Part 2

Last night I read Shirley Jackson's short story titled The Lottery and now I know why people who read The Hunger Games compared that with the early scene wherein Katniss's sister Prim was earlier chosen to be a tribute from District 12, as achingly similar. I agree. But I won't delve on that because I think Shirley Jackson deserves a separate post. What I need to do today (I think of it as a box waiting to be ticked off) is to end my ramblings on Mockingjay. Yes, Mockingjay.

I have my own issues with it and today's a good day to let it all hang out. By all, meaning whatever I can translate into this medium. It's a difficult story to discuss. When I see friends who have read the book, we rile at the "fans" who are merely after the love angle; a point I previously dealt with in Prelude. So now I'd like to get into the actual story itself which might prove difficult considering that I don't have the book here in the metro. Tsk tsk tsk. I do rely on my pretend-eidetic memory and to the fact that the book still resonates with me to be able to do a passable job, fingers-crossed.

Mockingjay starts with Katniss visiting the bombed out District 12 after a month or so recuperating from her injuries suffered from the Quarter Quell. While her mother and sister Prim are safe in District 13, she worries for Peeta, who remains captured in the Capitol. Then she sees the perfect stem of rose in her room, which somehow remains untouched. All her anger is now focused on one person, President Snow. She vows he has to die for the suffering to end. Eventually she agrees to become the symbol of the revolution while Alma Coin, District 13's head, and her minions plan a strategic attack on President Snow and the rest of Panem. While District 13 prepares for war, Katniss's reunion with Peeta proved difficult. Peeta, drugged and programmed, so to speak, lashes out against Katniss upon his rescue. In the final assault on the Capitol, Katniss again realises that her role is just another pawn in a war for power. And in her last act as the Mockingjay, she sends a message that reverberated throughout Panem.

I asked myself whether I liked the final book and it was quite easy for me to answer "No" at the time I finished it. It's because I hated Katniss in this one. I didn't like the fact that she allowed herself to become a pawn like that yet again. I cringed at the thought of her hiding out in one of those spaces in District 13 while the rest of the world moved on, with people trying to stay alive. She spaced out. I don't like spaced-out heroes. I mean, I was Team Katniss through and through but every time I turned the page I felt like she was going to break under pressure. And she did. At least the way I see her.

Good thing? As far as dystopian settings are concerned, the book addressed not just the shift from one oppressive government to a similar if not more troubling one. Lest we forget, the vital aspect of the entire trilogy is to change the government, to change Capitol, basically to free the people who have been oppressed and made to serve the whims of the prosperous ruling class. Stories dealing with revolutions aren't easy reads in general, but with the three books, Collins addressed the conflict in an accessible manner. Introducing Coin in the mix, with the grey hair, living in the totally grey surroundings that is District 13, the symbolism is quite obvious. Here is an option for change but taking everything in, is she really the answer against President Snow? I love the shrewdness of the juxtaposition, the option that is not really a good one. The powerlessness of the choice Katniss had to make to survive, when asked if she'd be willing to become the symbol of the revolution is one of the better things about the story. And her final act that would hopefully spur the districts not to make the same mistakes as the previous Capitol, is priceless.

As far as the characters are concerned, those we already knew remained true to their selves. Katniss, spaced-out, is still Katniss, the passive citizen turned soldier, spurred to fight to protect those she loves. I've to admit that reading was quite a pain, at times. I don't like my lead character wasting pages, so to speak, by hiding. But it's in those moments of doubts, of close to giving up that summarises her essence: she didn't want any of it. That has been her mantra from the first book onwards. She didn't want it but she had to do something. Katniss is not the hero we wanted her to be. If she was Frodo, she'd give the ring to Boromir, probably. This wasn't a heroic quest. I keep forgetting that part, thinking that Katniss will grow a backbone soon to stop people from using her. In fact, if there was a hero character through and through it is Peeta, although we never had that much on Peeta in this final book.

The other thing I didn't like, the main reason I told myself this is the worst book of the three, which can be thematic as well, is the heartbreaking thing that Katniss suffered in the Capitol. Seriously. It made me question the whole thing. I didn't like it but it made things real for Katniss. It unhinged her, alright, but made things real. The bigger picture will tell you that death occurs randomly, that wars aren't fought with a certain number of survivors unscathed all the time. Katniss had to suffer yet again to see that she couldn't go on being passive on an important aspect of the revolution. It was heartbreaking, yes, but something I think Collins felt necessary. For a moment there I put Collins in the Joss Whedon School of Creators Killing Their Beloved Characters. It's the message Collins chose to tell her story.

What I don't understand, on some reviews I've read, is the anger some of the readers felt about Katniss, about not telling us, readers, of her plans for that last scene in the Capitol. Goodness, wasn't it obvious? To me, it was. Weren't you guys reading, too? It should've been obvious from the start. In fact it should've been obvious, if you were paying attention, from the time that she lost the most important thing in her life. Go read the first book again as to why. And then the second book. And reread Mockingjay again. If you still missed it, it was plain as day when she started looking for answers in the conversation with her sworn enemy. Not the act but the motive on that fateful day. As readers, we're so quick to heap Katniss all qualities of a leader's role we failed to see her for what she is: just another teenager on the verge of a breakdown. And most of you guys hated her for her apparent breakdown when in fact she made the sanest decision she could have done when the opportunity presented itself. I may not liked Katniss as the spaced-out symbol but on that moment, my faith in her was restored.

I still like the first book best, even if my liking it is somehow tainted by the fact that it reads too much like Battle Royale (which I read later than HG). The first book is a good story. A story that makes you want to read more. Something that makes you care for the characters placed in the difficult situation in Panem. The second book suffers from the cliffhanger ending. Kidding but true. It felt incomplete, that one. The third book I think focused too much on the message. A message that, to me, is obviously lost on those merely after the love angle between Katniss, Peeta and Gale. Kidding, but not quite. I like the message but not the story. But I concede that it's a good way to end the trilogy. And with that I end this rambling.