Sounds like worldwithinworld wants to discuss the opening paragraph, which reads:
“When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim’s warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. She must have had bad dreams and climbed…
Five years later, I still wake up screaming for him to run.
Chapter 1, The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Chapter 2 – Part 1
A bit of Chapter 1
– I don’t know what the goat, Lady symbolizes. It must symbolized something; if not Suzanne Collins would not spend a few pages of a story of Katniss telling Peeta about how she got it for Prim. The same story repeated during the anti-hijacking session with very little success on Peeta’s behalf and the goat probably died in the end. I just don’t get it. Why? Does it represent Prim? Or was it Peeta? Was it a take on sacrifice? Was it just demonstrating how Katniss try to justify her action without success?
I hope someone would be able to help me to understand the goat.
Chapter 2
– The first unity declaration by District 12 done was on the day of the reaping when Katniss volunteered. It was the first step to defy the Capitol on national television: silence, not clapping and the silent admiration salute. All of it changed in Catching Fire when the majority barely supported Katniss at the square when Gale was whipped. It was all downhill after that. It’s as if they blamed her (and Peeta) for all the bad things that happened in District 12. This was a complete reversal of attitude from the first book. It doesn’t change much in Mockingjay when they are all in District 13. District 12 was not very keen on violence though the face of rebellion originated from their own Seam.
– Peeta haven’t spoken to Katniss until they were on the train. 11 years passed since he noticed her and he didn’t even say a word, not even after he gave her that bread 5 years ago. She noticed him glancing her way at school several times but both have this unspoken rule about not approaching each other. Why? It could have been a very easy/nice way to start a conversation. All of a sudden, ‘How was that bread?’, ‘are you okay?’, ’how’s everything with your family?’
O.K. That was awkward. A bread and now we’re like, friends?
The obvious issue was class separation between the Seam and merchant kids. The tesserae severed the little trust that they have for each other besides living in separate part of District 12. Katniss does not belong in Peeta’s circle and vice versa so they let it be that way.
I also think that Peeta is a kind boy and he helped her without expecting anything in return, maybe because he loves her, maybe because he’s just being kind. Maybe the combination of both. He doesn’t seem the kind of person that will let injustice prevails or ignore people suffering. He was disgusted at Capitol’s party in Catching Fire and had the idea to fan the fire of the rebellion. He is genuinely a good person with a big heart.
Unfortunately that fated day, Katniss saw him got beaten by his own mother. She called him a ‘stupid creature’, for God’s sake! Not a boy, but something less than that. Almost like an animal. He already liked her since forever and finding his own mother calling him such a thing in front of her did not help with his confidence. I highly doubt it if he ever thought to confess his love (or even get the girl.) He did it because he was convinced that his death would benefit Katniss somehow, in the term of sponsors. His sole life purpose was to die in order to keep Katniss alive. That was his ultimate plan.
If we look on the other side, we know that Katniss was never good with words and seeing Peeta being with other merchant friends would make her nervous since she doesn’t really socialize well. She doesn’t even consider Madge her friend although she was the one Katniss end up with every time. That’s how slow she is with feelings. So we could assume that it would be out of character if she suddenly approach Peeta to say thank you and left.
Taking note of what Peeta said in the cave about the bakery making apple and goat cheese tarts but they only eat stale ones, Katniss realized that she was wrong about the baker family. She thought they had a ‘soft’ life and silently thought that it was not fair. Also, this means that the bread Peeta gave her was expensive, even the family cannot afford to eat it, let alone waste it. That was why he was punished dearly for being so careless.
This act of kindness saved his life. She was touched by it and I consider it the most crucial and important moment of the book.
If he didn’t throw her that bread (he could have ignored her since he knew what’s coming), she would have not owed him nor paid attention to him (although he had a serious crush on her.) She would never realize that fact ever. Furthermore, she would not feel as guilty and might take him out easily but the whole thing with the bread make her think and feel. It’s against her instinct for survival, against her stoic expression and many attempts to feign indifference towards her competitors.
Her alliance with Rue made her feel more. She was almost like her sister, Prim and her death was one of the most ‘despicable‘ quoting Peeta. After that, Katniss realized what Peeta said on the roof was true. They are not pieces of the Capitol’s game. This journey from being a person who refused feelings and thought that being expressionless will gain her more sponsors changed to another person capable of mourning and crying. The interesting part was that when she started to embrace her feelings (singing for Rue’s death, caring for Peeta), and that is when the people of Panem responded better. These feelings kindled her fire.
Still, she has no idea the effect that she can have, how she can move the districts by a song, a handful of berries and several chosen words for Thresh and Rue.
The feelings grew when she met Peeta and it has been growing ever since.
Entrails. No hissing. This is the closest we will ever come to love.
Chapter 1, The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
The last thing I need was another mouth to feed.
Chapter 1, The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Chapter 1 – Part 3
Moving on with Chapter 1.
In the first book, The Hunger Games, Gale has suggested to Katniss that they could have ran away (was it in an indirect way saying that he loves her and wants to spend his life with her? Was it for the safety of their families? Or both?) and in Catching Fire vice versa (Snow was not convinced of the romance and Katniss could not think of anything else better than running away) which did not help in any way possible. In both situations they would end up dead or being turned into Avoxes. They are brave hunters and survivors but choosing to avoid the big theme was in no way guarantees their safety. They must know deep down inside that this is not going to work, not in the long run.
The story would be much shorter and Panem would always be oppressed by the Snow’s regime. Gale cannot provide the spark though he has the full strength of the wind to blow it. Pun intended.
Strangely, Peeta, the boy with the bread, (who is a whiz with fire. He coaxed fire out of damp branches and even Katniss can’t do that although curiously she is the Girl on Fire) the one that had no knowledge of hunting or killing, started the ball rolling by confessing his tragic love story on national television which resulted to a chain of very strange consequences, rules changed and uprisings included. He didn’t even expect to live by the end of The 74th Hunger Games, didn’t expect to win the girl in Catching Fire (Everything: his life, his love, his future, that’s what he gave Katniss and expected nothing in return) and went crazy in Mockingjay (he lost his most prized possession: his mind.) He lost his entire family, half of his leg, his identity but he provided a spark that liberated Panem. Without his love, nothing of the sort would happen. Can you imagine such power? This is the price he had paid for being in love.
I know Gale too, is in love with Katniss. It would be unfair to compare the levels of love professed by the two men since we know so little of Gale. Glimpses of this and that (stolen kiss, whipping, hunting flashbacks) doesn’t provide us with the full detailed story. I know they had a lot of happy moments and she remembered it fondly. They were quite a team, soul mates perhaps at the start of the story.
Maybe some people like to be loved like this, like Gale did. I have to admit that his love is quite superficial, to me. Some people might disagree. He admitted kissing girls (I see that as bragging) around District 12 and only felt something after Darius flirted with Katniss (competitive edge) and later see Peeta as a competitor too. He expected Katniss to love him back, got upset when she mentioned Peeta and scraped the plan he told Katniss 100% he was in. I am very annoyed when he started to guilt-trip Katniss with the talk of his pain and how that’s the only way that Katniss would pay any attention to him. Peeta had far worse incidents and did not come up with such excuse, rather encouraged them to be together. He was never a threat to anyone until he was hijacked.
Gale’s love is strong but wind and fire is not a good combination.
Don’t get me wrong. Both men are strong and smart in very different ways. Gale knows how to hunt, kill, good with traps and snares and a fine soldier, very much like Katniss herself. Peeta on the other hand is very domesticated but he’s kind, warm, has the ability to think straight in the midst of chaos and understood the big picture.
But the author had Katniss included in a big plan. The two men in her life represented the past and future of Panem and she chose the future. It could never worked for Gale however hard she tried.
The kids issue came up early and Katniss clearly stated that she doesn’t want any. Her constant reasoning was the Games. She seemed adamant that love is weakness. She sees her mother as a victim of it. She reinforced the idea of not having children with Gale (while pretending to be pregnant with Peeta’s child and had no problem with it). She even said that it was ‘a mistake’ if she and Gale had children but convinced that Peeta would definitely be a better parent. Since Peeta cannot procreate alone, it’s quite safe to assume his choice had always included Katniss. Peeta, on the other hand thought Katniss would be a great mother seeing her fierce love with her sibling and how she protects Prim anyway she could. In a way they both obviously admire the qualities that the other has and see the full potential he/she could grow into. Her little imagination in Catching Fire brought the reality in the Epilogue. I think she never subconsciously considered Gale as her romantic partner.
In the first book, The Hunger Games, Katniss made it clear that she doesn’t have anything romantic between her and Gale. But towards the end she was not very consistent with her affirmation in the first chapter. Not that I don’t trust her but she’s very slow in processing feelings or meanings. I think she was not ready to like Peeta or to feel something towards him but she did anyway despite all of her reminding herself not to.
Since the triangle theme came up only after she met Peeta (not Darius, though we can safely say that he liked her), I think she tried to set her mind against Peeta. The topic might not come up if Effie reaped someone else. She might go hunting merrily for years later until confronted by the love topic when she’s older. Marrying Gale or ending up with him is the right thing to do (everybody expected her to do that, it’s the norm) but she was caught by surprised when she couldn’t after Peeta declared his love. It made her look weak, she said.
Since debt is Katniss’s favourite subject I think this is one of her reasons to try and choose Gale. They’re best friends and had been through a lot. Both have experienced lost, both born rebels, survivors, main family breadwinners though not having enough food. Their family knew each other and they’re used to each other’s rhythm until she volunteered for Prim. Although many people would claimed that she fell in love with Peeta in Catching Fire or by the end of the Quarter Quell, I think she had set her eyes on him since they were eleven, when he tossed her that burned bread.
As a person who treats any relationship as a transaction (Gale and her has a symbiotic kind of relationship, both benefit from the other) she cannot comprehend kindness and that focused her attention to him, subconsciously. She had wondered why since then. If we examine her relationship with Gale, she actually didn’t trust him immediately. It took her months to return a smile. They weren’t even in a life and death situation, not even in a competition and there were plenty of preys abound in the woods. What took her so long to trust Gale? Was it because he’s a stranger? But the funny thing with Peeta was that he was also a stranger and a very treacherous one at it, too but she has a strong instinct to trust him. Although they’re in a game to fight to the death, she has to remind herself to not trust him again and again.
Many times that she caught herself surprised with her actions towards Peeta. The obvious one is the kind warning before the private session, other times how she subconsciously look at Peeta though regretting it almost immediately. Note that they were actually joking when they met in the train at Haymitch’s expense. She smiled. She warmed up to him a lot faster when she knew very well that he can spin a very convincing lie, planning a strategy ahead and this was before Haymitch ordered them to be friends. She told him about the Avox and counted her debts owed to the boy with the bread. I don’t think she ever meant debts. That was the moments that pulled her heart towards him.
I think she has a special spot for him since they were young, that day when she was sprawled under the apple tree waiting to die and that was what she meant by ‘it would have happened anyway.’ It has always been him.
It has always been the boy with the bread.
Chapter 1 – Part 3
Moving on with Chapter 1.
In the first book, The Hunger Games, Gale has suggested to Katniss that they could have ran away (was it in an indirect way saying that he loves her and wants to spend his life with her? Was it for the safety of their families? Or both?) and in Catching Fire vice versa (Snow was not convinced of the romance and Katniss could not think of anything else better than running away) which did not help in any way possible. In both situations they would end up dead or being turned into Avoxes. They are brave hunters and survivors but choosing to avoid the big theme was in no way guarantees their safety.
The story would be much shorter and Panem would always be oppressed by the Snow’s regime. Gale cannot provide the spark though he has the full strength of the wind to blow it.
Strangely, Peeta, the boy with the bread, (who is a whiz with fire. He coaxed fire out of damp branch and even Katniss can’t do that although she is the Girl on Fire) the one that had no knowledge of hunting or killing, started the ball rolling by confessing his tragic love story on national television which resulted to a chain of very strange consequences, uprisings included. He didn’t even expect to live in The Hunger Games, didn’t expect to win the girl in Catching Fire and went crazy in Mockingjay. This is the price he paid for being in love.
I know Gale too, is in love with Katniss. It would be unfair to compare the levels of love professed by the two men since we know so little of Gale. Glimpses of this and that (stolen kiss, whipping, hunting flashbacks) doesn’t provide us with the full detailed story. I know they had a lot of happy moments and she remembered it fondly.
Both men are strong and smart in very different ways. Gale knows how to hunt, kill, good with traps and snares and a fine soldier, very much like Katniss herself. Peeta on the other hand is very domesticated but he’s kind, warm, has the ability to think straight in the midst of chaos and understood the big picture.
The kids issue came up early and Katniss clearly stated that she doesn’t want any. Her constant reasoning was the Games. She reinforced the idea in Catching Fire while considering Gale. She even said that it was ‘a mistake’ if she and Gale had children but convinced that Peeta would definitely be better parent. Since Peeta cannot procreate alone, it’s quite safe to assume his choice had always been Katniss. Peeta, on the other hand thought Katniss would be a great mother seeing her fierce love with her sibling and how she protects her anyway she could. In a way they both see the full potential the other could grow into. Her little imagination in Catching Fire brought the reality in the Epilogue. I think she never subconsciously considered Gale as her romantic partner.
In the first book, The Hunger Games, Katniss made it clear that she doesn’t have anything romantic between her and Gale. But towards the end she was not very consistent with her affirmation in the first chapter. Not that I don’t trust her but she’s very slow in processing feelings or meanings. I think she was not ready to like Peeta or to feel something towards him but she did anyway despite all of her reminding herself not to.
Since the triangle theme came up only after she met Peeta (not Darius, though we can safely say that he liked her), I think she tried to set her mind against him. The topic might not come up if Effie reaped someone else. She might go hunting merrily for years later until confronted by the love topic when she’s older. Marrying Gale or ending up with him is the right thing to do (everybody expected her to do that, it’s the norm) but she was caught by surprised when she couldn’t after Peeta declared his love. Since debt is Katniss’s favourite subject I think this is one of her reasons to choose Gale. They’re best friends and had been through a lot. Both have experienced lost, both born rebels, survivors, main family breadwinners though not having enough food. Their family knew each other and they’re used to each other’s rhythm until she volunteered for Prim. Although many people would claimed that she fell in love with Peeta in Catching Fire or by the end of the Quarter Quell, I think she had set her eyes on him since they were eleven, when he tossed her that burned bread.
As a person who treats any relationship as a transaction (Gale and her has a symbiotic kind of relationship, both benefit from the other) she cannot comprehend kindness and that focused her attention to him, subconsciously. She had wondered why since then. If we examine her relationship with Gale, she actually didn’t trust him immediately. It took her months to return a smile. They weren’t even in a life and death situation, not even in a competition and there were plenty of preys abound in the woods. What took her so long to trust Gale? Was it because he’s a stranger? But the funny thing with Peeta was that he was also a stranger and a very treacherous one at it, too. They’re in a game to fight to the death and she has to remind herself to not trust him again and again.
Many times that she caught herself surprised with her actions towards Peeta. The obvious one is the kind warning before the private session, other times how she subconsciously look at Peeta though regretting in almost immediately. Note that they were actually joking when they met in the train at Haymitch’s expense. She smiled. She warmed up to him a lot faster when she knew very well that he can spin a very convincing lie, planning a strategy and this is before Haymitch ordered them to be friends. She told him about the Avox and counted her debts owed to the boy with the bread. I don’t think she ever meant debts. That was the moments that pulled her heart towards him.
I think she has a special spot for him since they were young, that day when she was sprawled under the apple tree waiting to die and that was what she meant by ‘it would have happened anyway.’ It has always been him.
It has always been Peeta.
Sitting at Prim’s knees, guarding her, is the world’s ugliest cat.
Chapter 1, The Hunger Games, Suzanne Colins
Chapter 1 – Part 2
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.
PS: A gentle soul managed to answer the apple puzzle in this post.
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?
Chapter 1 – Part 2
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
[bisa] 