very memorable:  sweet Ampert, bold Maysilee, kindly Mags, vicious Drusilla, intelligent Wiress and of course, the cruel Coriolanus Snow. There is a mention of a relationship between two men, kept hidden for fear of reprisals by the Capitol.  The wealth of characters in the series opens the possibility for many more novels detailing the world of Panem.

Sunrise on the Reaping is a tale of tragedy and loss, how challenging evil often exacts a heavy price. The novel ends on a somewhat hopeful note: eventually Haymitch was able to fulfill his promise to Lenore Dove, by lending a hand in the destruction of Snow, and the defeat of the Capitol. Unlike Coriolanus Snow, Haymitch was able to love again, his heart not poisoned by betrayal and wanton cruelty. Katniss and Peeta offer Haymitch a chance to mourn his losses, something he was reluctant to do. "I didn't want to let them in, her and Peeta, but the walls of a person's heart are not impregnable, not if they have ever known love."

Book Details:

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

New York: Scholastic Press       2025

382 pp.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for the reaping ceremony of the Hunger Games. Snow, heir to the house of Snow lives in the war torn Capitol of Panem. Snow, along with his elderly grandmother, his twenty-one-year old cousin, Tigris live "in the penthouse of the Capitol's most opulent apartment building." They are so poor that Coriolanus only has an old shirt of his father's to wear to the upcoming reaping ceremony. This makes him seriously consider phoning in sick to avoid looking shabby and revealing the true state of the Snows.

Coriolanus Snow attends the Academy, a high school that educates the sons and daughters of the Capitol's most prominent and wealthy citizens. Both his parents died when he was five years old: his father General Crassus Snow from a rebel sniper's bullet and his mother and baby sister in childbirth. He is a teaching aide to the Academy communications professor, Salyria Click. She has been advocating on Snow's behalf for him to receive one of the twenty-four mentorships to the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games are a war reparation for the loss of Capitol lives by the district rebels as outlined in the Treaty of Treason.  The reaping involves "twenty-four tributes, one boy and one girl from each of the twelve districts, drawn by lottery to be thrown into an arena to fight to the death in the Hunger Games." This is the first Hunger Games where the tributes will be assigned mentors, young people from the Capitol. 

Just months away from graduation and a stellar student, Coriolanus hopes to obtain one of the coveted Academy prizes given at graduation. A mentorship would help him obtain one of the monetary prizes that would pay his tuition to the University and guarantee a future career. Fortunately for Coriolanus, he is able to attend the reaping ceremony because Tigris returns with his shirt, now dyed cream with black velvet cuffs and collar and tesserae buttons. 

In the massive Heavensbee Hall, Coriolanus along with his fellow students and the faculty watch the televised reaping. Among the attendees is Sejanus Plinth, aide to the gymnasium mistress, Professor Agrippina Sickle. Unlike the Snow family who had invested in munitions in District 13, the Plinths had placed their investment in District 2 and became wealthy, buying their way into the Capitol. With the destruction of District 13, the Snows were impoverished. Dean Casca Highbottom, creator of the Hunger Games, and now overseeing the mentor program, reads out the mentor assignments. To Coriolanus's horror, he is to mentor Lucy Gray Baird. 

Lucy Gray turns out to be a firebrand who causes a commotion at the reaping in District 12. This makes Coriolanus wonder if Lucy just might be the gift he needs to score points and win a prize. Unlike the other mentors, Coriolanus meets Lucy at the train station to give her a rose and is taken along with the tributes to the monkey zoo enclosure. His presence among the tributes is shocking. There Lucy is interviewed by Lepidus Malmsey of the Capitol News. She tells him she is not really from District 12 as her people are Covey, musicians who travel from place to place. Coriolanus is also interviewed as to why he ended up in the cage with Lucy. 

He is then taken by the Peacekeepers to the high biology lab at the Academy where he is met by Dr. Volumnia Gaul, Head Gamekeeper and Dean Casca Highbottom. When questioned, Coriolanus tells them that the purpose of his actions are to engage the audience. While Dr. Gaul is supportive, Highbottom is not and assigns Coriolanus a demerit point, telling him he is at risk of being expelled. 

Coriolanus returns to the monkey house and encounters Sejanus who is attempting to offer the other tributes food, since his own tribute, Marcus will not accept anything. He offers Coriolanus food for his tribute. Sejanus tells Coriolanus that he could have easily been one of the tributes, if he wasn't wealthy and he tries to get out of the mentorship by offering Coriolanus his tribute. Coriolanus refuses, considering Lucy Gray to be the tribute who will help him win a prize. 

At the Academy, most of Coriolanus's classmates congratulate him on his initiatives of the preceding day. Satyria tells him that Dr. Gaul is pleased and that she will praise him to President Ravinstall. But she warns him, he must be careful. The mentors spend the morning brainstorming ways to engage the people of the Capitol to watch the Hunger Games. While Festus wants to punish people who do not watch, Clemensia and Sejanus question why people should watch. Coriolanus however, suggests that they should allow betting on the tributes.

The mentors then interview their individual tributes who shackled and are seated at tables. Coriolanus slips Lucy Gray a slice of bread pudding Tigris has made. Lucy tells Coriolanus about her family and how she and her siblings were cared for after the deaths of their parents. Coriolanus suggests to Lucy that during their interview on television the night before the Games begin, that she should sing. However, Lucy is not interested as she can't see the point of doing so.

After the interviews, the mentors meet with Dr. Gaul who is mentoring the mentors. to discuss the interviews with the tributes. It is at this point that Sejanus Plinth confronts Dr. Gaul regarding the purpose of the Games and the injustice he believes they are perpetuating. Dr. Gaul isn't moved by Sejanus's arguments. Instead, she assigns the mentors a project to write up a proposal on how staking odds on the tributes might work. Coriolanus, Clemensia and Arachne are elected to draft the proposal but it is Coriolanus who actually writes it up. 

However it isn't long before things begin unraveling for the Tenth Hunger Games. First Arachne Crane is murdered by her tribute from District 10 after taunting her with food. Her girl tribute is shot dead by the Peacekeepers for the attack. Then Clemensia is sadistically punished by Dr. Gaul for lying about working on the proposal. Dr. Gaul has her neon coloured snakes bite Clemensia, their genetically altered venom almost killing her and wreaking havoc on her body. This is followed by an attack in the war-damaged arena that leads to the death of both tributes from Districts 1, 6 and 9 and the death of the girl tribute from District 2. In addition, three mentors are hospitalized including Coriolanus. and the twin mentors from District 9 die in the bombings. 

With Lucy Gray having saved Coriolanus's life, rather than attempting to escape, Coriolanus's perspective begins to change. Instead of using Lucy to enhance his own image and prospects, he now begins to work with her to win the games. But winning the Games leads not only to unexpected opportunities but puts Coriolanus on a path of cruelty, murder and power.

Discussion

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes tells the story of Coriolanus Snow, son of the late Crassus Snow, who eventually becomes President of Panem and his fellow classmate, Sejanus Plinth. The two boys are starkly different and it is this difference that leads ultimately to tragedy for both.  

Eighteen-year-old Coriolanus is the surviving son of the once wealthy Snow family, his father Crassus dead and the Snow family now impoverished, having lost their munitions fortune during the war. Suffering starvation and privation during the war, now living in their indebted home, Coriolanus has no way to attend the University unless he can win a prize that will pay his way. In contrast is his classmate, Sejanus Plinth, son of the wealthy Strabo Plinth who owns the Capitol munitions. The Plinths once lived in District 2 but are now residents of the Capitol, eating well and living in a lavish home.  It also becomes apparent that Coriolanus and Sejanus view the war, the Hunger Games, the Capitol and even humanity very differently.

The novel traces the complete corruption of Coriolanus Snow as his desire for power and control gradually lead him to betrayal and serial murder. It is Dean Casca Highbottom who recognizes Coriolanus's true nature early on and as a result dislikes Coriolanus. Many years earlier, Casca and his best friend, Coriolanus's father Crassus Snow, had been working together on an assignment. Casca had come up with the idea of the Hunger Games, mainly as a theoretical exercise which he never intended to be implemented. However, Crassus had gotten Casca severely intoxicated, written up the idea himself and submitted it. It was accepted and the Hunger Games were inaugurated, much to Casca's horror. During the mentorship for the 10th Hunger Games, Casca is not surprised by Coriolanus's approval of the overdone funeral procession for Arachne Crane. He hints to Coriolanus that he is no different from his father, which puzzles the young Coriolanus. He tells Coriolanus as much: "It's amazing how little things change. After all the killing. After all the agonized promises to remember the cost. After all of that. I can't distinguish the bud from the blossom." with Coriolanus being the bud and his dead father, Crassus the blossom.

During the 10th Hunger Games, Coriolanus comes under the mentorship of the cruel, perverse Dr. Gaul as he himself serves as a mentor to tribute Lucy Gray. Coriolanus is indifferent to the fate of the tributes until he becomes a mentor. However some of his classmates feel participating in the games is wrong. Lysistrata tells Coriolanus, "I know it's to punish the districts, but haven't we punished them enough? How long do we have to keep dragging the war out?" To Lysistrata, the party-like atmosphere for the mentors is revolting and she feels she is being used.  This creates inner conflict for Coriolanus who considered mentoring an honor, "A way to serve the Capitol and perhaps gain a little glory... If the cause wasn't honorable, how could it be an honor to participate in it? He felt confused, then manipulated, then undefended. As if he were more a tribute than a mentor."  At this point, Coriolanus doesn't realize he is being manipulated and trained by Dr. Gaul. 

Dr. Gaul sends Coriolanus into the arena to retrieve Sejanus leading him to kill Bobbin in self defense, Coriolanus begins to realize that he is simply one of Gaul's test subjects. While Dr. Gaul considers the experience "transformative", Coriolanus is troubled by it. She asks him to consider "What sort of agreement is necessary if we're to live in peace. What sort of social contract is required for survival?" 

In the Hunger Games Coriolanus attempts to ensure the odds are in his tribute's favour by cheating. He gives Lucy his mother's compact to store rat poison and later on by placing a handkerchief Lucy used into Dr. Gaul's snake tank so they won't attack her when they are released into the arena. He knows he's cheating and his conscience bothers him. He wonders "What else might he be capable of? Well that was it. It stopped now. If he didn't have honor, he had nothing." 

Punished for cheating and sent to District 12 as a Peacekeeper, Coriolanus reconsiders Dr. Gaul's question to him. In the arena there were no laws, no rules, no consequences and survival was the most important thing. For Coriolanus, prevention of chaos means enforcing laws and that requires control. "Without the control to enforce the contract, chaos reigned. The power that controlled needed to be greater than the people -- otherwise, they would challenge it. The only entity capable of this was the Capitol." 

In District 12, Coriolanus begins to further define his beliefs about chaos, control, contract and humanity. He tells Lucy Gray that the Capitol must be strict "...to keep things under control." to prevent "choas and people running around killing each other, like in the arena." "Unless there's law, and someone enforcing it, I think we might as well be animals."  Lucy is shocked by Coriolanus's view and questions him what the price for this "control" might be. Coriolanus believes they give up nothing.

Ultimately, Coriolanus's belief in the Capitol leads him to betray his friend Sejanus who considers him more than a brother. Initially he feels conflicted over using a captured jabberjay to record Sejanus's plans with the rebels.  But this quickly changes to anger and then satisfaction over his actions. "This breaking of the contract. This invitation to chaos and all that would follow." He believes everything would collapse without the Capitol and that they would live like animals. Sejanus's actions are consider treason and he is hanged. But Coriolanus is more concerned about the possibility of being "tainted by association" than for his role in betraying his friend.

Coriolanus murders Mayfair Lipp, the mayor of District 12 to protect himself from being hanged. He rationalizes Mayfair's murder as "Just another form of self defense." Believing that he will eventually hang for her murder, Coriolanus plans to run away with Lucy, only to discover that he's been offered a place at officer school. When he discovers the missing rifle that could implicate him, Coriolanus hunts down Lucy who has fled into the woods after realizing that it was he who betrayed Sejanus. After abandoning Lucy to her fate (it's uncertain if he's murdered her), Coriolanus completes his betrayal of Sejanus by taking his place in the Plinth home as heir and beloved son. "The Plinths paid for everything now: the taxes on the apartment, his tuition, the cook. They gave him a generous allowance as well. This was helpful because, ...university life was expensive when done right." 

In a final act of cruelty, Coriolanus murders Dean Highbottom. He has murdered all who came between him and regaining the Snow family power and wealth. As a student of the poisonous Dr. Gaul, Snow is on his way to the top. In the Epilogue, Coriolanus has come to fully embrace Dr. Gaul's principles - "That our essential nature is violent." and that the Hunger Games proves this because even children, the most innocent will kill. Embracing this and believing it is natural leads Coriolanus to have no conscience in killing Highbottom.

The character of Sejanus Plinth is the conscience of the Hunger Games and the Capitol. His situation is ironic because he is the pacifist son of Strabo Plinth who is a munitions mogul. He is also an excellent sharpshooter who has joined the Peacekeepers naively believing that he can work as a medic and help others. Sadly it prove to be his undoing.

Sejanus, more than any other character, recognizes the injustice of the Hunger Games and that the games are perpetuating war through this injustice. Although other characters such as Clemensia suspect this injustice, it is most fully expressed through the character of Sejanus. Originally a citizen of District 2, Sejanus's father's new-found wealth allowed the family to move to the Capitol, sparing Sejanus from ever having to compete in the Hunger Games. Having lived briefly in District 2, Sejanus understands the games from the point of view of the districts. He is now having to experience them as a mentor to a tribute, one from his own district that he knew growing up.  

He considers forcing children to fight one another to the death inhuman.  He tells Coriolanus, "It's just this whole Hunger Games thing is making me crazy! I mean, what are we doing? Putting kids in an arena to kill each other? It feels wrong on so many levels. Animals protect their young, right? And so do we. We try to protect children! It's built into us as human beings. Who really wants to do this? It's unnatural!"  As a result he tells Coriolanus he can't be a part of the games especially when it involves a boy who he knew when he lived in District 2.  "It's evil. It goes against everything I think is right in the world. I can't be a part of it." 

When the mentors are discussing ways to entice the residents of the Capitol to watch the Hunger Games, Sejanus continues to voice his opposition after Clemensia notes that people don't want to watch children killing one another because it's "sickening". He tells them, "Who wants to watch a group of children kill each other? Only a vicious, twisted person. Human beings may not be perfect, but we're better than that." 

Sejanus confronts the barbaric, cruel Dr. Gaul when she labels the children "rebels" telling her, "Hardly rebels. Some of them were two years old when the war ended. The oldest were eight. And now that the war's over, they're just citizens of Panem, aren't they? Same as us? Isn't that what the anthem says the Capitol does? You give us light. You reunite? It's supposed to be everyone's government, right? ...Well then it should protect everyone....And I don't see how making them fight to the death achieves that." 

Sejanus continues to confront Dr. Gaul later on when his tribute, Marcus escapes during an attack on the mentors during the arena tour. He tells her that they have no right to do what they are doing to the children during the Hunger Games. "No right to take away their life and freedom. Those are things everyone is born with, and they're not yours for the taking. Winning a war doesn't give you that right. "

When mentor Livia remarks that she believes the war is over despite what happened in the arena during the tour, she questions the ongoing Hunger Games,  "And if the war is over, then technically the killing should be over, shouldn't it?"  However, it's clear that Dr. Gaul continues to believe they are at war with the districts and that the war is never ending and she seems to relish this state of affairs. She views the Hunger Games as a means of control, keeping the rebels in check by reaping their children and impoverishing them. 

Collins fills The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes with plenty of foreshadowing for the story told in the original trilogy. There is the mention of katniss, a kind of wild potato that Lucy Gray's Covey people grow for food. The roses which are a signature of Coriolanus Snow in the trilogy have their origin in his family with his Grandma'am growing roses on the roof of their Capitol penthouse. And the origin of the mockingjay which becomes a symbol of rebellion and revolution in the trilogy is more deeply explained in this novel. 

While serving in District 12 as a peacekeeper, Coriolanus encounters the jabberjays and mockingjays at a public hanging. Coriolanus dislikes the mockingjays "on sight".   The jabberjays are mutants that were created by Dr. Gaul to spy on the rebels during the war. Jabberjays are male birds who are attracted to human voices and can be controlled to record human conversation for up to an hour. In the wild they have mated with native mockingbirds, creating a new breed, mockingjays. The mockingjays cannot be controlled nor can they record but can mimic music and song. 

As Coriolanus's irrational response is to kill all the mockingjays whom he considers to be "unnatural". "He didn't mind the jabberjays so much - they seemed rather interesting from a military standpoint -- but something about the mockingjays repelled him. He distrusted their spontaneous creation. Nature running amok. They should die out, and die out soon." 

When Dr. Kay attempts to trap the mockingjays, she is unsuccessful and must resort to using nets. Coriolanus's aversion to them is so great that he organizes a hunt to slaughter as many as possible. And the aversion seems to be mutual. As Coriolanus helps capture mockingjays in the nets for Dr. Kay, "Coriolanus's bird began a tortured screaming the minute he touched it, and when he gave it a squeeze designed to dissuade it, it drove its beak into his palm."  The dislike appears to be mutual. 

On a trip into the wilderness of District 12, Coriolanus notes that the mockingjays "infest" the woods. Further out near the lake, there are no jabberjays, only mockingjays. Out further near the lake, Coriolanus notes "...This elimination of the Capitol birds from the equation deeply disturbed him...He didn't like it one bit." 

In the novel the jabberjay and mocking jay are symbols of the Capitol and the rebels respectively, foreshadowing the rebellion which will play out years later and Coriolanus Snow's part in it. By mating with the jabberjays, the mockingjays have subverted the Capitol, removing their ability to record. Coriolanus, who supports the Capitol and the Hunger Games, comes to recognize that this subversion is indicative of the Capitol's loss of control. Forty-six years later, Katniss Everdeen would become the mockingjay - the symbol of the revolution to overthrow the Capitol. 

Overall, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a fitting prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy with many interesting themes to explore. As with the original series, there is much violence and cruelty in the novel and there is a passing mention of diverse relationships;  it is therefore recommended for older teens.  

Book Details:

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

New York: Scholastic Press     2020
517 pp.

Movie: Mockingjay Part 2

Mockingjay Part 2 begins with Katniss recovering from the attack by Peeta who has been brainwashed by the Capitol into believing that she must be killed. Numerous attempts to deprogram Peeta have so far been unsuccessful. The state of Peeta leads Katniss to reaffirm her desire to kill President Snow and end the war by taking over the Capitol.

At a meeting, President Alma Coin along with Gale and many others realize they need to take out the Capitol's weapons arsenal, a mountain stronghold known as "the Nut" because it is impossible to take out. Gale suggests to President Coin and her military advisers that since they are unlikely to capture the Nut, instead they bomb the mountain and seal it with rock slides, thereby rendering it useless. However, sealing the mountain will trap those inside, including many people from District 2 who are forced to work there. This is unacceptable to Katniss. They decide to leave the train tracks open so that a train carrying survivors can leave the mountain.

Katniss travels to District 2 with Gale to meet with rebels. After the bombing, Katniss and Gale, along with their team meet the survivors but Katniss is shot and wounded, placing her back in sickbay in District 13. She attempts once again to help Peeta, but his brainwashing remains too strong. President Coin refuses to agree to Katniss's request to be placed on a team that will be entering the Capitol as part of the attack. At Finn and Annie's wedding, Katniss takes up Johanna's suggestion; she sneaks on board a transport and arrives at District 2 where she meets up with Gale. Deciding not to bring her back, Coin has her assigned to a team headed by Commander Boggs. The squad also includes Lt. Jackson, Gale, Finnick, the Leeg twins and Cressida. Although they will be part of the invasion team, they learn that the Capital has been rigged by its gamers with pods designed to maim and kill. The Holo shows the location of most of the pods but not all of them. After encountering the first pod, Coin sends Peeta to join Katniss's squad. Although he seems calmer now, Peeta is handcuffed and watched closely by Finnick.

Unfortunately the group encounters an unseen pod that kills Boggs who as he is dying transfers command of the Holo to Katniss. The group triggers an even more lethal second pod which seals the area and releases a sea of black tar. As they are racing towards a building, Peeta attacks Katniss who fights him off. Peeta pushes a soldier into the tar and he is caught in ropes and feathers and strung up. The group manages to find safety in the building, but one of the Leeg twins has been mortally wounded. Her sister stays with her while Katniss and her crew leave just as the Capitol soldiers arrive. They watch from safety while the building is destroyed.

Jackson had tried to secure the Holo from Katniss but she lies to the group convincing them that she has a mission to kill Snow and therefore needs the Holo. In reality, this is her own plan. To avoid further devastating pods, which are everywhere, the group heads into the sewers. Pollux leads them through the sewers which he knows well from his time as a slave in the Capitol.

At first the Capitol and President Snow believe that Katniss has been killed and broadcast her death in the hopes of discouraging the rebels. However, she is soon spotted on a camera in the sewers and Snow orders the attacks to be moved underground.This leads to a horrific attack by mutant mutts. The survivors are sheltered at the home of Tigris where Katniss reveals that she has no mission to kill President Snow.

When Snow invites the citizens of the Capitol to come to his mansion for safety, Gale and Katniss, disguised as Capitol citizens join the exodus. However, just as they near the mansion, the rebels attack.  The ending of the war has devastating consequences for Katniss and reveals the true character of Gale and the real motives of President Coin.

Discussion

Mockingjay Part 2 is a satisfying conclusion to the Hunger Games movies, in general keeping with the  theme and atmosphere of the novels. As in the previous movies, Katniss, was well portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence, as a young woman deeply traumatized by war and the loss of her community and her home. Despite this trauma, Katniss becomes determined to see the rebellion to its end and to assassinate President Snow.

Katniss's distrust of Coin, whom she is warned about by President Snow after his capture,  leads her to correctly assess her situation in the new Panem - she is a liability to Coin.  Katniss shockingly decides to side with Coin on reconvening the games, this time using people from the Capitol, even though she recognizes this as a continuation of the brutality Snow instituted. Katniss knows that if she goes against Coin she will be murdered. Instead, she bides her time, and strikes at the most unlikely moment, thus re-directing the path of the rebellion towards peace and justice. It is an action that surprises even Haymitch.

Mockingjay Part 2 effectively shows the final journey of Katniss from reluctant rebel, to a warrior with a conscience, to war hero to mother and wife. Katniss reluctantly volunteered for the games to save her younger sister, Prim, from certain death. (Ironically, that sacrifice seems worthless in light of Prim's death in the final battle for the Capitol.) In doing so and winning the games with Peeta, she becomes a symbol of resistance against the Capitol, when all she really wants is to go home and live her life. However, Haymitch makes it clear to her, that the games will never, ever really be over. The only way is to depose Snow and stop the Hunger Games.  Katniss even tries to bargain several times with President Snow, but when he shows just how far he's willing to go to hold on to power, she knows he must be stopped. Eventually Katniss loses her connection to Gale who is willing to do anything, to sacrifice anyone, to stop Snow. Katniss does not share this belief.


With the unexpected death of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who played Plutarch Heavensbee the Capitol's gamesmaker who joined the revolution, the producers faced a huge dilemma: what to do about his character who was so integral to the storyline? Scenes already shot with Hoffman were retained, those not yet shot, were rewritten. Moviegoers will miss him but this was handled correctly.

There is plenty of action in Mockingjay Part 2 and some frightening scenes for younger viewers. But the movie ends on a hopeful note: Katniss and Peeta share a life together and the fact that they have two children demonstrates they believe in the future. Overall a great conclusion to an excellent book and movie series.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay is the dark and tragic conclusion to The Hunger Games series. 

The final novel in Suzanne Collins' dystopian trilogy opens with Katniss visiting her home district, District 12, which was fire-bombed into oblivion  almost immediately after she was airlifted out of the Quarter Quell arena. This allowed no time for the people in the district  to flee.  Gale managed to save about eight hundred people from the district by herding them towards the Meadow where there were no wooden structures covered in coal dust to catch fire. Among them were Katniss's mother and her younger sister, Prim, as well as his own family. Three days later the survivors were evacuated to District 13 where they were assigned clothing and living compartments. Connor a survivor from another district has told Katniss that District 13 needs the survivors after a pox epidemic killed many and left others infertile.

The people in District 13 live entirely below ground in a huge complex that was originally designed to be some kind of refugee for government leaders during wartime. District 13 survived the war long ago, because the rebels were able to gain control of the nuclear arsenal stored there and to use it as a bargaining chip to have the Capitol retreat and leave them alone. After her rescue and physical recovery, Katniss now lives in Compartment 307 with her mother and Prim.

The president of District 13, Alma Coin, wants Katniss to be the symbol of the revolution- the Mockingjay. Most of the districts with the exception of District 2 are now in open revolt against the Capitol. Besides Katniss, Beetee an older inventor from District 3 and Finnick Odair, the career victor from District 4, the fishing district were also rescued from the arena, although Finnick is in rough shape due to the high voltage shock he received.  Katniss wonders if becoming the Mockingjay will actually do any good and if she might do more harm by getting more people killed.

Coin, and Plutarch Heveansbee and his assistant, Fulvia Cardew, are against Katniss returning to District 12, but she insists on it as a condition of her cooperation with the authorities in District 13 - to be their "Mockingjay", the symbol of the rebellion. She needs to see for herself the devastation. They agree to a brief visit. Katniss is overwhelmed by the devastation and ruin and the hundreds of incinerated bodies. Only the Victor's Village is left intact. To her horror, Katniss finds President Snow has left one white rose for her in a vase on the dresser in her bedroom - a promise of revenge. With Prim's cat, Primrose stuffed into her game bag, Katniss quickly returns to Gale and the others waiting in the hovercraft. 

Shortly after her visit to 12, Katniss and Gale are called to Command and watch a broadcast from the Capitol featuring Peeta being interviewed by Caesar Flickerman. Peeta looks unharmed and indicates that he had no knowledge of the plan to rescue Katniss and that Katniss herself had no prior knowledge of the rebels plans. Shockingly, Peeta calls for a cease-fire.  Gale believes that Peeta's outburst may have done much harm to those districts not quite ready to rebel. He also believes Peeta did this to help keep her alive. Not understanding why Peeta would call for a cease-fire, Katniss makes the decision that she will be Coin's Mockingjay, but with conditions.

Those conditions include amnesty for Peeta, Johanna Mason and Enobaria, that she and Gale be allowed to hunt outside the complex and that she be allowed to kill President Snow. Coin agrees. Once she decides to be the Mockingjay, Plutarch shows Katniss the special uniform Cinna designed for her and she is assigned to making propaganda films (referred to as propos in the novel). At this time Plutarch, Fulvia along with Katniss and Gale discover that her former prep team of Octavia, Venia and Flavius being held prisoner for stealing bread. After freeing  them  Beetee also designs special arrows for Katniss, ones that range from just ordinary arrows to ones that are incendiary.

Katniss attempts to film a propo  but Haymitch intervenes and tells them that this will never work. With Coin, Plutarch, Fulvia, Finnick, Gale, Beetee and others gathered around, Haymitch asks them when Katniss has genuinely moved them. He suggests that Katniss be put out in the field, into combat zones, where she is likely to be more emotionally invested. Coin arranges for Katniss to travel to District 8 to a makeshift hospital with a camera crew consisting of Cressida and Messalla and two cameramen, brothers, Castor and Pollux. On the way to District 8, Plutarch tells Katniss more about the rebellion and that the rebels plan to organize a republic where "the people of each district and the Capitol can elect their own representatives to be their voice in a centralized government." He also tells her that rebels plans are to take over the districts one by one, with District 2 being the last to be secured. This will deprive the Capitol of supplies and weaken it enough that it can be invaded.

When Katniss arrives in District 8 she is taken to a makeshift hospital where she is appalled to see all the wounded. However, the people are buoyed by her presence. Her visit turns deadly however, when the district is bombed and the hospital is completely destroyed. While under attack, Katniss and Gale break free of their security and help shoot down several of the Capitol's bombers although both suffer wounds. The brutal carnage enacted by the Capitol on innocent civilians in the hospital infuriates Katniss. She is filmed telling the rebels that she is alive and in District 8. She points to a downed Capitol plane on fire and warns President Snow, " Fire is catching!...And if we burn, you burn with us!" This dramatic footage of Katniss is sent through all the districts but not the Capitol as Beetee is still struggling to override the system he created.

After their propos runs, Katniss and Finnick view another Capitol broadcast of Peeta being interviewed by Caesar Flickerman. This time it's obvious Peeta has been tortured; he's lost weight, is in obvious pain and his hands are shaking. Again he beseeches Katniss not to allow herself to be turned into a weapon by District 13 and asks her "...do you really trust the people you're working with? Do you really know what's going on? And if you don't...find out."  Finnick warns Katniss not to let on that they saw Peeta. When Gale doesn't mention Peeta's appearance, Katniss begins to wonder how Peeta could know anything more than what the Capitol tells him.

On a second trip to District 12 Plutarch reveals that with the inspiration of the first few propos, the rebels have taken districts 3 and 11 (Panem's main supplier of food).  Cressida records Katniss as she sings 'The Hanging Tree' for Pollux who requested it. The song is picked up by all the mockingjays in area of the lake. Back in District 13, the next night another broadcast from the Capitol shows President Snow along with Peeta. But their broadcast is continually interrupted by five to ten second clips that Beetee has created. Peeta however looks unfocused and worse than before. . Despite his condition, Peeta tells District 13 they will be dead by morning - an indirect warning that they are about to be bombed. The last image is of Peeta being beaten, his blood on the tiles. Haymitch understands and along with Katniss they manage to convince Coin who orders everyone evacuated to the lowest levels of the bunkers. Katniss begins to realize that Snow is using Peeta not to extract information he doesn't have but to weaken Katniss and break her emotionally.

After the bombing, they learn that the first ten levels have been totally destroyed but Coin wants them to produce some propos to show that the district is fine and the Mockingjay has survived. Outside of the bunker, Katniss and the group discover the ground near the entrance strewn with two dozen red and pink roses, another threat from Snow. Designed to torture Katniss emotionally and psychologically.  Katniss is unable to make the film because she knows everything she says will be taken out on Peeta. After she breaks down into hysteria and awakes from being medicated, Haymitch tells her that a team of seven people, including Gale, are going into the Capitol to retrieve Peeta. 

To distract the Capitol, Plutarch has Katniss and Finnick film something that will grab President Snow and the Capitol residents' attention. It is Finnick's segment that highlights the depravity and cruelty of President Snow. Finnick reveals that he and many other tribute victors have been trafficked. However, Finnick was paid in secrets and he reveals that President Snow came to power through the use of poison.  It is a shocking revelation that helps Katniss understand Haymitch and Finnick better.The team successfully rescues Johanna Mason, Annie who is Finnick's love, and Peeta. But when Katniss attempts to embrace him, Peeta brutally attacks her, attempting to strangle her.

When she awakes, Katniss learns that Peeta has been subjected to a torture called "hijacking" which is a type of fear conditioning that uses tracker jacker venom. Peeta's memories of Katniss have been altered and saved so that he sees her as life-threatening. Katniss is sickened by the fact that someone could make Peeta forget that he loves her. She is told that Peeta has been turned into a weapon and that it will take time to deprogram him.

Eventually the only district left to overtake is District 2 which contains "the Nut", "...an impenetrable mountain that houses the heart of the Capitol's military." It was built after the Dark Days and was built to replace District 13 which was where the military was located. With District 13 gone, they needed somewhere to house their military assets like nuclear missiles and aircraft. The old mines within the mountain with a train system became the new military installation. The rebellion needs to take control of this before they move on to the Capitol. But during a meeting to discuss how to do that, Gale suggests they bomb the mountain to create avalanches to seal the tunnels. Although he argues that all the tunnels should be sealed, trapping everyone who works in the Nut, they decide to leave the train tunnel open.

Meanwhile Gale and Beetee are working on adapting Gale's traps so they can be used against humans in the assault on the Capitol. Efforts to deprogram Peeta seem useless - he is angry and hateful towards any mention of Katniss. Katniss believes her sister is wrong, that Peeta is irretrievable and she decides she wants to go to the Capitol with one mission - to kill Snow and end the war. However, Plutarch tells Katniss that they must secure all the districts and District 2 is the only one remaining. He agrees to send her to District 2 with a team to help the rebels crack the Capitol's military base in a mountain nicknamed "the Nut". Katniss leaves believing Peeta is lost to her and her only remaining choice is to die killing Snow. 

With Peeta recovering, all the districts on side, Katniss's one focus now is to get to the Capitol to kill Snow. At first Coin refuses to place her in a squad telling her, her job is done but eventually Katniss is assigned to the Star Squad led by Boggs, along with soldiers Jackson, Mitchell, Homes and Leeg 1 and 2, as well as Gale, Finnick, and the film crew of Cressida, Messalla, Castor and Pollux. With the death of Leeg 2, Peeta is strangely added to the team. It soon becomes apparent to Katniss, that her real enemy may not be President Snow, but the one person running the rebellion - President Coin.

Discussion

Mockingjay as the final novel in the Hunger Games trilogy picks up where Catching Fire left off, with Katniss recovering in District 13. At the beginning of the novel, Collins sets up the groundwork for the conclusion of the trilogy. Mockingjay is first and foremost a tragedy; there is no true happily-ever-after because this is a dystopia and Collins stays true to the genre. 

The novel opens with Katniss struggling to accept her role as Mockingjay - leader of the rebellion against the Capitol. Unknown to both her and Peeta is the rebel plan to rescue her from the Quarter Quell. "What they want is for me to truly take on the role they designed for m. They symbol of the revolution. The Mockingjay. It isn't enough, what I've done in the past, defying the Capitol in the Games, providing a rallying point. I must now become the actual leader, the face, the voice, the embodiment of the revolution. The person who the districts...can count on to blaze the path to victory." Katniss can't see how becoming the face of the rebellion will help because every time she acts, it results in suffering and death. It is only when she sees that Peeta is being manipulated and possibly tortured in the Capitol that Katniss makes accepts her role as the Mockingjay.

Part of Katniss's struggle is her inability to understand the effect she is capable of having on others - something Peeta repeatedly states. It is only when Katniss visits a bombed District 8 that she begins to realize "Its the sight of me, alive, that is the inspiration....I begin to fully understand the lengths to which people have gone to protect me. What I mean to the rebels. My ongoing struggle against the Capitol, which has so often felt like a solitary journey, has not been undertaken alone. I have had thousands upon thousands of people from the districts at my side. I was their Mockingjay long before I accepted the role." It is at this point that Katniss realizes she has a certain power. "I have a kind of power I never knew I possessed. Snow knew it, as soon as I held out those berries. Plutarch knew when he saved me from the arena. And Coin knows now."

But once Katniss has the power as the face of rebellion, it isn't until she's on her way to the Capitol with her squad that she is made to understand the risk that comes with power. Boggs tells her that when the war is over she will have to throw her support to someone who will be the new leader. "If your immediate answer isn't Coin, then you're a threat. You're the face of the rebellion. You may have more influence than any other single person." Boggs reminds Katniss that Coin doesn't need her anymore. She's succeeded in uniting the districts against the Capitol. The best thing for Coin is that Katniss dies because that would add more fire to the rebellion. Once aware of this, Katniss begins to question some of Coin's motives such as bringing Peeta into her squad and even the bombing of the children in the Capitol.

What Collins manages to portray so effectively and with much pathos is the effect war has on both society and  individuals.  Panem is a country in ruins: the utter destruction of District 12, and the bombing of innocent civilians in a hospital in District 8 and the ruin of the Capitol. Each of the many characters in the novel have also deeply suffered from the war.

Throughout the trilogy, the cost to individuals and their families of the Hunger Games is evident. Those families who tributes have not survived the Games suffer, but even the survivors are not immune. Katniss is emotionally traumatized after the Quarter Quell - her second, consecutive Hunger Games. But especially so when she discovers that Peeta is being held prisoner and that Snow will use Peeta to hurt her. Her response is to take on the role of the Mockingjay, leader of the rebellion against the Capitol. While she seems to be resilient, the loss of each friend and those around her is emotionally crushing. The hijacking of Peeta makes Katniss realize that she loved him. His fear conditioning has made Katniss "...appreciate the real Peeta... The kindness, the steadiness, the warmth that had an unexpected heat behind it." She comes to realize that Peeta loved her unconditionally. 

It is the loss of her beloved Prim near the end of the war that affects Katniss to the point where she can no longer speak. When the Capitol is crushed and she is made over by her prep team, Katniss wonders "I can't believe how normal they've made me look on the outside when inwardly I'm such a wasteland."  It is the loss of Prim, only fourteen-years-old that so deeply hurts Katniss. Although it takes a long time, Katniss does learn to accept her beloved sister's death. And with Peeta, she learns to live again.

The experience of the Hunger Games and all-out war with the Capitol forever change Katniss's relationship with Gale. Gale's trauma of watching Katniss in two Hunger Games and the annihilation of District 12, has hardened him. This is seen in his approach to cracking "the Nut", the Capitol's military installation. Gale also begins to realize that Peeta's hijacking has come between them. Gale recognizes that the only time Katniss expresses concern for him is when he's in pain but Peeta's pain is so much greater that he can never compete with that. Gale cynically tells Peeta that "Katniss will pick whoever she thinks she can't survive without." The final blow is his reworked parachute bomb that was likely responsible for Prim's death. To Gale, it seems like he considered this just a necessary part of the war. He never apologizes to Katniss even though he's not certain it was his bomb. Katniss cannot forgive and cannot forget at this point.  In the end, she recognizes "That what I need to survive is not Gale's fire, kindled with rage and hatred." Katniss needs "What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that."  

Peeta too has been affected by war. A prisoner of the Capitol, he tells Caesar Flickerman that anyone who goes into the arena knows they are going to have to kill. "It costs a lot more than your life. To murder innocent people?' ...'It costs everything you are.' "  Peeta, despite everything he has suffered votes against holding another Hunger Games with the children from the Capitol. He may have been hijacked but Peeta's inner goodness wins out.  And it is he who saves Katniss from taking poison after she assassinates Coin.

Haymitch has always been a symbol of the trauma of war throughout all three novels; he's an alcoholic who has been forced to mentor tributes for the past twenty-three years, forcing him to relive the Hunger Games over and over. This has led to him becoming an alcoholic as a way of self-medicating his inner pain. However, once in District 13, Haymitch is forced to "dry out" and for a period of time he demonstrates his acumen and intelligence. It is Haymitch who understands Katniss in a way that even she does not. He understands that she cannot be scripted. It is also Haymitch who reminds Katniss that she needs to try and help Peeta recover from the hijacking, not cast him off. But once in the captured Capitol, Haymitch reverts back to self-medicating, never really able to overcome the trauma he's suffered. The character of Haymitch is reminder that some people never fully recover from the effects of war.

Collins also explores the theme of ethics in war when the rebels are debating how best to crack "the Nut", the impenetrable military mountain fortress in District 2.  Gale suggests there are two ways to disable the Nut; to trap people inside or flush them out. Gale wants to set off rock avalanches to block the entrances, trapping the soldiers inside along with most of the Capitol's air force. Boggs indicates that this risks killing everyone in the mountain but Gale makes it clear he has no intention of saving anyone. He wants to seal not only the entrances but the train tunnel to the square in District 2. The planning group argues about the morality of killing everyone. Some want to offer the workers a chance to surrender, others like Gale suggest that they will never be able to trust them again. Katniss however, frames the situation in terms that Gale can relate to - a coal mining accident. Katniss realizes that while Gale used to talk like this back in District 12, he is now in a position to act on his words.  "Back in the old days, when we were nothing more than a couple of kids hunting outside of 12, Gale said things like this and worse. But then they were just words. Here, put into practice, they become deeds that can never ben reversed."  She argues that the people in the Nut may not have had a choice to be there and that their own people, who are spies, are also in the mountain. When Gale states that were he a spy in the mountain he would gladly sacrifice himself, Katniss believes "...it's a coldhearted decision to make for other people and those who love them."  This exchange not only demonstrates the trauma the war has had on Gale but it also offers readers to consider  the concept of "just war doctrine". Waging "just war" has as one of its tenets, that war should be waged defensively in a way that doesn't do more evil than what is being fought. In this case, entombing thousands of workers, some of whom may not have had to choice, along with military personnel is a grave evil. Fortunately, Coin and the rebellion do not take the action Gale is offering and leave the train tunnel open for survivors to escape. This exchange highlights how their differing experiences are beginning to drive Gale and Katniss apart. 

The biggest twist in the novel comes during Katniss's unexpected meeting with President Snow in the palace. He expresses sorrow over the death of Prim and indicates that he did not order the parachutes, but that Coin did so. He also reveals that Coin's plan from the beginning was to "...let the Capitol and districts destroy one another, and then step in to take power with Thirteen barely scratched. Make no mistake, she was intending to take my place right from the beginning...After all, it was Thirteen that started the rebellion that led to the Dark Days, and then abandoned the rest of the districts when the tide turned against it. But I wasn't watching Coin. I was watching you, Mockingjay. And you were watching me. I'm afraid we have both been played for fools ..." When Katniss doubts him, Snow responds, "Oh, my dear Miss Everdeen. I thought we had agreed not to lie to each other."   

This leads Katniss to reconsider who is the real enemy of the people and it changes her perception of what is happening. When she questions Gale as to whether the bomb that killed Prim, the children, and the rebel medics was one of his traps redesigned by him and Beetee, he tells her he's not sure. At this point,  Katniss has to consider that Snow might just be telling the truth. And if he is, they have exchanged one dictator for another. She also remembers Bogg's words to her that Coin views her as a liability and originally wanted to rescue Peeta. It is possible that Coin's determination to hold yet another Hunger Games, confirms Katniss's worst fears. Coin may be another President Snow. Collins foreshadows this early in the novel with the mistreatment of Katniss's prep team, reminiscent of Snow's cruelty.

Despite the incredibly tragic conclusion to the war, with almost everyone that Katniss loves dead, Collins ends her trilogy on a somewhat hopeful note. There are no more Hunger Games. There are free elections and a democracy is built out of the ashes. And Katniss and Peeta, heal with time and make a life together. Peeta has given her "The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again."

It is likely that the Hunger Games trilogy will become a classic in young adult literature and rightly so. Although filled with violence and controversy, especially since it involves children who are forced to kill one another, these novels have much to say about the ethics of war, the effect of war on individuals and society and the themes of betrayal and revenge.

Book Details:
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
New York: Scholastic Press     2010
398 pp.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire is the second novel in the Hunger Games trilogy. It opens with Katniss and Peeta preparing to go on the Victory Tour which occurs halfway between the annual Hunger Games. Both Katniss and Peeta now have homes in the Victor's Village  with Katniss sharing her home with her mother and sister, Prim. 

Katniss would like nothing better than to forget the Games, "But the Victory Tour makes that impossible...it is the Capitol's way of keeping the horror fresh and immediate." She dreads being the star of a show that celebrates this horror knowing she will be facing families whose children she killed to survive.

Before meeting up with Effie Trinket, Cinna and the others to travel on the tour, Katniss visits the woods to check on the snare line for her friend Gale Hawthorne.  Gale now works in the coal mine every day except Sunday so he has no time to take in extra food for his family. Katniss has taken over this responsibility.  Katniss takes the snare line kills to Gale's mother, Hazelle and then visits the Hob to buy white liquor for Haymitch.  At Haymitch's house, she rouses him from a drunken slumber. Peeta arrives but it is evident that things are not well between him and Katniss, something Haymitch notes.

The situation is even more troubling when Katniss arrives at her house to discover an unexpected visit from President Snow. Snow indicates to Katniss her act with the poisonous berries in the Hunger Games, where she and Peeta threatened to kill themselves by eating the berries, has become a huge problem for the Capitol. Seneca Crane, the head Gamemaker did not kill them both but allowed two victors. While those in the Capitol viewed this as an act of love, in the Districts is was seen as an act of defiance. He tells her that "...if a girl from District 12 of all places can defy the Capitol and walk away unharmed, what is to stop them from doing the same?..What is to prevent, say, an uprising?" This comes as a complete surprise to Katniss who has no way of knowing what is happening outside of District 12. Snow warns Katniss that should the Capitol lose control over the districts, the entire system would collapse.

Snow reveals that he knows Katniss doesn't love Peeta and that she disappears into the woods every Sunday with her "cousin", Gale Hawthorne. Katniss and Peeta have resumed their cool relationship while she has continued to meet with Gale whom she considers as a good friend. He then threatens her that if the situation is not resolved satisfactorily and convincingly there will be deadly repercussions. President Snow warns Katniss that the upcoming Victory Tour is the only opportunity she will have to turn things around by demonstrating her love for Peeta thereby confirming the berries incident was an act of love rather than defiance. This will reduce the potential for uprisings. She agrees to this but Snow warns her she must convince him. Just before he leaves, Snow indicates that he knows about "the kiss" - a reference to the one time Katniss and Gale kissed in the woods. This tells her that she is being watched more closely than she realized.

Katniss tells no one about her conversation with President Snow until she is on the train setting out on the tour. On the victory tour several important things happen. When Katniss confides in Haymitch about her conversation with President Snow, he tells her she will never have a future with Gale and that she will have to marry Peeta. As future mentors, each year their "romance" and private life will be revisited. She will have to marry Peeta if she wants to protect those she loves. This is something Katniss had not realized. 

From the beginning, the Victory Tour is a disaster. When their tour arrives at District Eleven, Katniss and Peeta announce that one month of their winnings will go to the families of the two tributes from that district (Rue and Thresh). As well when Katniss apologizes and thanks the District for their support she is honored by Rue's mockingjay whistle and the three-fingered salute, considered by the Capitol to be an act of dissent. As they are leaving the stage, Katniss witnesses the man who initiated the mockingjay whistle being shot in the head. Intending to show her gratitude to the people of District 11, Katniss realizes that instead she has elicited dissent. 

At this point, Katniss and Haymitch tell Peeta about President Snow's threats and he is understandably furious. As the tour continues, Katniss recognizes the defiance of the people in Districts 8, 4 and 3, who see her as a symbol of resistance, chanting her name. When it ends in the Capitol, knowing they have not succeeded in quelling the defiance, Peeta and Katniss attempt a public marriage proposal. But according to President Snow, this is not enough. Desperate, Katniss decides she will flee into the woods, taking her family, as well as Gale and Peeta and their families and Haymitch.

At the party at President Snow's mansion, Katniss meets the new Head Gamemaker, Plutarch Heavensbee. As they are dancing, Plutarch shows her the face of his watch which has a mockingjay image, exactly like the pin Katniss wore during the Hunger Games. This strange encounter is puzzling to Katniss but she is preoccupied with her plan to escape from District 12 and so she doesn't realize what Plutarch is attempting to reveal to her. 

When Katniss returns to District 12 she visits Madge, the daughter of the district's mayor. In the mayor's home she is shocked to see television coverage of an uprising in District 8 which is brutally suppressed. In the woods, Katniss meets up with Gale who initially agrees to leave, but when he learns about the uprising in District 8, he changes his mind. Gale is determined to become involved in fighting against the Capitol and won't abandon those families who cannot leave.  Gale, now furious, returns home only to be caught by the new Head Peacekeeper, Romulus Thread with Unfortunately, Gale is arrested and whipped by Thread, a brutal man who is determined to enforce the Capitol's laws. 

After the Hob burns down and as Gale is recovering, Katniss meets two refugees in the woods, Bonnie and Twill who have fled the uprising in District 8. They show Katniss a round flatbread with the image of a mockingjay stamped on it, telling her they are on her side. Bonnie and Twill provide Katniss with more details about the District 8 uprising. They tell her they are headed for District 13 which they believe survived the war years ago, because they moved underground. Katniss is doubtful but Bonnie explains that District 13 has been left alone because they have nuclear weapons.  After helping Bonnie and Twill, Katniss discovers that in order to return home she must climb over the now electrified fence. Days later Katniss begins to suspect that Bonnie was telling the truth about District 13, because she is able to confirm Bonnie's assertion that any broadcast by the Capitol from District 13 is staged.

While Katniss is prepping for her bridal shoot, she learns that there has probably been a revolt in District 4 as well as District 3 and Haymitch reveals that District 7 and 11 have also rebelled. However, any thoughts of rebellion are cut short when President Snow announces that for the 75th anniversary of the Hunger Games, the tributes will come from the existing pool of victors from previous games. This means that Katniss and either Haymitch or Peeta will have to compete again in the arena. Katniss cannot bear to face the horrors of the arena once again, but she decides that since she and Peeta will likely be the tributes from District 12, they must work to save Peeta. But unknown to Katniss and Peeta, this time the games will have a very different ending, if the rebels' plans work

Discussion

Catching Fire is the second novel in the Hunger Games trilogy. It is well paced and unlike many second novels in a trilogy, it is well-written, furthering the plot while building suspense for the final novel. Catching Fire portrays the events that set up Katniss Everdeen as the Mockingjay, the symbol of rebellion against the Capitol. 

The novel picks up the story approximately six months after the Hunger Games. Katniss and Peeta now have homes in the Victor Village, joining Haymitch who has been living there alone for years. Katniss and Peeta have resumed their cool relationship: Katniss remains cordial but indifferent to Peeta and is still focused on Gale Hawthorne who now works in the coal mines. But she quickly learns that any kind of life with Gale will never happen because the pretense of0 romance between herself and Peeta must be played out to the fullest if the three families are to survive unharmed.

In this second novel, the story focuses on Katniss gradually becoming the symbol of resistance to the Capitol, something she really doesn't want. The groundwork for this plotline was set up in the first novel when Katniss was given a mockingjay pin by her friend, Madge who knows only that it belonged to her aunt and was in their family for years. The mockingjay likely became a quiet symbol of resistance many years earlier. The mockingjay is a new bird that arose from the mating between the male jabberjays which were a Capitol muttation and weapon, and the districts' native mockingbirds. The mockingjays went on to survive and replace the jabberjays. As a result, people viewed the mockingjay as a symbol of overcoming the  Capitol. Katniss wore Madge's pin during the Games, believing it was simply a token from her district not realizing its significance. President Snow most certainly does.

Rue's mockingjay song, continues the mockingjay as a sign of resistance When Katniss and Peeta arrive in District 11 for the first part of the Victory Tour, they are greeted with Rue's mockingjay song as a show of support for what Katniss did in the arena. This results in brutal action by the Peacekeepers. The mockingjay appears unexpectedly in the Capitol when Katniss meets Head Gamemaker, Plutarch Heavensbee, who reveals the bird on his watch face. At this time Katniss simply believes  the Head Gamemaker is being superficial. 

However, Katniss doesn't want to become the face of resistance. She wants to flee. She believes it's her fault that the situation is becoming volatile. But Gale tells her, "You haven't hurt people -- you've given them an opportunity. They just have to be brave enough to take it. There's already been talk in the mines. People who want to fight. Don't you see? It's happening. It's finally happening! If there's an uprising in District Eight, why not here?"  

However Katniss begins to reconsider when District 12 is targeted by the Capitol. The new Head Peacekeeper brutally whips Gale for poaching, burns down the Hob and has the fence permanently electrified. Katniss begins to see that running away is an act of cowardice. While she never thought what she did with the berries in the Hunger Games was an act of defiance, she begins to realize that "it isn't enough to keep myself or my family or my friends alive by running away. Even if I could, it wouldn't fix anything....At some point, you have to stop running away. Even if I could, It wouldn't fix anything. It wouldn't stop people from being hurt the way Gale was today...At some point, you have to stop running and turn around and face whoever wants you dead. The hard thing is finding the courage to do it." Katniss realizes that there is no way to protect those she loves, that she must act and that Gale is right. "He's also right that since I have set it in motion, I could do so much. Although I have no idea what exactly that should be. But deciding not to run away is a crucial first step."

It is when Katniss encounters District 8 refugees, Twill and Bonnie who show her a wafer of bread with the mockingjay insignia and tell her "It means we're on your side." that she begins to wonder "Am I unwittingly the face of the hoped-for rebellion? Has the mockingjay on my pin become a symbol of resistance?"

The 75th Hunger Games and third Quarter Quell see the male and female tributes reaped from the existing pool of victors. This is done "...as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol..." Katniss realizes as a victor, she and the others "...are the very embodiment of hope where there is no hope. And now twenty-three of us will be killed to show how even that hope was an illusion."  It is clear that President Snow is determined to stifle the growing flames of rebellion against the Capitol. If he can kill off the victors, no one has any hope.

What Katniss is not aware of however, is that there are many people involved within the Capitol and amongst the victors who are working to advance the rebellion.  In the Capitol, preparing for the Third Quarter Quell Hunger Games, both Peeta and Katniss, their prep teams and the other victor tributes commit acts of rebellion. During their time with the Gamemakers, Peeta paints a picture of Rue to hold the Gamemakers accountable for killing her while Katniss hangs a dummy of Seneca Crane who was murdered by Snow to show she's not a game piece in their Games. Katniss wants to give hope to the rebels by making it clear that she's defying the Capitol the end. She doesn't want "...to play the Hunger Games by the Capitol's rules." She knows Snow wants her and Peeta dead but Katniss is determined that Peeta survive because he can win people to the rebellion.  

Cinna takes rebellion to the next level by reworking her wedding dress chosen by President Snow so that Katniss becomes the mockingjay - the symbol of the rebellion. And Peeta stirs up the Capitol even further by claiming not only are he and Katniss married but that she is pregnant. This causes chaos with all the victors joining hands "...in what must be the first public show of unity since the Dark Days." Everyone in the districts and the Capitol will have seen this unexpected act. Haymitch tells them that "Even the idea of opposing the Capitol's agenda is a source of confusion for the people here..."  Katniss knows Snow will not back down and cancel the games but that he will hit back hard. He begins by killing Cinna as Katniss is launched into the arena. 

It soon becomes evident that some of the victors are working to help Katniss and Peeta - something Katniss notes but cannot explain. She is puzzled by Finnick's apparent willingness to help her and Peeta: he doesn't kill her at the Cornucopia, and he saves Peeta's life later on. She also realizes that Beetee is working to destroy the arena's force field, although Katniss believes it is just an act of rebellion when in fact it allows District 13 to rescue her, Beetee and Finnick.

On her way to District 13, Katniss learns the truth about what is happening, that there was a larger plan by the rebels to save her and Peeta with the help of tributes from Districts 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 11. She learns that Plutarch Heavensbee has been working with the rebels for years - the reason for the mockingjay on his watch -  and that she has become the face of the rebellion. This enrages Katniss who feels used. "It's an awful lot to take in, this elaborate plan in which I was a piece, just as I was meant to be a piece in the Hunger Games. Used without consent, without knowledge. At least in the Hunger Games, I knew I was being played with." 

Plutarch explains that the tributes were working to keep her alive.  "We had to save you because you're the mockingjay, Katniss...While you live, the revolution lives."   Katniss begins to realize her role. "The bird, the pin, the song, the berries, the watch, the cracker, the dress that burst into flames. I am the mockingjay. The one that survived despite the Capitol's plans. The symbol of the rebellion." She never understood nor was she meant to understand.

 

Collins continues to develop the main characters in this novel as believable, unique people who are faced with difficult choices. Katniss is struggling to process her experiences in the Hunger Games and her changing relationships with both Gale and Peeta, as well as with her mother and her sister Prim. Peeta, who is honorable and good,  and who loves Katniss, must process betrayal. Gale, who is Katniss's closest friend, is fueled by such intense anger that he's determined to be a part of any rebellion. Effie Trinket is the face of the Capitol, seemingly shallow and yet not quite indifferent to the suffering of the tributes, especially Katniss. She is beginning to view Peeta, Katniss and Haymitch differently.

The ending is the perfect setup for the final novel, Mockingjay. With Peeta and Johanna now prisoners in the Capitol, and District 12 bombed and burned to oblivion, Katniss must come to terms with what has happened. Will she step forward, to become the face of the rebellion ? How will the inner conflict she is experiencing over Gale and Peeta be resolved? This trilogy is likely to become a classic in the canon of young adult literature and unlike many book to film endeavours, appears to have a decent movie adaptation as well.

Book Details:
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Scholastic Inc.     2009
391 pp.

DVD Movie: Hunger Games

The blockbuster hit, The Hunger Games, dropped in theatres in March and was released this past week on DVD. The movie adaptation of the first book in Suzanne Collins dystopian YA trilogy is well done and faithful to the novel of the same name.

Briefly, Panem is the new nation forged out of a terrible war. Now divided into twelve districts, every year one boy and one girl (known as tributes) are drawn from each district to battle one another to the death, for the entertainment of the residents of the Capitol in what is known as the Hunger Games. These annual games are a punishment for the rebellion of District 13 which was annihilated during the war. The winning tribute receives wealth and accolades and returns to live a life of ease in their own district. The games are also a draconian reminder that all must work together to avoid another war.

District 12 is the poorest of the districts. Katniss lives there with her mother and her sister, Primrose, in abject poverty. In order to survive, Katniss has developed her wilderness skills and is a skilled archer, killing wild game (which is illegal), to supplement their meager food stores. She often meets up with Gale Hawthorne in the woods to hunt and their common interests forge a strong friendship.

The Reaping for the 74th Hunger Games sees Prim's name chosen. Prim's terror causes Katniss to volunteer as tribute. She knows sending her younger sister to the Hunger Games is a certain death sentence. Both Katniss and Peeta Mellark, the baker's son, are chosen to represent District 12. 

They are taken by train to the Capitol along with District 12's escort, Effie Trinket and will be mentored by their district's only surviving victor, the dissolute Haymitch Abernathy. On the train, it's evident that Katniss and Haymitch do not get along. Haymitch tells her that  key to winning is obtaining sponsors to help throughout the Hunger Games. The sponsors can send food, medicine and other help to a tribute. And to get sponsors a tribute needs to make people like them and want to help them. At the Capitol both Peeta and Katniss are prepared by a special team that includes Peeta's stylist Portia, and Cinna who is Katniss's stylist.  Katniss knows some of the tributes have spent their lives training for the games, but she has no intention of dying. Haymitch develops a brilliant plan to help Katniss win, one she is reluctant to go along with. But Katniss knows this may be her only way to win against such great odds.

Discussion

The movie adaptation of Suzanne Collins young adult novel,  The Hunger Games is very well done. It succeeds admirably because it stays true to the novel with its strong screen writing, and is very well cast with outstanding performances by almost all the actors involved.

The Hunger Games movie offers readers of the novel a realistic portrayal of the totalitarian world of Panem, a country born out of environmental catastrophes and war. The movie follows the two main characters of the novel, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) as they fight to survive the Hunger Games. 

Jennifer Lawrence is well cast as Katniss Everdeen, despite the initial reservation of many fans of the novels. As the main protagonist in the story, Lawrence was more than able to carry the film. She is convincing as Katniss, capturing the character's determination and inner conflict while showing great depth of emotion. The film also featured strong performances of many of the supporting actors. Josh Hutcherson was believable as the sweet, caring Peeta Mellark, who was determined to help Katniss survive the Games. Lawrence and Hutcherson were able to establish an effective on-screen rapport, making their blossoming friendship seem plausible. 

Strong supporting performances were given by Woody Harrelson as the tormented Haymitch Abernathy, a former Games victor and Stanley Tucci as the flamboyant, coiffed Caesar Flickerman, host of the Hunger Games broadcast. Harrelson, whom many will recognize as bartender Woody Boyd from the television series Cheers, captures the inner struggles of Haymitch who has been unable to cope with the trauma he's experienced both in his own Hunger Games, and as a mentor to District 12 tributes he knows never survive the Hunger Games. Excellent performances were given by Elizabeth Banks as the faithful Capitol supporter, Effie Trinket and by Lenny Kravitz as Cinna, Katniss's caring, innovative stylist. These two characters more than any others, represent the people of the Capitol with their wealth, status and appearance. While Effie seems oblivious to the reality of what the Hunger Games really are,  Cinna is deeply aware that he is preparing an innocent girl for a brutal death.

The movie's opening is a bit slow, but that is mainly due to the presentation of the back story. Scenes of the Reaping, highlight the poverty and drabness of District 12, a district that supplies coal to the Capitol. The buildings are grey and derelict. Everyone present at the Reaping is subdued and tense, dressed in" whites, pale greys and blues. In contrast, is Effie Trinket from the Capitol, in her brilliant fuchsia suit, (in the novel her suit was "spring green" and she had pink hair), her outlandish hair and makeup, and affected enthusiasm. Instead of applauding the selection of the tributes as Effie suggests, the people of District 12 raise their hands in a silent, three-finger salute which mystifies Effie. Once the Reaping occurs, events progress quickly, with the emotional parting of Katniss from her family and Gale and the obvious conflict between the dissolute Haymitch and a frightened Katniss on the train to the Capitol. 

The film effectively portrays the vast difference between District 12 and the Capitol. As the train is pulling into the Capitol, Peeta runs to the window. He is stunned by how large the Capitol is and how clean and modern it looks with its shining, silver towers.  The people who greet the train look happy, healthy and are colourfully dressed. 

In the Capitol, the elaborate preparations and training Katniss and Peeta undergo are well portrayed.  One of the best scenes is that of Katniss, the last of the tributes to showcase her talent to the Gamemakers. After missing her first shot with the new bow and arrow, she nails the second one, only to see that the Gamemakers are focused only on the roast pig being served. Furious, Katniss's rebellious nature takes over and she sinks an arrow into the apple in the pig's mouth, skewering it to the wall behind the shocked Gamemakers. 

This scene leads to one in which we are treated to a glimpse of the Hunger Games the perspectives of other characters. In the novel, the story is narrated solely by Katniss so readers do not know what other characters like Snow and Seneca Crane may be experiencing. In the movie adaptation, viewers get to meet Snow (Donald Sutherland) in more depth, as he takes Seneca Crane to task for not dealing with Katniss's outburst during training. He tells Crane that having a winner in the Hunger Games offers the districts a glimmer of hope but that too much hope can be dangerous.  Crane really has no idea how to deal with Katniss (who outsmarts him) and it will cost him dearly.

The leadup to the actual Hunger Games are the tribute interviews by Caesar Flickerman. This part of the movie succeeds on the strength of the performance of all the cast but especially that of Stanley Tucci as  the outlandish, larger-than-life host of the Hunger Games. His appearance is somewhat toned down from the description in the novel, where he is described as wearing " ...a coating of pure white makeup" with hair that is "powder blue and his eyelids and lips are coated in the same hue..." and a "...ceremonial suit, midnight blue dotted with a thousand tiny electric bulbs that twinkle like stars." Katniss finds him scary because his appearance over more than forty years is virtually unchanged, due to plastic surgery.

The portrayal of the Hunger Games is intense; a mixture of action, suspense, and psychological thriller. Though the underlying concept of the book is quite dark and violent; children fighting children to the death for entertainment, the film was able to portray terror and danger without gratuitous violence and without being overly graphic.  Deaths were often portrayed off camera, or as brief scenes that flashed by, giving the viewer a glimpse only of what was happening. Nevertheless, the scenes of the forest fire, the tracker jacker attack, and the attack by the mutts at the end of the games are realistic and intense.

As a movie,  Hunger Games allows viewers to become spectators along with the people of Panem. Like those watching in the Capitol and in the districts, viewers have front row seats as Katniss and Peeta struggle to survive and to outwit far superior tributes. Viewers are also able to see the sadistic behind-the-scenes manipulation of the Games by the Head Gamemaker and his team. For example, the lack of exciting action leads Seneca Crane to force the tributes together so they can fight. He does this in a most cruel way by creating a raging forest fire that rapidly engulfs her position. She flees in terror as Seneca Crane sends fireballs and flaming trees at her directing her down towards the other tributes. This scene portrays the abject cruelty of the Gamemakers who see the tributes merely as "chess pieces" to be moved around to make the Games more exciting for the Capitol, instead of real people who are suffering and dying for entertainment.

In this way the reality of Panem is presented; a totalitarian dictatorship, its people so self-absorbed that they cannot recognize the wanton cruelty they condone as entertainment.  This self preoccupation is manifested in outlandish fashions, bizarre makeup and wigs, excessive plastic surgery making the Capitol citizens appear ultra-civilized, but in reality, they are a people who are indifferent to the suffering around them, even that of young children. They have dehumanized the people in the districts, believing them to be violent savages who can be offered up as sacrifices for the pleasure of the Capitol citizens while telling themselves it is the only way to maintain peace. 

The Hunger Games is a refreshing and faithful adaptation of a young adult novel that actually works. There have been numerous movie adaptations of young adult books that are characterized by poor script, and subpar acting,; Twilight, I Am Number Four, and Beastly are just a few. Perhaps the reason Hunger Games works is because Suzanne Collins is a television writer and she got it right for the movie. 

The movie adaptation of the second novel,  Catching Fire is due in theatres next year, November 22, 2013!