A bit longer than the last time. 3 things nonetheless.
1) Apples. There was quite a lot of it. Why the author mentioned apples? What does it represent? Brave souls sneak in the woods the collect apples, meeting Peeta under the old apple tree, shooting the apple in the roast pig’s mouth, eating apple (with goat cheese and lamb stew) in the cave with Peeta, apple and goat cheese tart at the bakery, Peeta’s first meal while being clean up after discovered in the mud was dried apple, Katniss’s first meal after the Games was a bowl of applesauce, kids running with cans of applesauce on Parcel Day, Gale coring apples at the small hut when she suggested that they run away in Catching Fire, tossing apple on the roof with Peeta, etc.
Was it just a fruit/food? Was it bravery, brashness maybe? Was it food for celebration, gratitude, survival? Was it a reference to Adam and Eve? Was it another version for the forbidden fruit? Was it a symbol of love and sexuality as referred by the secular art? Coincidentally ‘Alma’ means ‘apple’ in Turkish and Hungarian Language but I think mostly agree that ‘Alma Coin’ has a double sided soul. The Portuguese/Spanish translation of Alma said so.
I can’t figure out the apples.
2) Berries. There were 3 kinds of berries.
i – The blackberries, the ones she ate with Gale on the day of the reaping. Sign of home, safe and everlasting friendship. The berries were mentioned twice. First, on Chapter 1 in The Hunger Games, on a picnic and the last time in Mockingjay when Katniss was trying to re-establish her friendship with Gale.
ii – There were Rue’s berries, the ones she introduced to Katniss when they were allies. The same one she mashed with cold water to feed Peeta and drugged him before going to the feast. Sign of trust & survival.
iii – Lastly, the nightlock. Katniss’s father had an important knowledge about the berries and managed to tell his daughter before he died. Deadly and treacherous fruit, it worked as a kind of weapon (for Foxface) and to the Capitol. Updated version of the berries was a pill with the same property. Katniss and Peeta tried to use nightlock berries as a last resort when forced to kill each other in The Hunger Games and in Mockingjay though in separate occasion Peeta asked and was given the pill (though he didn’t use it) and avoided Katniss’s suicide attempt successfully. The berry trick was done the first time to protect Peeta (despite of her confused musings of defiance of the Capitol, unpaid debts and being pariah in her own district) and the last time it was Peeta who protected her (despite of being hijacked, scarred and a burn victim, lost his family and most friends, both possibly punished by the new government, unrequited love). They protect each other. The berries/pills were the ultimatum. Life or death. It’s all or nothing.
3) I understand the separation of class; Seam and merchant. At the Seam, the people has dark, straight hair, gray eyes and olive skin while the merchants that live near the square have blond hair, blue eyes and pale skin. How the tessarae system made the gap larger and how both class cannot seem to put this separate features aside and live together.
Katniss’s family (her father being from the Seam married a merchant wife) had broken the pattern but see how in the epilogue, Katniss’s children broke the mould. It could have happened with Katniss and Prim but since the oppressive regime and injustice system was still there, both girls retained the character of separate class despite having mixed class parentage.
Katniss and Peeta is just history repeating itself and this time without The Hunger Games, the author made it clear that the new system is just. The girl has dark hair and blue eyes while the boy has blond curls and grey eyes, representing attributes of both parents and class. We can safely conclude that there were no more tessarae and there’s no separation in the society.
What do you think?
Note: You may find the answer to the apples here, a brilliant post by Ms. lost-on-cloud-9
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