Sunday, October 27, 2013

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Blog #6

1) The Hunger Games: Mockingjay
Suzanne Collins
Dystopic Fiction
Page 390/390

2) I have read a lot since last week, so there is a lot that has happened. I'm not going to say anything about the last part of the story, because that would spoil it for people who want to read it in the future. What I know is that it wasn't the district 2 man holding the gun to Kantiss' head that shot her, it was someone else in the crowd, but she had protective armor on so she only got some bruises and broken ribs. She finished her job, which was to unite the districts and get all of them on the rebel side, so Coin doesn't need her anymore, which puts her at great risk, since she is now pretty useless. They decide not to let her go to the Capitol because there is a big chance that she will die, but also because she can't follow orders, so she will be useless, or at least that is what Coin thinks. But Katniss still goes to training, and passes the exam, so they have to let her go anyway. Johanna, Katniss' roommate and friend, also a victor doesn't get to go though, because she is still in a pretty rough shape. Katniss is part of the Sharpshooters' Squad, also known as the Star Squad, which includes Gale, Finnick, Leeg 1, Leeg 2, Mitchell, Homes, Jackson, and Katniss. When they are in the Capitol, or just outside in a rebel camp training, Leeg 2 gets killed by a pod (a specific weapon or trap automatically activated when someone steps near it, or manually controlled by the Capitol from some station) that shoots out metal darts, and one hits her in the head. Since the Star Squad has now lost one of their members, Coin sends in another one to replace her, and to everyone's surprise, it is the mentally unstable Peeta, who cannot shoot well, is not qualified as soldier yet, and still has issues with the whole hijacking thing. So the only reason why Coin sent him that anyone can think of is that she hopes he will kill Katniss, so Coin doesn't have to deal with her anymore. When Snow is dead, a new president will be elected, and since Katniss is the mockingjay, whoever she votes for is probably the person everyone else will vote for as well, and knowing she dislikes Coin very much, she probably won't vote for her, meaning not many others will either. So Katniss thinks that Coin figured if she is dead, she won't be able to vote, and who better to kill her than Peeta? When the Star Squad is in the block to record something the rebels will later televise, with their leader Boggs, and Katniss' camera crew including Cressida, Messalla, Castor, and Pullox, they encounter a pod that was not on a map, and things fly out of hand. Many people are killed on this very dangerous attempt to move all the way into the center of the Capitol, where Snow's mansion is located, to try to kill him to end the war. Unexpected things happen that I never saw coming, and in the end, instead of shooting Snow, like Katniss was supposed to, she lets her arrow fly into someone else's chest, shocking everyone watching, which is the entire population of Panem. After the war is over she is sent to Twelve to live there, but her mother is in 4 to set up a new hospital, and Gale in 2 where he got some kind of fancy job, or at least that's what she heard, so the only people she has now are Peeta, Greasy Sae, Haymitch, and a few others living in Twelve.

3) I learned that Katniss truly doesn't have much of a heart, and those people she does love, are all taken away from her, except one; Peeta. This book was indeed addicting, and I read about 200 pages in one day, not wanting to put it down; always excited for what will happen next. I did expect a different ending though, and at first I was disapointed, but later I understood why Collins wrote what she did, why she didn't end it the way everyone would expect; because she didn't want an ending where everyone would be happy and satisfied, where the girl gets the guy and they live happily ever after. No, she wanted people to question her, to have thoughts and questions that would never be answered, so they could make up their own solutions, and thoughts about why that happened, or why she chose him instead of the other one, or why they couldn't live happily ever after, because no such thing will ever be possible. So in the end, I was very satisfied, but I do still have tons of questions that I know will never be truly answered, and I guess that's okay.

4) "Gale said that in the end, I would choose whoever I think I wouldn't be able to survive without... I know this would happen anyway. That what I need is not Gale's fire, kindled with rage and hatred. I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means birth 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" (Collins 388). This passage finally tells us who Katniss chooses to be with, who he thinks she can't survive without, and that was essentially what we wanted to know, wasn't it? But then again, it doesn't fully answer our questions. This is a way of bringing Katniss' confusion and suffering to an end of sorts. I think Collins does a great job of ending the story, but in such a way that it does never truly end. There could be another book following, because there is so much left to explain, so many problems without solutions, but that is the way she wants to leave us readers; with questions.

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