Hey there. Look, posting more than once in three months, dang. Actually, I didn't think that would be happening, since I was in the middle of Stephen King's Dark Tower series--but the file for the fourth book (it's on my Kindle) appears to be corrupt, so here I am.
I actually read this book about seven million times between sixth grade and my freshman or sophomore year of high school, because I was in an awful reading rut and although I did eventually get sick of it, I didn't know what else to read. And I'm speaking of this book, and of a wide variety of books which were basically Sarah Dessen books, and I have to say, she writes the same thing over and over and over. I got to Just Listen before I figured that out (also that was the name of the reading book we had in third grade, loooool). Anyways, Pete's niece mentioned that she just bought this and I was like, hey, I remember that book, I really liked it! So I decided to see if it was still any good or if I was just awful.
Okay, first of all, the cover. I just took a class on Literary Publishing, and we had a two week long unit on the covers of books: misrepresenting the text and whatnot, how that's pretty common but how authors rarely have a say in it, and how you also want to make the book look appealing and cool. We had to write a paper on a book that failed at having an appealing or representative cover, and one that succeeded in both respects. Anyways... I can't help but apply that here.
The cover of the copy I had was dark blue, there was a girl out on a pier and it's all kind of in shadow or darkened. Her reflection in the water is missing the face--it's simply not there. The title is on the bottom in white. I'd say this is pretty representative of the book--the main character, Caitlin, becomes entrenched in an abusive relationship and she loses herself. So the symbolization is there, and the cover has that dark, dreary feel.
The cover my local library has is a little creepier--the image of the ocean is still there, but the cover looks pieced together. There's a picture of a girl's face which has been torn up but has since been taped back together, another picture of a girl whose face has been cut out, and a fragment of lined paper with handwriting on it. Again, there is the repeated symbol of the girl who has lost herself. Caitlin's last gift from her sister who ran away at the very start of the novel was a diary, and I think what words are written on the paper on the cover are actually lines right out of the book. And there's an important moment at the end of the book where Caitlin does tape a picture of herself back together, showing how she has rebuilt herself. So this cover probably represents the book the best, though it is really creepy looking.
This cover is light blue, Sarah Dessen's name is in huge letters on the top in darker blue (though I suppose she's popular enough with the teen romance sect for her name to be a selling point), and the title is in little lowercase letters at the bottom. The picture is several flat glass squares (like coasters in how I imagine them) on top of each other. There's a heart showing on them; either a heart-shaped bit of plastic was placed behind the stacked coasters or they all have red colouring together that adds up to the shape of a heart (I guess that's not really important). ...What? This book is about an abusive relationship. I mean, I guess glass can shatter, but there is a full heart here. Not broken or messed up, it's a book about a sixteen-year-old caught in abusive relationship. Or maybe it's meant to say it looks like love? Or something? Either way, I think this cover is dumb and misrepresents the book pretty hard. But I guess I can see how it has grabability? I mean, it's pretty generic, but I guess your average teen looking for high school romances isn't going to care about that?
And this time when I read the book, I noticed that in Sarah Dessen's introduction she included the phrase "who survived my lost years and, like me, lived to tell" (no number, but it's there, I promise). Which made me feel guilty when I really wanted to rip into the book, because to me it seems to indicate that she was basing this from some extent off her own life and had a similar experience in a bad relationship like Caitlin... or perhaps she ran away from home, like Caitlin's older sister Cassandra. Cailtin is lost metaphysically (is that the right word to use?) and Cassandra is physically lost. Cassandra ran off at age eighteen before college started to be with a guy named Adam in NYC (he works on a trash TV show stationed there, which strikes me as a little funny because Cassandra was meant to go to Yale, and Jerry Springer, Maury, Steve Wilkos, etc, are all filmed in CT). And Cass at age sixteen gets on the cheerleading scene and meets Rogerson and eventually we see he is true colours and so on.
Okay, so I've read the book like ninety times, and I'm older now, so I'm noticing a lot more. First of all, the book starts on Caitlin's sixteenth birthday. I was like eleven when I first read this, so it seemed normal, but I'm four years older than that now, so every moment that I remember that Cait is only sixteen I'm like, whaaaaaaaaaat? Anyways, that first chapter is all full of foreshadowing. Cass leaves that day, and because of that no-one notices the cut/swelling on Caitlin's face from when she tripped that morning, as no-one will truly notice what's wrong with Caitlin at the very end, and so on.
Oh, it's also to weird to think of Cassandra as being eighteen cause I'm two years past that too, and in my third year of college. Whoops.
One thing that always bothers me is the guy's name. The abusive boyfriend is named Rogerson Biscoe. Who's ever heard of Rogerson as a first name? Oh, also, the first time she meets him he's wearing penny loafers with no socks (Dessen 50). EW. Let me be petty and say, EW. And her friend Kelly says he looks like a drug dealer. SPOILER ALERT. (The second time she sees him she watches him do a deal, though I don't think she realizes it at the time.)
Oh, Caitlin lives in Lakeview too. Apparently this is a real place... Somewhere. I saw it on a list online, you know, "areas from books based on real places" and stuff--like how Scott Pilgrim is very clearly set in an area of Canada, etc. Not so much in this book, but in other books you see similar things: I hated her book Just Listen, but in it you see Remy and Dexter (I think that was his name) from This Lullaby in it, which was really cute... In some of the other books, the book that Remy's mom wrote appears... The girl in The Truth About Forever is dismissed in another book... I do love it when authors do things like that, and I liked it a lot when Dessen did it. Anyways, my point is is that all of the books are pretty much set in the same place.
Oh, and Rogerson tells her about how he has all these misdemeanors. All or most of them are because of selling pot (this was written in 2000). Still, I would be kind of put off by that. (Then again, she's sixteen? I don't know. The existence of any criminal record would make me wary, even if I really liked the guy.) Anyways, Rogerson refers to such misdemeanors as "long stories" and Caitlin does come out and say that he "apparently had a lot of 'long stories'" (Dessen 71).
And I like how surprised she got at the sight of pot. Oh no, pot! But it's 2000 so I guess that can be excused? It still seemed kind of comical to me. Anyways, she takes a single hit and becomes SO HIGH that she's scared to use her hands. One hit is not going to get you that high, unless if it's from a bong. Anyways, I was just like come on, calm down. You're that one girl. You're the Amanda of this party.
Oh, God--the part that has remained my favourite since the first time I've read it: "'How did you meet our Rogerson?'... 'At a party,' I stammered. 'We met at a party.' 'Oh, yes,' she said absently, as if she wasn't really listening, still looking at something over my head. 'He likes those'" (Dessen 83). Okay, there's something clearly off with the mom. But it still makes me laugh every time.
Okay, one thing I hate about Sarah Dessen is that it seems like in every book she complains about Pink Floyd and talks about how much she hates them. Get over it, Sarah Dessen, f'real.
Okay, the first thing that always comes as a hint to me... Well, Rogerson knows a lot of random trivia. He says it's because he's grandfather would buy him books of trivia and test him, which I noticed and thought as more sinister than any other time I've read it before. (Also, I should mention that you actually see his dad punch him. And the mom clearly has issues.) Anyways, the first thing that always struck me as odd and a little off, even the first time I read it, is when she is talking about all the places she'd randomly ask him trivia and what she'd ask him to try and stump him. The section ends with this: "'Rogerson,' I asked him sweetly as we sat watching a video in the pool house, 'where would I find the pelagic zone?' 'In the open sea,' he said. 'Now shut up and eat your Junior Mints'" (Dessen 115). Excuse me? I would have gotten real sassy real fast. Don't tell me to shut up. Or eat Junior Mints. They're gross. But props to Dessen for dropping that warning there.
Caitlin meets my favourite character, Corinna, through Rogerson--he's friends with Corinna's boyfriend... "She had a pretty face and cat-shaped eyes" (Dessen 116). Did she now?
Anyways. Corinna leaves David by the end of the book--year after year they said they'd go to California, this and that, David was continually shiftless, and eventually she just up and leaves, despite the fact that they seemed like they were so madly and deeply in love. The lifestyle was too rough, too poor, and Corinna was working her butt off, and David was not doing a thing. But that's how Caitlin says she imagined Cassandra and Adam were living (before Corinna left, of course). And, this makes me wonder about the end. I guess I'm going to have to reveal the end (I've already pretty much given it all away anyways), but when Caitlin returns home after her stay at a recovery faculty, her sister is there to meet her. I always assumed Cassandra came back because she had been stuck in a similar situation with Adam as Cait did with Rogerson, but it's possible that she was like Corinna and had the luck to see it and get out before Corinna did. Then again, there's a third possibility which never occurred to me before this time--she could just have been going home to greet her sister. Who knows? Their next-door neighbours were in a similar situation that turned out well, they've been together since Boo was eighteen and it worked. So I guess Dessen's point wouldn't be that it always turns out one way, just that there are many ways it can turn out. You know?
The scene on page 133-134, when Caitlin sees her friend Rina crying in her car over a break-up, "fiddling with her radio, reaching up every few seconds to wipe her eyes with her shirtsleeve or run her fingers through her hair. Every once in a while she'd start singing along with the radio, slamming her hand on the steering wheel to emphasize one chorus or line, and then her shoulders would start shaking. It was clear. Rina was driving and crying" (Dessen 133-134). This SAME EXACT SCENE happens in This Lullaby. A girl whose boyfriend that she had been with for years breaks up with her, or she finds out he's cheating on her or something--Remy comforts her friend at the Quick Zip (or whatever), and they happen to see the guy in traffic--she launches a cup of soda at him and hits him in the face with it. And it's awesome.
Anyways, this makes her late to hang out with Rogerson, and by the time she gets home to meet him, he's gone. They can't meet until later, she tries to joke with him after he gets so uptight about her being late--she playfully calls him a big baby and he punches her in the eye. And it continues. Sarah Dessen does, I believe, do a very good job at portraying the relationship after the abuse begins. Possibly because, as we noted earlier, Dessen may have been involved in such a relationship at one point in her life.
Anyways... There's a huge chunk of pages I haven't marked--not until seventy pages later, when Corinna leaves, and David creepily hits on Cait before she leaves the house too. Anyways, after that there's another ten, fifteen page break to when Rogerson is finally confronted and jailed, and Caitlin is sent to the care facility, and then the next is when she tears up the picture, which I already talked about. She gets a letter from Corinna that's really sweet (Corinna had made it to New Mexico), and a letter to her sister... Well, that's it for my notes, except when the sister comes back at the end, but of course I just talked about that.
So, in retrospect? It's a decent book, and Dessen is very eloquent in Dreamland, but I'm definitely out of the age range for this genre or whatever. I'm glad that of all Sarah Dessen's books, I chose to reread this one. This is the first of all her books that I read, anyways. I definitely won't be rereading her other books though. Not a bad choice though. Just don't pick it up thinking it's going to be romantic! Bad cover designers. Bad.
Works Cited: Dessen, Sarah. Dreamland. Speak: United States of America, 2000.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
I finally finished The Hunger Games! Well, the series. Pete's niece had the book and she lent it to me, which is amazingly awesome of her. (Maybe she'll lend me the movie next??) Also the book--for some reason, the momentum kind of died while I was reading the second book, but I picked right up on the third one easily and enthusiastically.
Apparently I wasn't really clear on the end of the last book, and there wasn't much of a recap in this book at the beginning (whoops). But the members of the Quarter Quell and districts had planned a huge rebellion, and now it's basically Panem against the Capitol. (If you need an apparently not-so-great recap, I've gone over the first two books in the series!) Katniss was knocked out during the Game with a large coil of wire, so she's suffering a concussion, and we enter the book with her, just as confused as she is.
That's basically what we know at the beginning of the book, and the fact that District 13 has just moved underground. They have been in agreement with the Capitol this whole time to pretend to be obliterated--the Capitol threatened to actually destroy them with nuclear arms, but District 13 also has nuclear arms. There was a really cool fan-made map going around Tumblr a little before I read the books of Panem. I don't remember it really well, but District 13 was located in or very close to New England (I'm pretty sure Connecticut was a part of it, cause I was kind of like, oh damn...). There's a nuclear submarine base in Groton, and Three-Mile island is in New York, apparently... So that may be accurate. I have a feeling that although this book is set in the future, its future started not too far after this time now. (Which makes me wonder what the rest of the world is like...) So, anyways. The rebellion is centred in District 13, which has, in X (up to 75) years, thrived.
So anyways. The people of the Rebellion want Katniss to be their leader, their Mockingjay, because she was the Girl Who Was on Fire--and she inspired the revolution, or had very good timing. From the start, it's clear that the rebellion that is intended is very similar to what those in the Capitol did to Panem... For example, Alma Coin, the leader--"president"--of the Rebellion, is just as cruel and conniving as Snow. In fact, she's a little more frightening, since she's supposed to be a "good guy". But she watches Katniss in the same way, and she treats her the same way as President Snow when he visited Katniss's house in the last book. She also clearly has her own goals in mind. Katniss is aware of the similarities from the get-go--she doesn't equate Coin with Snow until the near climax of the book, but she notices the similarities and necessities between the Rebellion and the Capitol's shows:
"What they want is for me to truly take on the role they designed for me. The 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--most of which are now openly at war with the Capitol--can count on to blaze the path to victory. I won't have to do it alone. They have a whole team of people to make me over, dress me, write my speeches, orchestrate my appearances--as if that doesn't sound horribly familiar--and all I have to do is play my part" (Collins 10-11).
"As a rebel, I thought I'd get to look more like myself. But it seems a televised rebel has her own standards to live up to" (Collins 60).
Okay, so I skip a lot. A lot of the beginning is Katniss recovering and the new life in the underground homes of District 13. Interesting, but not really worth my recounting, other than that life is very different in the new District. Everything is highly regulated, down to the food and daily tasks, which was obviously necessary in the District's early days of survival, and has been carried on because it clearly works. Katniss spends most of her time ignoring her schedule. Eventually she accepts that she must be the Mockingjay--it also gives her the chance to force President Coin to agree to some terms: for example, she saves her designing team, the other tributes, a few things for her family (she saves Prim's cat!), etc... So then they start filming this and that to get on the Capitol's television systems. Haymitch gathers a think-tank to try and figure out how to incite the most passion and fervour in Katniss that will scare the Capitol and inspire the rebels. This provides a two-three page summary of everything in the series that was emotionally wrenching: her volunteering for Prim in the Game of the first book, when she sand for Rue, when she kissed Peeta what could have been good-bye (well, that was Octavia), the berries, trying to help Mags in the last book... I only bring it up because as Katniss starts to flash back, it kind of forces the reader to flashback with real clarity, and yeah, I got a little emotional. (Not about the Peeta stuff, mostly when they brought up Rue and Mags.) Oh! And in the last book, to heighten dramatic appeal before the games, Katniss came up with the lie that she was pregnant with Peeta's baby (because remember, the angle since the first game was that they were together)--Haymitch covers this by saying that the child spontaneously aborted due to the trauma in the first games. (More specifically, an electric shock that Katniss endured.
Katniss also insists on fighting alongside the rebels as much as possible. She doesn't like just being the figurehead, which I can respect. Coin is incredulous: "'And if you're killed?' asks Coin. 'Make sure you get some footage. You can use that, anyway,' I answer" (Collins 76). This was kind of a poor idea to put in Coin's head, because towards the end of the book Coin sends Katniss on a mission that is supposed to kill her and make her be the martyr. (Though honestly Coin probably could have come up with that on her own, even if Katniss didn't plant the seed for it here... Coin gets pretty slimy by the end.)
Oh yes, Peeta was also captured by the Capitol. Caesar Flickerman continues to interview him, but... Ugh, I don't want to think he's a bad guy. He seems too goofy (in my head, I haven't seen the movie yet) and friendly to be a bad guy. Almost... A lot of the Capitol seems to be made up of bubble heads (hey, Scott Westerfield!), and that's kind of the feeling I get about him. He's sort of higher up on the food chain, but he's still basically just kind of there... But! President Snow is fattening him up and torturing him alternately to mess with Katniss, because he knows that she and the others in the District can see his broadcasts. He's using him to torment her, so eventually they do rescue him--but he has been brainwashed with the hallucinogens from the Tracker Jack's venom (modified yellow jackets). Eventually they work most of it out of his system, but I'm getting ahead of myself...
Anyways! As a mission of goodwill, Katniss visits the infirmary, but I don't think it's the one where her mother and Prim are working. They send her to inspire the hurt soldiers, to help her image, and to bring hope to all. Everyone gets excited to see her, she is being hugged, kissed, and adored by all. The touch makes her nervous at first, but she kind of... leaves her own body, or gets too wrapped up in her thoughts. What I noticed was Gale's word choice when he spoke to her after: "'I can't believe you let all those people touch you. I kept expecting you to make a break for the door'" (Collins 91). I think this is just me digging too deep--I wouldn't really go ahead and say that Katniss is a Christ figure, but there's a bit in the Bible where a poor, sick woman (what she was sick from differs depending on where you read it, Craig Thompson in Blankets says that she was "subject to bleeding", but other translations or retellings sometimes just say that she was very ill or what have you) touches Jesus briefly. The crowd is so thick that that is all she can manage. Anyways, a little bit of Jesus's power leaves him and goes into her and heals her, because her faith in him was so strong. Obviously Katniss isn't the divine, and again, it's a long shot to make that connection (I think), but it's the first thing that I though of. Anyways, the hospital is bombed moments later--which inspires Katniss to give a fury-fueled broadcast on the site, after attacking and taking down some bombers with Gale.
Oh yes, her speech--well it's really the end, directed at President Snow directly, that's the powerful part: "'Fire is catching!' I am shouting now, determined that he will not miss a word. 'And if we burn, you burn with us!'" (Collins 100).
"'It takes ten times as long to put yourself together as it does to fall apart'" (Collins 156).
So... Next note is on page 180, after they've gotten Peeta back. Like I said, he was brainwashed into hating Katniss and wanting to kill her with Tracker Jack venom. There's just a little entomology thing--instead of thinking the mutated bees are yellow jackets, they explain the name (though they admit that they're not sure) by saying that it comes from the "old English" word hijack. Just making a note of the phrase "old English". I still think the "75 years" of hunger games still started in like 2030, 2050... I think that is still acceptable...
Um... So as attacks get closer to the Capitol and the rebels gain more ground, you begin seeing more of the different characters. Peeta's out, of course, Katniss is kind of there, but caught up in it, President Coin gets nastier, people grow closer to Katniss... And Gale becomes more and more extreme. As in, he'll firebomb places that have citizens as well as enemies, or their imprisoned fighters. He doesn't care, the ends justify the means. So he gets very frightening. Now, of course there's the Peeta/Gale debate. I wasn't really into that part as much... But my roommate last year did this BS, "It's not about them, they represent the life she chooses to have, or how she chose to stage her rebellion". That's BS hardcore right there. It's also an insult to Katniss, I think, like she couldn't just go off on her own if she chose. And she can (okay, she doesn't. But she is strong enough to make her own decisions about everything, which she does through the entire book--when she is kowtowed into something at the very, very end, it actually seems really out of character). And Gale's harsh measures frighten her, because she sees that they're so close to President Snow's or Coin's measures. So... that's my rant. It's a little out of the blue, but the Team Peeta/Gale thing is really dumb, and this made me think of it. Deal with it. (Also that was SUCH a dumb way of putting it, ex-roommate.)
Oh, Katniss even has the concept of Panem et Circenses explained to her--I would not consider this too much, however, as this is a book meant for the YA audience. Probably your average 13-15 year old (this is me straight-up making up numbers right here) isn't that up on Roman history/concepts/culture/et cetera--though I'm disappointed in every YA reader who couldn't at least recognize names like Caesar. And Katniss obviously wasn't aware of the concept either, it explains the name (I didn't even put two and two together, though I got nearly every other Latin reference), and so on.
Skip ahead, and several teams are planning the final assault on the Capitol. (Sorry, it's been a few weeks since I updated, and I can't entirely remember what transpired, other than a lot of bombings...) President Coin puts Katniss on a team with Peeta, who has not fully recovered, and basically is planning on Peeta snapping, killing or mortally wounding her (if the assault does not), making her a martyr, and getting her out of the way. Spoiler alert; Katniss makes it, Peeta makes it, but most of the other team is killed, in absolutely horrible ways. Lizard-mutts appear and kill Finnick--it is the most horrifying death in the whole series. As he's climbing to follow Katniss and the mutt pulls him down and chew him in half. Made even more horrifying because he did marry the girl he loved right before, and I think they know that she's pregnant... I literally could not believe that she'd do that. I read the passage over about five times.
Next note: every soldier (except Peeta) has poison-in-a-pill called Nightlock. The deadly nightshade/hemlock. That is all.
I... that's my last note before we get to the aftermath of this final assault. Snow is captured, hundreds are killed, Katniss is firebombed into a naked, peeling mess, and in the cruelest irony of the whole series--Prim is killed, and Katniss sees her death. All of this started out of a desire to save/protect her little sister, and at the climax, she is killed. That was another thing I could not believe.
And, of course the irony: Katniss really did become the girl who was on fire...
Anyways, when Katniss recovers, she gets the final ceremonial arrow: the last arrow of war, intended to kill the captured President Snow. The climax is when she aims the arrow at Snow, already beaten and nearly dead, hating him--
--and she shoots Coin, also in the room, twice as cruel as Snow. Coin is instantly killed, and Snow chokes on his own blood laughing. Plutarch becomes temporary head.
Anyways... The most unbelievable part of this whole series is the epilogue. Katniss realizes that she doesn't need Gale's "fire, kindled with rage and hatred" (Collins 388). Peeta has recovered, and is sweet and gentle. So they end up together. Good. That doesn't really bother me, didn't really care about the romantic subplot (other than Finnick's), so good. I like the end. But the epilogue! Katniss has had two children at Peeta's insistence, and it took "five, ten, fifteen years" (Collins 389) to convince her. I don't care how long it took. Katniss having kids... No matter what... Just seems horribly out of character, terribly so. She never even refers to either child by name, which also seems to signal that she doesn't really like them/isn't that attached to them, whatever. I would have been happier without the epilogue, probably. It just threw a monkey wrench in, right at the very end...
MLA Citation Information: Collins, Suzanne. Mockingjay. Scholastic Press: United States of America, 2010.
Hey, remember that time I finished writing this in September and just never typed up the works cited until now? Oops.
Apparently I wasn't really clear on the end of the last book, and there wasn't much of a recap in this book at the beginning (whoops). But the members of the Quarter Quell and districts had planned a huge rebellion, and now it's basically Panem against the Capitol. (If you need an apparently not-so-great recap, I've gone over the first two books in the series!) Katniss was knocked out during the Game with a large coil of wire, so she's suffering a concussion, and we enter the book with her, just as confused as she is.
That's basically what we know at the beginning of the book, and the fact that District 13 has just moved underground. They have been in agreement with the Capitol this whole time to pretend to be obliterated--the Capitol threatened to actually destroy them with nuclear arms, but District 13 also has nuclear arms. There was a really cool fan-made map going around Tumblr a little before I read the books of Panem. I don't remember it really well, but District 13 was located in or very close to New England (I'm pretty sure Connecticut was a part of it, cause I was kind of like, oh damn...). There's a nuclear submarine base in Groton, and Three-Mile island is in New York, apparently... So that may be accurate. I have a feeling that although this book is set in the future, its future started not too far after this time now. (Which makes me wonder what the rest of the world is like...) So, anyways. The rebellion is centred in District 13, which has, in X (up to 75) years, thrived.
So anyways. The people of the Rebellion want Katniss to be their leader, their Mockingjay, because she was the Girl Who Was on Fire--and she inspired the revolution, or had very good timing. From the start, it's clear that the rebellion that is intended is very similar to what those in the Capitol did to Panem... For example, Alma Coin, the leader--"president"--of the Rebellion, is just as cruel and conniving as Snow. In fact, she's a little more frightening, since she's supposed to be a "good guy". But she watches Katniss in the same way, and she treats her the same way as President Snow when he visited Katniss's house in the last book. She also clearly has her own goals in mind. Katniss is aware of the similarities from the get-go--she doesn't equate Coin with Snow until the near climax of the book, but she notices the similarities and necessities between the Rebellion and the Capitol's shows:
"What they want is for me to truly take on the role they designed for me. The 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--most of which are now openly at war with the Capitol--can count on to blaze the path to victory. I won't have to do it alone. They have a whole team of people to make me over, dress me, write my speeches, orchestrate my appearances--as if that doesn't sound horribly familiar--and all I have to do is play my part" (Collins 10-11).
"As a rebel, I thought I'd get to look more like myself. But it seems a televised rebel has her own standards to live up to" (Collins 60).
Okay, so I skip a lot. A lot of the beginning is Katniss recovering and the new life in the underground homes of District 13. Interesting, but not really worth my recounting, other than that life is very different in the new District. Everything is highly regulated, down to the food and daily tasks, which was obviously necessary in the District's early days of survival, and has been carried on because it clearly works. Katniss spends most of her time ignoring her schedule. Eventually she accepts that she must be the Mockingjay--it also gives her the chance to force President Coin to agree to some terms: for example, she saves her designing team, the other tributes, a few things for her family (she saves Prim's cat!), etc... So then they start filming this and that to get on the Capitol's television systems. Haymitch gathers a think-tank to try and figure out how to incite the most passion and fervour in Katniss that will scare the Capitol and inspire the rebels. This provides a two-three page summary of everything in the series that was emotionally wrenching: her volunteering for Prim in the Game of the first book, when she sand for Rue, when she kissed Peeta what could have been good-bye (well, that was Octavia), the berries, trying to help Mags in the last book... I only bring it up because as Katniss starts to flash back, it kind of forces the reader to flashback with real clarity, and yeah, I got a little emotional. (Not about the Peeta stuff, mostly when they brought up Rue and Mags.) Oh! And in the last book, to heighten dramatic appeal before the games, Katniss came up with the lie that she was pregnant with Peeta's baby (because remember, the angle since the first game was that they were together)--Haymitch covers this by saying that the child spontaneously aborted due to the trauma in the first games. (More specifically, an electric shock that Katniss endured.
Katniss also insists on fighting alongside the rebels as much as possible. She doesn't like just being the figurehead, which I can respect. Coin is incredulous: "'And if you're killed?' asks Coin. 'Make sure you get some footage. You can use that, anyway,' I answer" (Collins 76). This was kind of a poor idea to put in Coin's head, because towards the end of the book Coin sends Katniss on a mission that is supposed to kill her and make her be the martyr. (Though honestly Coin probably could have come up with that on her own, even if Katniss didn't plant the seed for it here... Coin gets pretty slimy by the end.)
Oh yes, Peeta was also captured by the Capitol. Caesar Flickerman continues to interview him, but... Ugh, I don't want to think he's a bad guy. He seems too goofy (in my head, I haven't seen the movie yet) and friendly to be a bad guy. Almost... A lot of the Capitol seems to be made up of bubble heads (hey, Scott Westerfield!), and that's kind of the feeling I get about him. He's sort of higher up on the food chain, but he's still basically just kind of there... But! President Snow is fattening him up and torturing him alternately to mess with Katniss, because he knows that she and the others in the District can see his broadcasts. He's using him to torment her, so eventually they do rescue him--but he has been brainwashed with the hallucinogens from the Tracker Jack's venom (modified yellow jackets). Eventually they work most of it out of his system, but I'm getting ahead of myself...
Anyways! As a mission of goodwill, Katniss visits the infirmary, but I don't think it's the one where her mother and Prim are working. They send her to inspire the hurt soldiers, to help her image, and to bring hope to all. Everyone gets excited to see her, she is being hugged, kissed, and adored by all. The touch makes her nervous at first, but she kind of... leaves her own body, or gets too wrapped up in her thoughts. What I noticed was Gale's word choice when he spoke to her after: "'I can't believe you let all those people touch you. I kept expecting you to make a break for the door'" (Collins 91). I think this is just me digging too deep--I wouldn't really go ahead and say that Katniss is a Christ figure, but there's a bit in the Bible where a poor, sick woman (what she was sick from differs depending on where you read it, Craig Thompson in Blankets says that she was "subject to bleeding", but other translations or retellings sometimes just say that she was very ill or what have you) touches Jesus briefly. The crowd is so thick that that is all she can manage. Anyways, a little bit of Jesus's power leaves him and goes into her and heals her, because her faith in him was so strong. Obviously Katniss isn't the divine, and again, it's a long shot to make that connection (I think), but it's the first thing that I though of. Anyways, the hospital is bombed moments later--which inspires Katniss to give a fury-fueled broadcast on the site, after attacking and taking down some bombers with Gale.
Oh yes, her speech--well it's really the end, directed at President Snow directly, that's the powerful part: "'Fire is catching!' I am shouting now, determined that he will not miss a word. 'And if we burn, you burn with us!'" (Collins 100).
"'It takes ten times as long to put yourself together as it does to fall apart'" (Collins 156).
So... Next note is on page 180, after they've gotten Peeta back. Like I said, he was brainwashed into hating Katniss and wanting to kill her with Tracker Jack venom. There's just a little entomology thing--instead of thinking the mutated bees are yellow jackets, they explain the name (though they admit that they're not sure) by saying that it comes from the "old English" word hijack. Just making a note of the phrase "old English". I still think the "75 years" of hunger games still started in like 2030, 2050... I think that is still acceptable...
Um... So as attacks get closer to the Capitol and the rebels gain more ground, you begin seeing more of the different characters. Peeta's out, of course, Katniss is kind of there, but caught up in it, President Coin gets nastier, people grow closer to Katniss... And Gale becomes more and more extreme. As in, he'll firebomb places that have citizens as well as enemies, or their imprisoned fighters. He doesn't care, the ends justify the means. So he gets very frightening. Now, of course there's the Peeta/Gale debate. I wasn't really into that part as much... But my roommate last year did this BS, "It's not about them, they represent the life she chooses to have, or how she chose to stage her rebellion". That's BS hardcore right there. It's also an insult to Katniss, I think, like she couldn't just go off on her own if she chose. And she can (okay, she doesn't. But she is strong enough to make her own decisions about everything, which she does through the entire book--when she is kowtowed into something at the very, very end, it actually seems really out of character). And Gale's harsh measures frighten her, because she sees that they're so close to President Snow's or Coin's measures. So... that's my rant. It's a little out of the blue, but the Team Peeta/Gale thing is really dumb, and this made me think of it. Deal with it. (Also that was SUCH a dumb way of putting it, ex-roommate.)
Oh, Katniss even has the concept of Panem et Circenses explained to her--I would not consider this too much, however, as this is a book meant for the YA audience. Probably your average 13-15 year old (this is me straight-up making up numbers right here) isn't that up on Roman history/concepts/culture/et cetera--though I'm disappointed in every YA reader who couldn't at least recognize names like Caesar. And Katniss obviously wasn't aware of the concept either, it explains the name (I didn't even put two and two together, though I got nearly every other Latin reference), and so on.
Skip ahead, and several teams are planning the final assault on the Capitol. (Sorry, it's been a few weeks since I updated, and I can't entirely remember what transpired, other than a lot of bombings...) President Coin puts Katniss on a team with Peeta, who has not fully recovered, and basically is planning on Peeta snapping, killing or mortally wounding her (if the assault does not), making her a martyr, and getting her out of the way. Spoiler alert; Katniss makes it, Peeta makes it, but most of the other team is killed, in absolutely horrible ways. Lizard-mutts appear and kill Finnick--it is the most horrifying death in the whole series. As he's climbing to follow Katniss and the mutt pulls him down and chew him in half. Made even more horrifying because he did marry the girl he loved right before, and I think they know that she's pregnant... I literally could not believe that she'd do that. I read the passage over about five times.
Next note: every soldier (except Peeta) has poison-in-a-pill called Nightlock. The deadly nightshade/hemlock. That is all.
I... that's my last note before we get to the aftermath of this final assault. Snow is captured, hundreds are killed, Katniss is firebombed into a naked, peeling mess, and in the cruelest irony of the whole series--Prim is killed, and Katniss sees her death. All of this started out of a desire to save/protect her little sister, and at the climax, she is killed. That was another thing I could not believe.
And, of course the irony: Katniss really did become the girl who was on fire...
Anyways, when Katniss recovers, she gets the final ceremonial arrow: the last arrow of war, intended to kill the captured President Snow. The climax is when she aims the arrow at Snow, already beaten and nearly dead, hating him--
--and she shoots Coin, also in the room, twice as cruel as Snow. Coin is instantly killed, and Snow chokes on his own blood laughing. Plutarch becomes temporary head.
Anyways... The most unbelievable part of this whole series is the epilogue. Katniss realizes that she doesn't need Gale's "fire, kindled with rage and hatred" (Collins 388). Peeta has recovered, and is sweet and gentle. So they end up together. Good. That doesn't really bother me, didn't really care about the romantic subplot (other than Finnick's), so good. I like the end. But the epilogue! Katniss has had two children at Peeta's insistence, and it took "five, ten, fifteen years" (Collins 389) to convince her. I don't care how long it took. Katniss having kids... No matter what... Just seems horribly out of character, terribly so. She never even refers to either child by name, which also seems to signal that she doesn't really like them/isn't that attached to them, whatever. I would have been happier without the epilogue, probably. It just threw a monkey wrench in, right at the very end...
MLA Citation Information: Collins, Suzanne. Mockingjay. Scholastic Press: United States of America, 2010.
Hey, remember that time I finished writing this in September and just never typed up the works cited until now? Oops.
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