I went and pulled *Mockingjay *off my kid’s shelf and reread the last dozen pages. I think I was wrong - it doesn’t really say much about the final government. The statements are more about Katniss’s state of mind and her semi-imprisonment in her old home, which must have struck me as being more widely relevant.
I plead the same weariness as most readers who didn’t toss the book - I just wanted to get to the goddamned end at that point. Rereading the last pages brought back the sense that the whole book was a badly written Cliff Notes to the real novel. One dreary, literal, and-then-this-happened sentence after another, for page after page. Gah. At least they had the sense to split it into two movies, so maybe some of the real story (storytelling) can shine through where the marketing-driven book publication didn’t.
With the exception of a single chapter in the first book, I found Katniss rather unsympathetic from the start. There were some good side characters (like the old woman who sacrificed her life twice over to save others), but all three of the main characters were horrible people.
Except that she referred to her children as “the girl” and “the boy” and not by names. She’s incapable of bringing herself to emotionally connect with her children.
With Katniss’s overwhelming PTSD stressed over and over again, I see her as a very broken, damaged person who managed at the last moment to kill Coin, because she put together the clues and was able to unload all her grief and rage in that direction.
Yeah, the PTSD is part of why I think the last novel is so great. Folks who talk about the Nintendoness of the last book, I guess I can see that; certainly the moves through the city were not my favorite parts of the book.
But I think the genius of the series is that the first book makes it out that a single person can defy the system; the second book makes it out that only an organized effort can defy the system; and the third book suggests that most organized efforts are made up of horrible people who just want to change the top of the system.
Most fantasy never makes it out of the first stage, and so the first book felt like a typical (albeit very well-written) fantasy thriller. The second book changes the tone a bit, and then the third book totally subverts the normal fantasy ideology by showing how scarring and traumatizing it is to be involved in violence (again, something very rarely shown) and also how often it’s futile.
Very, very bleak, but I kind of appreciate bleak stories. (I wonder whether fans of Perdido Street Station and of Mockingjay have a high overlap.)
All I remember was that I got kinda pissed off at Primm’s death, since it turned the whole thing into a psuedo Shoot the Shaggy Dog story. On the other hand, you can certainly take the look that it’s more realistic, endings aren’t always happy, and stories don’t always have a “point.” Still, for my fantasy, I prefer endings that can at least be described as bittersweet - Mockingjay made me just feel depressed/angry.
(As an aside, I felt somewhat pissed at the “lack of a point” ending to the second book in Joe Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy, but this was mitigated by the fact it was the second, not third, book).
Perhaps horrible is too harsh, but Peeta seemed like a Nice Guy. Here’s an idea: don’t blindside the girl you claim to love on national TV, thereby forcing her to pretend to love you back.
she started to put it together after she spoke with snow. that is when she realized that he would have just left if he had a craft, not use it in an attack. live to fight another day.
she finally started to put things together instead of just reacting or going on instinct.
going along with the capital hunger game was the way to be sure she was in position to kill snow, and be able to get to the person who did kill her sister, along with all the other children. at that point she didn’t care if she survived.
I thought Snow made a valid point for his defense: why would he waste resources to kill the Capitol’s own children? That action would have zero benefit for him whatsoever.
Suzanne Collins signed her 3-book deal for the series in 2006 - at least a year or two before the Tea Party movement appeared. And it’s not like dystopian fiction is a new idea.
Well he wasn’t doing it to get her to love him back, he was doing it because Hamitch said it would help her survive the games. I’ll give him a break on that.
Even if the book were about an ordinary Survivor type reality show where no one’s life was in danger I’d cut Peeta some slack – he’s a teenager from the sticks who’s suddenly thrust into the spotlight, and he’d genuinely had a crush on Katniss for years. As things were, his confession made them both more interesting and likable to viewers and thus more likely to get potentially life-saving gifts from sponsors during the Games.
and it had to be a surprise because Katniss couldn’t act, and her reaction wouldn’t have been genuine otherwise.
my question is Katniss’ disastrous mission into the capitol - absolutely nothing good came of it. storywise, what was the purpose of that venture? what are we, the readers, supposed to get from that entire ordeal?
The more we talk about it the more I think that my deep dissatisfaction is more with the lack of info about the final government in the Epilogue. I want to know whether they succeeded in creating a fair society.
I am also bugged by the lack of info about the fate of 12. With 13 back on line providing nuclear power, did thy need coal at all anymore?
Re: Haymitch - could Katniss have concluded from his sudden violent return to drink that he had already reached the same conclusion about Coin? Was it enough of a clue? And if so, why would he ontinue to drink himself to death after Peeta’s return to the Victor’s Village?
I agree that the explanation for a lot of Peeta’s and Katniss’s decisions is: they never expected or even intended to survive. Haymitch has chosen a slower method, but he’s made the same decision. Does Gale ever do that? Really walk into something with the full expectation of never walking out? Perhaps the rescue?
Yes, but he also honestly was infatuated with Katniss. My point is that even if Peeta hadn’t had any strategic reasons for confessing his love for Katniss then I wouldn’t think he was a jerk. Since he was actually doing his best to help Katniss survive then I don’t see why **Grumman **objected to his behavior at all. It might have been nicer to let Katniss in on the plan, but as shijinn says, she’s no actress so it wouldn’t have been as effective if she’d been in on it.
