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Sotr - Blog Posts
I'm gonna tell my kids this was Sunrise On the Reaping
“A sister is someone you fight with and fight for.”
Hello hi twelve years old me would be so happy to know I’m twenty five and back into The Hunger Games. SOTR devoured me whole, I blacked out after finishing it and just woke up from it bon appetit.
Something that really hit my like a punch about SOTR is how Suzanne Collins decided to write Haymitch's relationship with the women in his life because (in a clear contrast with Snow) even in his times of doubt over them, even when he's talking about Drusilla (fuck her btw), he still has a level of respect Snow didn't show for any of the women in his life in TBOSAS.
He sees Maysilee and Louella as sisters and each of them have strengths he admires deeply — in contrast with Snow thinking of Tigris (his actual cousin) as someone whose appearance "invited abuse."
Even Lenore Dove's most worrisome characteristics come for Haymitch from a place of care and love for her, from a desire to keep her safe, not to control her. Haymitch loved Lenore Dove for who she was, regardless of her rebelliousness maybe causing trouble for him. I don't even have to mention the contrast to Snow, right?
Even Effie, whose alienation certainly annoyed him, is talked about in a way thay shows and extensive highlights her empathy beneath her propagandized opinions. Haymitch never disrespects Effie or thinks of her disrespectfully despite the fact that is hinted that she has some behaviors that annoyed him. Snow, however, thinks of his female classmates with a irritated tone that visibly undermines them and their good traits.
Even the contrast between Drusilla and Gaul. Right, Drusilla is not as powerful as Gaul when they're presented to the reader, and Haymitch and Snow come from very different places, but Drusilla is the closes thing Haymitch will get to a powerful ally from the Capitol. Yet, he rejects her (in a quieter way than Maysilee does but still does it) almost right away because of her obvious cruelty. It doesn't appeal to him is the slightest like it does to Snow.
Also, the contrast between how Snow and Haymitch see the sacrifices the women in their lives make with the former disgusted at Tigris and the later showing how much he loves his mom (also) because of all the sacrifices she made to keep him and Sid alive and well, even if it devastates him (like the fact that they don't have a cake in the birthdays in fairness to him not getting a cake or the loss of the shirt his mother had so carefully sewn together for him).
Suzanne Collins didn't just made her mission to say a big fuck you to people who were romanticizing Snow, she showed us what we all should expect from a man (again btw) and you gotta respect her for it.
Snow's influence in the gradual erasure of the Covey from District 12's culture. In TBOSAS, they're well-known as performers. In Sunrise on the Reaping, they no longer sing in public. Lenore has to cut a deal just to be able to play the piano. In Hunger Games, Katniss, a singer herself, doesn't mention the Covey once.
“There’s a bad moment where I see my ally, wearing her District 12 black and start for her. ‘Maysilee!’ Her face crumbles into tears and hides in a handkerchief. Not Maysilee. Merrilee.”
Yeah, pack it in, it’s so over.
The reveal of how Effie got involved with Haymitch, and by extension, District Twelve, is actually so funny. Like this poor woman helped her baby sister with her schoolwork ONE TIME and it spiraled into Effie literally getting accused of helping to start a revolution that eventually killed the president.
Haymitch tried so very hard to break the arena and make the Capitol look stupid, only for 95% of his efforts to get edited out. But Katniss sees the bit with the axe and concludes that Haymitch was punished for messing with the arena in a way he wasn't meant to.
Yes, it's hideous how Haymitch tried to send a message over and over again only for it to get erased. But the Capitol couldn't get all of it. There was still a little in there that they couldn't erase.
“and while lenore dove will forever be my true love, louella is my one and only sweetheart.”
that line hits so hard when you realize how quickly he was calling katniss sweetheart. through katniss’ eyes, it seemed insincere at first, almost like haymitch was mocking her. but now we truly know haymitch wouldn’t just throw that around. he truly cared for her from the start.
the longer i sit with it, the more i think that the saddest (not without some tough fucking competition, obviously) realization about sotr to me is that almost all the tributes really, truly, did not treat the games like they had a chance.
in the original trilogy—and even in The Ballad—the tributes felt like they were genuinely scheming and training and vying to win. with every other games, it seemed like the kids held onto this hope that they would be The One to make it, the one to become victor, even if they didn’t always say it aloud. despite the odds, they clawed as close as they could to victory, even if it meant playing into the capitol’s game and sacrificing their honor or morality.
but in this one? they come into the training rooms expecting to die. even the careers, though they swagger about and act like hot shit, feel younger than the careers have ever felt to me before. they collectively seem more resigned and bitter than in past/future tributes. their motives were all so unified against the capitol in a way that was reminiscent of the 75th games—where half the tributes were already a part of an organized rebellion to begin with.
while the theme of ‘i want to choose how i die, i don’t want the capitol to use me’ is prevalent in every book, this quell felt especially grim and determined. i kept expecting suzanne collins to undermine the camaraderie she gave the Newcomers. i kept expecting someone to decide ‘fuck it, i’m going for it on my own and i’ll backstab whoever i need to to do it.’ i kept expecting betrayal and desperation and a true competition.
but no—like wyatt, knowing his odds and choosing to protect the weaker—like ampert, knowing he’s charming and smart enough to make a decent bid for victor, yet rebelling anyways—like maysilee, knowing she’s near powerless, but spitting in the capitol’s face anytime she can—like all the newcomers, knowing they hardly have a shot, but absolutely refusing to betray one another—
they remained steadfast in their hope to die dignified and honorable, to die fighting against the true enemy, and that makes it so much more heartbreaking.
do you know how miserable and tragic your life has to be to say that katniss everdeen is luckier than you and be correct
I was about to write: I love the fact that Katniss‘ first reaction to Haymitch‘s absolutely traumatising story is „You need some goose eggs. Goose eggs will help.“
And then I realised… She‘s mimicking Peeta. Peeta comes back to 12 and the first thing he does is plant primroses. And somehow… that helped her. So she‘s doing the same thing for Haymitch.
effie was the last person he saw before entering the games and the first person he really saw upon getting out. and then he had to see her. on his birthday. as they sent kids to die. every. single. year. how much he must have hated how much he liked her
Okay but it’s fucking brilliant that one of the themes of the book was about the distortion of history.
Usually prequels are a dangerous thing to write because unless they’re planned out well in advance, they risk contradicting lore in the main series. Even still, we knew barely anything about Haymitch’s games. They were the perfect stomping ground for new information, with a rough series of events but without a close temporal connection to the main books.
But though she had this freedom and safety net, while she could have just written a story that aligned with what we knew, Collins leaned into the idea of contradicting past lore head on and made it the damn thesis of the book; that yeah, actually, it did play out entirely differently from how the characters saw it, and yes that contradicts what you were told, that’s the point.
We didn’t really know what happened in the 50th games until we read it from Haymitch’s perspective, because what little information we did have was spliced up and edited. The video evidence was processed through the Capital, and twisted to serve their purposes.
Tackling that idea of history being written by those in power with a notoriously inconsistent medium? Goddamn, writer that you are, Suzanne Collins.
it would have been devastating if Haymitch just hid throughout his entire game. it would have been devastating if he cheated. it would have been devastating if he killed everyone in that arena with his bare hands. it would have been devastating if everyone sacrificed themselves for him.
it was always going to be devastating
but the fact he tried to destroy it? that he stood up to snow? that everything we knew about him was from capitol propaganda? that his poster never saw the light of day?
there isn't words.
Thinking about how Wyatt Callow is proof that Dr. Gaul’s and Snow’s assertion that humanity’s essential nature is violent (which is part of their argument for the Capitol’s control being necessary) is false. That “What happened in the arena? That’s humanity undressed… A boy with a club who beats another boy to death. That’s mankind in its natural state.” is false.
I’m sure he had it all calculated. He knew exactly what choices would give him the best odds of survival. He knew that the faster he got out of the initial bloodshed the better his chances would be. He knew that letting other kids die would benefit his odds of survival. He knew exactly what he should’ve done to preserve himself.
And yet, he threw all those statistics and odds, all that reason and logic out the window in the name of protecting Lou Lou, a girl that wasn’t even from his district. He threw it all out the window in the name of helping another human being that was in an unfair situation and had worse odds than him. He knew who the real enemy was; he knew it wasn’t the other kids being taken advantage of by the Capitol just like him.
That is humanity.
“Well, there’s no proof that will happen. You can’t count on things happening tomorrow just because they happened in the past. It’s faulty logic.”
How are we holding up? I’m still crying about Lenore Dove and the gumdrops
Thinking about Maysilee Donner. A girl who refused to let the Capitol dehumanize her. A girl who wanted to die with dignity, without begging for her life, because that mattered to her. Who set up a place setting with napkins and forks in the middle of the arena because she is a human being. Who loved jewelry and fashion and believed that her appearance sends a message about who she is, and who wanted that message to be respectable, dignified, worth something.
Thinking about Maysilee Donner who was unafraid to slap the woman who pulled her name in the reaping and who threw clever insults towards anyone who provoked her, no matter who they were. Maysilee Donner who believed human dignity is inherent but respect is earned and who refused to give respect to those who did not deserve it.
Maysilee Donner whose father threw money at the reaping stage as if that could save her, and the money floated to the ground just like the confetti, meaningless paper that signified nothing when placed against the power of the Capitol. Whose privilege could not save her. Who recognized that reality and faced it with more fortitude than any person should ever have to display. Maysilee Donner.
cant stop thinking about sunrise on the reaping. a revolution IS really just trying again and again and again and having HOPE that itll succeed this time. and oh god plutarch talking about how they would need better timing ... the 75th hunger games arena being a clock... im SICK
Something that I think is important about Wyatt as a character is how he highlights the stupidity of the district system. I know that the human love of sorting ourselves into categories meant that every YA series for a while had a bunch of different groups with associated traits that tweens could take uquizzes about, but The Hunger Games isn't like Divergent or Harry Potter where young adults get grouped based on their personalities. Sure, the districts all have industries they're known for and the tributes are clearly shaped by wherever they grew up, but being born into District Four doesn't actually mean that you'll like fish. Wyatt is brilliant when it comes to numbers, but in District Twelve he can only channel that into gambling. Imagine if he'd been born into District Three with a father like Beetee, what he could have done with his mathematical talents. There's mention of it with Maysilee too, how she doesn't want to run the candy store but her options are that or the mines.
I guess what I'm saying is that the district system is great for keeping people oppressed because they see their fellows as "other," which is why it is a tool of fascism and not a practical way to run a society. It doesn't matter who is in what group, it matters that they internalize their group identity to the point that they ignore the similarities between them.
oh wyatt callow, the boy who weighed everyones odds in the arena and still threw himself in front of a blade for lou lou, knowing hers too.
I’m ok, I’m fine, I’ve been handling Sunrise on the Reaping very well -I’ve been crying non stop.
so you’re telling me that after what happened to louella/lou lou haymitch had to watch peeta come back from the capitol as a “mutt version of himself” and question whether the shell of a human with peeta’s face was even peeta at all
and he had to do all that SOBER???
the thing i keep thinking about is how katniss, despite knowing the capitol is evil and despite seeing how they edited her games to tell a story, didn’t question haymitch’s much at all really when watching them. really drilling in the message that no one is immune to propaganda.
Katniss *thinking about the Mockingjay pin*: Wow this was Madge’s aunt’s, what a precious and valuable family heirloom, it must have been special to her, I’ll treasure it forever.
Maysilee *thinking about the Mockingjay pin*: this bird is ugly and stupid I’m literally never going to wear this.