#balladsofpanem

We want to read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes together!

One chapter each week because let’s be real, this is a weighty story. With roots to our original trilogy it makes for quite the piece to dig in to. We’ll kick off on Reaping day - July 4th! Be sure to use the tag #balladsofpanem, you can also tag us or forward the post to our inbox. The ask box is open and ready for your burning questions as well!

Part I: The Mentor

 7/4 - 7/12

7/13 - 7/19

 7/20 - 7/26

7/27 - 8/2

 8/3 - 8/9

8/10 - 8/16

8/17 - 8/23

8/24 - 8/30

 8/31 - 9/6

9/7 - 9/13

The endless dance with hunger had defined his life. Not the very early years, before the war, but every day since had been a battle, a negotiation, a game. How was it best to stave off hunger? Eat all the food at one meal? Spread it through the day in dribs and drabs? Wolf it down or chew every morsel to liquid? It was all just a mind game to distract himself from the fact that it was never enough. No one would ever let him have enough.

During the war, the rebels had held the food-producing districts. Taking a page out of the Capitol’s playbook, they’d tried to starve the Capitol into submission using food — or a lack thereof — as a weapon. Now the tables had turned again, with the Capitol controlling the supply and taking it one step further, twisting the knife into the districts’ hearts with the Hunger Games.

--Tbosas, ch 2

As the book goes on, it starts to become obvious the vital role that Tigris plays as the backbone of the family, the provider and the cheerleader that Snow needs. She redesigns his reaping day outfit, cooks with what little food they have, and all around provides moral support for Coriolanus and his grandmother. It’s clear that Snow believes it’s his role to support the family by winning a scholarship and going to university. But he does little to acknowledge that Tigris is the one providing for the family while he is a mentor. Perhaps he doesn’t want to acknowledge this fact because to do so would mean acknowledging the fact that he is truly powerless and Tigris is likely selling herself to make ends meet.  

When the train arrives in the station and whistles, Snow has a PTSD or anxiety-induced flashback of waiting for his father’s return by train only to discover he had died by the hands of a rebel. This further indicates the trauma he underwent as a child, also saying: 

“It was hard, in the Capitol, to find a spot that wasn’t linked to a terrible memory, but this was particularly bad...His death was associated with a fear and vulnerability that Coriolanus had never been able to shake off” (pg. 40).

These glimpses into his life during the war and the trauma he went through are clear indicators of how said trauma shaped his personality and characteristics, keeping him in an impoverished, fighting for survival mindset that slowly pushes him into becoming a madman. I also wonder if these ‘terrible memories’ of various places around the Capitol are what kept him in his presidential mansion later in life.  

Differences between the tribute trains for Katniss and Lucy Gray” 

“The tribute train is fancier than even the room in the Justice Building. We are each given our own chambers that have a bedroom, a dressing area, and a private bathroom with hot and cold water, We don’t have hot water at home unless we boil it.

“There are drawers filled with fine clothes, and Effie Trinket tells me to do anything I want, wear anything I want, everything is at my disposal.” (The Hunger Games, pg. 42)

This is in stark contrast to:

“Coriolanus looked for a glimpse of his tribute in the window before he realized the car had none. They were designed not for passengers but for cargo... by now the smell of the car, musty and heavy with manure, had reached Coriolanus. They were transporting the tributes in livestock cars, and not very clean ones at that” (The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, pg. 41)

Extreme differences between Katniss and Lucy Gray’s train ride to the Capitol. Lucy Gray and the other tributes were treated like animals from the moment they were reaped for the hunger games, from the livestock cars they arrived in to the monkey enclosure they are later transported to. 

Tracking the vocabulary of Coriolanus inner thoughts:

This passage adds to the divide that Coriolanus sees between himself (Capitol-born) and the tributes (district-born) : 

“...he had not prepared himself properly for this encounter in the flesh, and a wave of pity and revulsion swept through him. They really are creatures from another world. A hopeless, brutish world” (pg. 41) 

“...the rest of them stared at him like a pack of feral animals eyeing a pampered poodle” (pg. 45)

Hi Nonnie!

Great question!

Honestly, I don’t think we have enough information to answer this with any certainty, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have any theories about this topic. 😊

So, here it goes:

As you said, we know that career districts were better off. It’s likely that the people who lived there had better access to TVs and uninterrupted electricity. That means that it would have been easier for them to follow the Games.

However, at this point in time, the Games weren’t mandatory —not even for people in the districts (Festus is the one who comes up with the idea of punishing those who aren’t watching)— and they’re not exciting/interesting to watch either.

So, with some exceptions, the only people who are watching are those who have a working TV and a vested interest in the Game.

If you consider that A: betting is a new practice, and B: the only people who are allowed to do it live in the Capitol, then the number of people who care enough to watch dwindles down to the tributes’ relatives.

Could Mags have been related to Mizzen or Coral? Sure, I don’t see why not. In that case, I’m sure she would have followed the Games. If she did, she probably remembered Lucy Gray.

Now, as I write this, I realize that there is another point to be made. The reaping ceremony.

Unlike the rest of the Games, the reaping was mandatory viewing. Lucy Gray gave quite a performance during her reaping. Between the snake, and the colorful dress, and the song, and the getting slapped by the mayor, I’m sure that people remembered her.

So... to finally answer your question. Mags probably remembered Lucy Gray to some degree. But, since the Games weren’t mandatory or popular, and the footage from the 10th Game was never used again, I think that what she remembered was the performance on the reaping stage. The achievements in the arena? I’m not so sure about those.