"Anyway, it's not like an actual Games. Any number of people will survive. We're just overreacting because – well, you know why. You still want to go, don't you?" "Of course. I want to destroy Snow as much as you do," he says. "It won't be like the others," I say firmly, trying to convince myself as well. Then the real beauty of the situation dawns on me. "This time Snow will be a player, too."(253 .Collins).
The Games were what brought them all together in the first place so it does seem reasonable to do it all over again. It was because of the Games that Katniss really saw how corrupted her world is. The government, the Capitol, the Districts, and the people have all been living in a big fat lie. Not only did they follow what the government said, they believed in every single word. They never did stop for a second and think if it was logically or right. This time, Katniss and her crew are making sure that President Snow is a piece in their game. Ever since the Games existed, everyone that was put into them was pieces in Snow’s game. It’s only fair that now he plays in their’s. Snow never did participate in this own Games physically. He was behind the Gamemakers, strategizing each and every move. This time, it’d be him in the Games but it’s a bit different. Unlike Katniss and Finnick, he doesn’t really know what to expect. Sure, he was behind the Games, but it doesn’t make him feel what the players are feeling. It’d be fun to see him try to navigate his way through his own game. People say to never play fire with fire but I guess that sometimes that playing fire with fire is the only way to burn something out. By making Snow a piece in the game, Katniss is challenging Snow to play his own game. Snow always believed that no one could beat him at his own game but Katniss knows that she can beat him at this own game. Snow clearly represents the government; whereas Katniss is the bomb ready to explode. It takes a special kind of courage to enter into a version of the Games for a third time. Most folks are too terrified to even make it through one. Katniss and Finnick have already had to endure two, and it's a miracle they both made it through those alive. Here, it's hard to know whether Katniss is really "convinced" by her rhetoric or not. More people might survive, but more people will probably die, too.
“They'll be granted immunity!" I feel myself rising from my chair, my voice full of resonant. "You will personally pledge this in front of the entire population of District Thirteen and the remainder of Twelve. Soon. Today. It will be recorded for future generations. You will hold yourself and your government responsible for their safety, or you'll find yourself another Mockingjay!” (68 .Collins).
Katniss has all this power in her and she knows what she wants. She knows that she started this rebellion and she knows that she is the one that can stop it. Unlike everyone else, Katniss thinks differently. She doesn’t care what people think of her and she is sick of everything that she, her family and friends were put through. None of them agreed on this but President Snow has pushed it onto them. Katniss was threatened with Gale by Snow and Katniss isn’t going to let anyone harm the people she cares for. She knows that they cannot anything without her (she is the brains behind it anyways, she just doesn’t know), so she takes advantage of it and demands for everything possible for the people she love. Katniss realizes here that she hasn't given "credit" to the folks in 13 who have been struggling for their lives just as she has been struggling for hers. In some ways, they had as tough a time making it in 13 as she did in the arena, and she hasn't given them enough respect for that. She now understands that her people from her district are going through the same thing. No longer are they separated, they are all in this together. Not only does she have to think about the people she knows, she has to think about everyone. She realizes that they have all been fighting for the same thing. Katniss being what could be called the “chosen one”, shot videos constantly to show them rebelling. The whole entire time, I felt like she should be doing something more important, I mean she started the whole damn thing anyway. She is an asset yet they are treating her like she is the spokesperson. Katniss has the ability to do more but it seems like Coin and everyone else doesn’t want her to do anything. As if she would screw something up. Poor Katniss… she knows what she wants but no one is willing to give it to her. She wants to help and make a different but all that they are giving her are petty jobs. I think that she should be out there making a different not getting glam up to take to a camera. Time’s ticking and they’re wasting every valuable second to make a change.
“I'll tell them how I survive it. I'll tell them that on bad mornings, it feels impossible to take pleasure in things because I'm afraid it could be taken away. That's when I make a list in my head of every act of goodness I've seen someone do. It's like a game. Repetative. Even a little tedious after more than twenty years. But there are much worse games to play.” (390 .Collins).
The fight is finally over and President Snow defeated. Even twenty or so years after the Games and the war, it takes courage to get through each day. The events Katniss and Peeta witnessed – and the things they had to do in order to survive – have left permanent marks on them, mind, body, and soul. They can try to "make [their children] braver," but that's something they have to do for themselves all the time too. Frankly, I am grateful of them. Because of them, the future generations can have better lives. The games practically ruined everyone in generations before. People lost their loves ones and could not complain. People turned mental and could not blame anyone but themselves for not being strong enough. All the government did was make the people feel like a burden, on themselves and others. I’m pretty sure that no one liked to live their lives all locked up. They fight for everything that they have but the government can take it away in a split second. To them, nothing was permanent and they all lived in fear. It’s great how now, they can speak their minds. Their children didn’t have to “play”/participate in stupid games. No one has to kill in order to be the last one standing. Though President Snow is gone and so is his regime, the government will never be safe. Nothing is ever permanent. And in a way, the government is always going to be corrupted. The more people try to ‘fix’ it, the worst it gets. But at least now, people can live freely. The lives of future generations have a lot to learn and be thankful for; for that they don’t have to take part in what was suppose to keep them in their places. This part really reminded me of my parents. They grow up the hard way. They had to do everything themselves and did not have the luxuries that I have today. They were the ones that supported their families, the Katniss, and had to work really hard to give my brother and me better lives. Katniss did everything that she could to give the children, like Rue and Prim, a brighter future and a better one, as well as the generations to come.
This is what they've been doing. Taking the fundamental ideas behind Gale's traps and adapting them into weapons against humans. Bombs mostly. It's less about the mechanics of the traps than the psychology behind them. […] Gale and Beetee left the wilderness behind and focused on more human impulses. Like compassion. A bomb explodes. Time is allowed for people to rush to the aid of the wounded. Then a second, more powerful bomb kills them as well."That seems to be crossing some kind of line," I say. (178. Collins)
In this part of the book, everyone that is finding refuge in District 13 is now willing to work together and destroy the only thing that they have really believed in, the system. They see their family and friends die right in front of them and they have had enough. To begin with, Districts 12 and 13 were what some would call the lower classes. They didn’t have the luxury to do certain things and they lived day by day without knowing what would happen. It’s not every day where you would see someone or a group of people come together to throw down the government. They know what the government is capable of and that the government can destroy them. But that doesn’t stop them; the wipe all the negativity out of themselves and focus on what is more important. To live freely and be treated like human beings. This is actually a really neat way with the play on words, “we end our hunger for justice”. The games they play are called the Hunger Games. I think that the Hunger Games are called what they are because the people are craving for freedom. They live in sealed of areas and they do the same things over and over again. And in the end, though freedom is important, the people of District 13 realize that justice is equally important. They saw everyone that they care about die. They have to somehow have closure and to let the dead rest in peace. The people are willing to do whatever they can to overthrow the government because they see what the government is doing. What they always deemed fair from the government, they are now seeing differently. They can tell that they can no longer rely on the government and can only rely on themselves. The government would never give them what they want because in the world the live in, it is a totalitarian world. They know that if they don’t succeed in this rebellion, no one will survive. They understand that they have to do this for themselves, the people they love, and the ones that have been taken away from them. For Katniss, this is for Prim… innocent little Prim was taken away from Katniss and she can’t have anyone take her little sister away from her and expect nothing in return. This is a stab at the government but also revenge.
"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."(.Collins).
Even though Katniss is being asked to step forward as "the actual leader," her power will still be limited. She'll be like a glorified figurehead, a "rallying point" around which other people will come together. She'll appear to have tremendous power and to become the "embodiment of the revolution" itself, but she won't actually be the one making decisions, President Coin would be. Even with everyone’s determination to take down the officials that run Panem, everyone is still restricted. Katniss has all this power but yet she still feels powerless. She broke free from President Snow’s strings and then she thought that she would be a rebel. But in a time she, along with everyone else, is rebelling, it is ironic to see that she is once again back on strings; this time not President Snow’s but President Coin’s. It is quite obvious that Katniss is the only one that can lead everyone in Panem to victory and most importantly freedom. But why is everyone still restricting her? No one thinks that she can do it; they think that she is untamed and that she does not know how to control her powers. I think that they are wrong. Katniss may be young and not know what she is capable of but she is the only one that has the experience. She lived through hell when she was put into the Games twice. And she lived through hell when she saw everyone around her get hurt and fight for every breath. No one but Katniss understands. She rebels because she knows that that is the only way. No one would listen to her otherwise. In order to save her people and her world, she has to follow her own heart. The strings are pulling her back and restraining her; it’s no good for anyone. By pulling her back, Coin and everyone else are destroying themselves and the new lives they gave everyone else. Sometimes being human means to break out of our comfort zones and go against what the government wants from us.
"A new sensation begins to germinate inside me. But it takes until I am standing on a table, waving my final good-byes to the hoarse chanting of my name, to define it. 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 rescued me from the arena. And Coin knows now. So much so that she must publicly remind her people that I am not in control."( .Collins).
Katniss never thought anything of herself. She had a lot to say about how Panem was and the way that it ran. But she knew that she had to keep her mouth shout or she, including her family, would suffer. The government has always controlled Katniss (and the rest of Panem) like it was a puppeteer. Katniss was a puppet in their show and they could do anything they pleased with her. At least this is what she thought. She never thought that she could stand up to them and cut off the strings. She never knew that she had the ability to make a different and break Panem free of the government’s reign. She’s not capable of understanding her power. And even if she did understand it, she would not know how to control it because when Katniss gets pushed around, she eventually pushes back. There is no way in telling what she can do. Here is where Katniss's "power" starts growing inside her, like a flower. Everyone else has known all along: all the other people in positions of power and authority recognized that same power in her. She's the only one who didn't. In other words, she didn't know her own strength, but now she's beginning to find out. And that only makes her more dangerous. The government had planned out Katniss’ life for as long as she can remember. She always did follow the law and be the person that the government wanted her to be but it is obvious that it changed when she was put into the Hunger Games. The Games allowed her to see that she is just a piece of the game for a larger game. Her moves were limited and restricted. One small wrong move can trigger horrible events. After District 12 was demolished, she finally realizes that she doesn’t want to be a piece in their game nor a part of it. Everything the government is, she saw, is a lie. There is no way of realizing what the government is capable of doing but she knew that she had to take them down in order to save the rest of Panem. She’s fighting for her own human rights and Panem’s rights.
So I still have a chance, though. Funny, in the arena, when I poured out those berries, I was only thinking of outsmarting the Gamemakers, not how my actions would reflect on the Capitol. But the Hunger Games are their weapon and you are not supposed to be able to defeat it. So now the Capitol will act as if they've been in control the whole time. As if they orchestrated the whole event, right down to the double suicide. But that will only work if I play along with them. (358, Collins)
The Hunger Games are all about the power of the Capitol, so they've got to appear to be in control. Katniss and Peeta’s double suicide stunt was the one that undermined the government’s authority. In this scene, the government was not the ones in charge (finally). Instead, it was Katniss and Peeta who were in control. Every day and every second of the games, they both were going along with what the government wanted them to do, at least up to the final moments of the game. No one forced them or told them to eat the berries, they chose to. Katniss and Peeta were controlling themselves and their own fates. I guess you can say that they are taking a leap at faith. Not only did Katniss outraged the Gamemakers, she stripped them of their control, their needs to be on top. They look at what she has done as a form of mockery and that she is challenging them. I’m pretty sure that that was not Katniss was intentions. Like she said, no one was supposed to be able to defeat/win the games, but she did. Not only did she actually win, she won in a more metaphorically way. She beat the Gamermakers at their own game. She showed them that conformity did not get the best of her and that she will do what she has to survive. Survival is the key in the book to overrule the government. The people of Panem saw what happen to the people in District 13 because, like I said before, District 13 is a warning of what could happen to them. The government’s authority was taken away from them as soon as those berries were taken out. It proves that the smallest action can be a loophole in fighting what these people believe is right. No one ever questioned the government because what the government has told them was the only thing that they acknowledged. They didn’t know any better and even if they did, they didn’t want to put their lives at stake, yet they were also secretly looking for change. Katniss understood the fact that there can be no changes if no one did anything. She chose to set herself free and she chose to rid Panem of its dystopian characteristics. She chose to free Panem.
I spread out my fingers, and the dark berries glisten in the sun. I give Peeta's hand one last squeeze as a signal, as a good-bye, and we begin counting. "One." Maybe I'm wrong. "Two." Maybe they don't care if we both die. "Three!" It's too late to change my mind. I lift my hand to m mouth, taking one last look at the world. The berries have just passed my lips when the trumpets begin to blare. (344-345, Collins)
At the end of the Games, Katniss and Peeta are ready to sacrifice themselves rather than give in to the Capitol's demands that they kill each other. The Gamemasters and the government of Panem must have been really mad when Katniss and Peeta tried to commit suicide. In this case, they are indeed rebelling against the government. It was said before in the book that there are invisible barriers to keep people from jumping; and even if they did jump, they would get bounced back. By eating the berries, it is obvious to the government that Katniss and Peeta are going against them. But to them two, it was not what they were intentionally going to do. They both grew fond of each other and would rather die than to live without each other. Of course this would anger the government because to them, these two kids are challenging the games but most importantly, they are challenging them. Katniss believes that the government would not care but of course they would. If they were to commit suicide in front of everyone watching, then everyone would know that there are loopholes in the system and the government would not stand as firm or powerful anymore. They told the players that if the two last tributes were from the same district, they would both win. But when it came down to Katniss and Peeta, they changed their mind. They had to change their minds once again when they were going to eat the poisonous berries because if they didn’t, the viewers would know that two kids have gotten to them, rebelled, and most importantly succeeded. They could not have this happen so they had to stop Katniss and Peeta from eating the berries. Katniss and Peeta are not only just fighting to survive, they are fighting to have a chance to actually be human. All their lives, they lived tied to leashes and for once, they have a chance to get out of the leashes and to become someone that they want to be. In a place where no one can take that away from them.
Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch – this is the Capitol's way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy. How little chance we would stand of surviving another rebellion. Whatever words they use, the real message is clear. "Look how we take your children and sacrifice them and there's nothing you can do. If you lift a finger, we will destroy every last one of you. Just as we did in District Thirteen." (18, Collins)
The districts all pay a yearly sacrifice to the Capitol in the form of their tributes – children who will die in the Hunger Games. Katniss also mentions District 13. This region was completely destroyed in the uprising and was also a kind of sacrifice to the government. Katniss knows that she cannot outdo the system. She put her name in the pile more than once because she had to do it to save her family. The government is using these peoples’ need for food to show them that they cannot fight the system, that they can only go with it. The government has all the power and they took out District 13 to show everyone else that they are in command. If the people do anything that the government does not like, District 13 is a real-life example of what could happen to their own District. The games were created to show them that in every rebellion, in the end, it is always the government that wins. The government can destroy everything in a blink of an eye and they would not feel any remorse for what they have done. The government wants to show that they are not the people’s friend; they would not do anything to the people if they would just live by their rules but if they try to do anything that the government does not approve of, chaos would be done to not only that person buy to everyone that knows that person because the government is above all. It sort of reminds me of totalitarianism. The government would not stop at anything to get what it wants. No one has the ability to stop them, and even if they did, they would not get very far because the government is the law. No one can bypass it or at least they think that no one can. It also tells me that no matter when in time; the government will always have its way. No matter how corrupted the government is or not, the government always has the last say. Our government is not the best right now and I’m pretty sure if a lot of people try to overrun it, they would be able to because no one is on that tight of a leash as the people in Panem is.
"Whose idea was the hand holding?" asks Haymitch. "Cinna's," says Portia. "Just the perfect touch of rebellion," says Haymitch. (79, Collins)
The tributes' gesture is read as a symbol of protest. In the games, as said before, there will only be one survivor, hence one winner only. By Peeta and Katniss holding hands and them both being from District 12, is a sign of rebellion already because then it seems to the government, the Gamemakers that they want to challenge that and get both of them out of the games alive. It also seems like they are trying to get attention from the audience. With more attention from the audience, they will get more sponsors, which is what they would need to survive in the arena. But also so the audience will feel sympathy towards them because they will then be seen as a pair of lovers. Hence making them act out if Peeta and Katniss were the last ones and had to try to kill each other in order to survive themselves. With Haymitch saying this in the beginning of the book, the reader can tell that the author wants them to know that rebellion would be a huge part of the book. It is quite clear that they live in a dystopian world and in order to change this, something must take place to get rid of the dystopian characteristics in their world. The government on the other hand would definitely not let this happen. They will do whatever that is in their power to stop this from happening; in the case, eliminate the thorn in their lives. It seems like everyone already wants to rid themselv es of the lives that they are currently living. I guess that they’re sick of the way that they are living. The government has everyone on a leash where they cannot question anything. This takes away the whole purpose of being human because the people cannot do as they please. They have to be careful about what they do. If they are not careful, they will get punished or even killed and no one in the government would care because to them, the people are just a piece in their game. They don’t need the people; they just need the people to stay in line because if they don’t the government knows that everyone would get out of line and soon, they will fall.
”The rules of the Hunger Games are simple. In punishment for the uprising, each of the twelve districts must provide one girl and one boy, called tributes to participate. The twenty-four tributes will be imprisoned in a vast outdoor arena that could hold anything from a burning desert to a frozen wasteland. Over a period of several weeks, the competitors must fight to the death. The last tribute standing wins.” (18, Collins)
The Hunger Games, we learn, are a kind of punishment for the uprising that happened so long ago. I guess the government wants the people of Panem to know that this is what happens if they do not do as they’re told and do their own parts. The games were put into action after the downfall of District 13. And since it was said that the games where punishment for rebellion, I’m guessing that District 13 rebelled against the high power. Children were picked to fight to their deaths. The government probably picked children to play in this ‘game’ because he wants everyone else to know that there will not be a future of Panem if they were to ever rebel against them. And I’m guessing that the victor would represent the government because the government is trying to convey the point that the government always win. No matter how the being rebel, no matter what they do, the government would always get the best of them. Katniss did not choose to be chosen, she didn’t want to, but she knew that she had to save and protect her sister and her family. In other way of putting it, you can also say that she took her sister’s place in the game to challenge the government. She wants them to see that she does not believe in Panem’s way of living nor does she agree with everything that the government stands for. Collins uses a lot of description in these few sentences. She sums up the games and gives a quick glance of what they are. Her descriptive words bring a whole new meaning. People can see how awful these games are and the type of people that take place in the games. She uses pathos to draw in her audience into thinking how sickening this is that children had to kill and have blood stained onto their hands. The government, I would say, enjoys the games. Because this is their way of keeping their people in line. They know that no one wants to participate in these games but they have to because there is nothing they can do about it. The government is the
"When I was younger, I scared my mother to death, the things I would blurt out about District 12, about the people who rule our country, Panem, from the far-off city called the Capitol. Eventually I understood this would only lead us to more trouble. So I learned to hold my tongue and to turn my features into an indifferent mask so that no one could ever read my thoughts. Do my work quietly in school. Make only polite small talk in the public market...even at home, where I am less pleasant, i avoid discussing tricky topics. Like the reaping, or food shortages, or The Hunger Games. Prim might begin to repeat my words and then where would we be?" (6 .Collins)
It sort of sucks living like them in District 12, actually, every district. Unlike us, it is obvious that they do not have freedom of speech. Katniss knew from experience from her childhood that she cannot say anything bad about the people that run Panem. She learned that bad things will happen because of the way her mother reacted. The fact that her mother wouldn’t let her say anything negative bad about the rulers or her opinion on it proves that District 12, along with the other Districts of Panem, lives in a dystopian world. They live in a specific District that is fenced and barbed-wired off from the rest of the world. They have a specific job in the district, which is coal mining. They have cameras watching them giving them little to do privacy. They live in such a conformed world that they don’t really think of it. They just know that they cannot upset the people at the top of the tier. This passage specifically sets the rest of the book because we now know that they cannot act out or do anything that is frowned upon. The author Collins uses an allusion in the passage (Katniss bringing up a childhood memory) and focuses a lot on the idea of conformity. As the readers, we can see that District 12 is one of the Districts that is suffering from poverty and the fact that they might end up like District 13 if anything out of the ordinary was to occur, gone and destroyed. To me and I‘m pretty sure to everyone else, to be human is to have the freedoms that we have. We do as we like and we speak what is on our minds without the fear that something bad is going to happen to use if anyone hears us. But not to the people in District 12. I think it’s obvious that Panem, as a whole, lives in a world where they are not treated like human-beings. Sure they live but they don’t have the rights to express themselves or anything. Come on, they basically live in a city jail, they’re fenced in and are expected to do nothing about that. That’s not how human beings are supposed to live like. To be human, we have to have our alienated rights.
Many people believe that the government would fail even more in the time to come. Not a lot of people believe that the government's action will change. I mean, who does? Out government is corrupted along with our economy. In this short clip, they believe that the government can indeed turn a new leaf. No longer then will our economy suck and then finally, citizens can depend on their government. The citizens will finally get what they asked for. The clip claims that the government will work faster, smarter, and more efficiently. How sure are they? Or is this another promise that they cannot keep? For years now, the government has been failing it's people. It is believed that with the new changes in the future, people will benefit greatly from them. Public services will be more reliable and "useful". Some like to say that public services now are useless because one, they're unreliable, two, they don't work for the people, three, there is no support behind any of them. With the new changes, people can see themselves in a society that will help them every step of the way. The government would care more about each individual and not on the majorities. By claiming that the future government would be faster, smarter, and more efficiently, it is also saying that out present-day government does not preform to these standards yet. If they are claiming that the future will bring these changes, it means that today, we have not reach out goals yet. It shows that present-day government is far different than the government we hope to strive for in the future. Personally, I would say that the government would be a bit corrupted no matter when in time we are residing in. There is nothing like perfection because there is always room for improvements and advancements. Even if the future government can work faster, smarter, and more efficiently, there will still be a margin for corruption. Maybe not as much as we have now, but there will always be a flaw in the system. I guess it'd be okay because we'll be living with a government that functions better and provides citizens with their needs.
