#lenoredove

lenore dove was never described as having a very colorful wardrobe in the first place. haymitch describes her clothes containing small snips of color. he makes it incredibly clear that, because he pays attention to her, he is able to see that small detail in the way she dresses.

“How her faded overalls and shirts concealed snips of color, a bright blue handkerchief peeking from her pocket, a raspberry ribbon stitched inside her cuff.”

it is important to note that sunrise on the reaping is set more than fourty years after the events of the ballad of songbirds and snakes. the covey simply doesn’t have the same amount of freedom that they had to express themselves—they don’t even sing in public anymore, seeing as they have no lead singer.

the “lack” of color symbolizes the control over the districts.

BUT. lenore dove’s outfits contain SNIPS of color.

“I think about the bits of color Lenore Dove adds to her wardrobe, the bright blue, yellow, and pink. Are they scraps from this girl’s dress? A way to keep her memory alive?”

she wears color, contrary to the gloomy and frightening atmosphere that the capitol strived to create around all the districts.

i posted this on my instagram!! under iyuseruuu. wink wink

anywayssss

super excited for this movie <3

🪿❤️

since reading sotr all i’ve done is cry over haymitch. he deserved so so so much better. goosedove my bbys😭💔 even though, going into this book, i knew everyone would die, i still got so attached to every one of them and sobbed at every death (rip maysilee, wyatt, louella, loulou, ampert, sid/his mam, and sweet lenore dove you will all forever be loved and remembered by me). there is genuinely no recovering from this book and i fear the movie will just double down on the pain. i need them to bring justice to this masterpiece idc i’ll happily watch a 7 hour movie as long as every scene is included and no mischaracterisation occurs❣️

lenore dove is not underdeveloped—she is an extremely fleshed out character.

we know about her dreams, about her fears, about her personality and about everything that makes her who she is—even the small details such as loving gumdrops, or believing in the afterlife.

we know about her “flaws” too.

there have been countless of well-done analysis on her character.

many of you tend to forget that sunrise on the reaping is HAYMITCH’S POV.

if you’re going into the book holding some kind of hidden resentment towards his girlfriend, then of course you’ll have an issue with what he says.

haymitch has never idolized lenore dove.

being in love is very DIFFERENT to idolizing. he respects her, he loves her for who she is and he will always consider her as one of the most precious people in his life.

but he is also well aware of her impulsiveness. he TELLS us it worries him.

when she gets herself arrested he immediately understands her intentions and he tries his best to stop her.

“Haymitch . . . I don’t want to be on this earth without you.”

“So now you’re trying to get them to hang you? You do, and I swear I’ll — I’ll —” I’ll what? I’ll be dead and gone is what, in no position to do anything. But I feel so helpless now, I’ve got to try whatever I can to change her mind.”

“Lenore Dove is always patient when she explains stuff, not superior, but maybe she’s just too smart for me.”

the quote above always gets misinterpreted—with people claiming haymitch has been “dumbed down”—when in reality that couldn’t be further from the truth.

haymitch’s sharp way of thinking has been present throughout this book. he’s wary of plutarch because he’s capitol, and he knows how the capitol moves, he knows giving them information could be used against him at any given time.

he remembers everything his loved ones ever told him, and he constantly uses that knowledge to survive the arena.

lenore dove had such a unique way of viewing life, and haymitch was always eager to learn more. that doesn’t make haymitch “dumb”, he was simply very interested at was his girl was saying, they shared their knowledge and interests and that was such a beautiful part of their relationship.

“I’m sure their life had its trials, but she has such a romantic view of it, I never mention that.”

they didn’t always agree on their opinions, but that’s only normal. their relationship was so strong, healthy, and real, that they could agree to disagree—with either of them backing off the moment they could see the other was stressed or hurt.

i can’t imagine reading sotr and thinking lenore dove is “badly written” or “underdeveloped” this was never said about any other love interests by the way, and i’m noticing how the same people contradict themselves when telling us why they “don’t like her”

she falls in love with his pure heart and his genuine curiosity to learn more about the world. they share opinions, beliefs, and ideals of each other’s families—having conversations about everything and anything, and she feels safe enough to trust him with her family’s history and phrases such as “all-fire”.

she incorporates the expression into their love because she knows he will always be respectful of who she is, he has always been willing to know more about her, and she wants to let him into her world.

she loves his brother as he were her own, teaching him all about the stars, pointing out all the different constellations just as tam amber had done for her when she was young.

she canonically puts herself into danger because she couldn’t stand to be in a word that he wouldn’t be in.

“Oh, Haymitch . . . I don’t want to be on this earth without you.”

“So now you’re trying to get them to hang you? You do, and I swear I’ll — I’ll —”

“I’ll what? I’ll be dead and gone is what, in no position to do anything. But I feel so helpless now, I’ve got to try whatever I can to change her mind.”

she feels so much guilt and blames herself for his reaping—something that was way beyond her control. the moment haymitch hears her voice, he can tell what she’s thinking about and he manages to talk her out of it.

because he knows her. he’s been studying her ever since he fell in love with her, he knows all her quirks, all her emotions, and the way she thinks.

but she knows him too.

she knows he sometimes feels like he has the whole world on his shoulders, she knows he craves her comfort and she’s always there to hold him until he feels ready to come back to himself.

she’s also incredibly patient and gentle with him, backing down the moment she sees him feeling bad or stressed.

“I didn’t say it was just because it was my birthday. I said —” What did I say? I can’t even remember now. “Sorry, you’ve lost me.”

Her face falls. “No, I’m sorry. It really is your birthday, and here I am going on about who knows what.”

they have such a strong bond and she’s proved time after time how much she loves him and he knows it, because when snow tries to get into his head it doesn’t work.

arguably one of the biggest misconceptions about lenore dove, is the idea that she’s a manic pixie dream girl, a dead-wife, or a mary-sue character.

this usually happens when people choose to ignore her recklessness—either because they want to push the “shallow character” agenda on her, or because they think being impulsive is a bad trait to have.

lenore dove was incredibly clever—she was smart with many of her rebellious acts, and she made sure to try and keep that side of her a secret so as to not involve or endanger anyone else.

but she is also an emotionally driven rebel.

she is impulsive—it’s a big part of her character—and that’s not a bad thing.

impulsivity isn’t the absence of thought; it’s action born from feeling.

lenore dove acts when she’s sad, mad, or scared. it is a characteristic she shares with other main characters in the trilogy, such as katniss herself.

her rebellious acts do not cease to exist, nor do they stop being meaningful just because she was emotionally driven.

Her impulsivity is not a weakness—it’s proof of her humanity. And in a world built to extinguish that, her emotions were fueling her most radical acts.

“Sometimes she cries because things are so beautiful and we keep messing them up. Because the world doesn’t have to be so terrifying. That’s on people, not the world.”

she feels so deeply that silence becomes impossible. most rebels are driven by their emotions anyway; it’s a survival instinct.

many studies of revolution consider emotions as central to mobilization, and our rawest emotions are what fuel rebellions, “impulsivity” if you will.

lenore dove is self aware, she knows that she’s driven by her emotions; haymitch and her uncles know it too.

“I overstepped, just like my uncles always warn me about. I lost my temper and started hollering and now you’re — oh, Haymitch . . . I don’t want to be on this earth without you.”

“That’s the part I’m worried about. That she might be saying something rash.”

she was only a child living under an oppressive government that thrived in spreading fear and death amongst her people.

she grew up knowing of a past she couldn’t experience and of relatives she never got to meet.

the rage and fire in her heart were something she grew up with, something she slowly developed through the years, and her ideals and beliefs only strengthened that need to raise her voice.

ignoring her impulsiveness is harmful to her character, because it is something that makes her who she is.

she started rebelling, from what we know, at twelve—both her actions were fueled by her emotions, carefully planned, but not perfect.

she was arrested twice.

“Maybe it was overkill, the way she’d prepared. Maybe the Peacekeepers could sense they were being played. They let her go again, but this time with a strict warning that they had their eye on her.”

at the age that she was, the action in itself, was impulsive.

she was fueled by fear the night before her very first reaping, she couldn’t bear to stand the thought of it—she wanted to stop it from happening, even temporarily, just in the hopes that none of her people fall victims to it.

“When I press her, she just laughs and says if it’s true, that information could put me in danger, and if it’s false, what does it matter? “Didn’t do much good anyway, did it? Clay’s dead and the reaping’s alive and well.”

“They needed a place to be together, to raise their voices. Sometimes the hurt’s too bad to bear alone.”

what truly unites people of all ages when it comes to fighting for change, is our shared hope for a better future.

lenore dove’s heart was with her people, and the reason she fought for change was because she loved life, and she loved her people.

she hated to see the ever-growing misery, pain, and the horrors that kept happening under the capitol’s control. she couldn’t stand feeling helpless, and everything she did, she did it to help her people.

her emotions moved her, she was extremely empathetic.