(Also, I’d like to apologize for that cringy joke. I won’t do it again…probably.)
I’ll skip my normal this-book-is-a-national-phenomenon intro. If you want to read one of those for this series, go back to my first Hunger Games review. It’s in there. I will, however, do just a quick recap on my previous review. So far, I’ve only talked about the three major characters from this series (Katniss, Gale, and Peeta). Katniss is a well-developed lead that has changed the YA dystopian genre entirely. Gale is a self-centered brat who’s pretty much a Jacob—yes, Twilight’s Jacob—ripoff (you can see my VERY STRONG opinions on him below). Peeta is innocent and kind and much too good for Katniss for most of the series. Okay, lightning round over. The first minor character for today is Katniss’s friend in the first Games, Rue.
Rue didn’t deserve to die. That’s the first thing that comes into my head when I think about her: that she grew up in a world too harsh for her fragile self, too cruel for her gentle mind. I know that sounds like some first-draft line from a poem, but I’m serious. She was only twelve years old, the same age as Katniss’s sister, when she was reaped. I mean, imagine twelve year old you, focusing on elementary school graduation and such. Now imagine that same little kid ripped out from their family and life, trained as a warrior for a week, and then put in a rink with twenty-three other components—most, if not all, older that them—trying to literally murder this little kid. No adults deserve this fate, let alone children. Rue lived in a world that was playing against her all the time, and, in the end, it killed her.
Next is a girl that was also hurt too much for something she didn’t even do, Primrose Everdeen, Katniss’s twelve year old sister. Prim also didn’t deserve to die, especially when she was doing something kind for the children of the Capitol. For those of you who don’t remember my extremely long Gale rant, Prim was murdered while working as a doctor to help the children of the Capitol, who President Snow had seemingly forgotten about. The Rebels—no, Gale bombed not only the innocent children, but the Rebel doctors as well, killing, among many others, Prim. I don’t want to get too far into this because you can see my full opinion on it sort of in that last paragraph, and also in my first Hunger Games review, so if you want my full opinion on her unjust death, look there.
As a character, I thought Prim was okay. I think the last book definitely had a solid amount of character development for her, but there wasn’t much development in the first two. The only thing we really know about her for most of the series is that she’s an animal-loving herbal-medicine doctor and that Katniss loves her. Other than that, I feel like there just wasn’t that much. Which is okay, I guess, because she really isn’t that important beyond the fact that Katniss would do anything for her (literally—she practically committed suicide when volunteering for the Games) for the first two books. In the first book, the whole plotline is centered around the fact that Katniss needs to get home to her sister, partly because she doesn’t want to die, but mostly because Katniss knows that her mother will not be able to take care of Prim in any way if Katniss does dies. If anything, Prim began as a way to further develop Katniss, and…that’s sort of it. There wasn’t much other reason for her, originally. When you think about it, though, isn’t that what most characters are? A way to develop the hero, therefore moving along the plot? Especially in a book like this, one that clearly centers and follows one person. Yeah, sure, we care about the world and other minor characters, but what we are mostly supposed to care about is Katniss, and how all of this is affecting her.
Um…yeah. That was sort of really long and only half about Prim, but we’re moving on anyway.
There are a few characters that I don’t have anything original to say about, so here’s that list: Cinna (he was such a great role model for Katniss), Effie Trinket (there are no words for this queen), Seneca Crane (he sucks, and there’s no getting around it), and Caesar Flickerman (what a guy).
Next, none other than the craziest man in the books (except for Gale, of course), President Coriolanus Snow. President Snow is an interesting guy. He’s evil, that much is for sure, but how much of that evil is really his fault? Snow was born and raised in the Capitol, most likely on the wealthier side of its people. For all we know, though he’s called President, Snow may have been born into the political position he has. In his perspective, this is the only way of life that will work for the world. Then again, when you think some other characters like Effie and Cinna—they grew up in the Capitol, and they’re not crazy. They don’t murder everyone in someone’s life just because they won’t help a dictator cause (RIP everyone Johanna Mason loved). But can we compare someone who may have been raised and groomed to become this awful person (there isn’t much background, so we know pretty much nothing for sure) to people who were simply raised fortunate? Regular people of the Capitol are much more easily comparable than to someone with his power and background, aren’t they? Or are people good based on how they compare to the people around them, or are there basics that everyone considered kind has to reach?
Woah. That got way too deep for my teenage brain. Even though I just went through all of that trouble to basically prove him an okay person, I still thinks he sucks. And as cruel as it is, killing him was right for Suzanne Collins’s world.
Moving on: Haymitch Abernathy. He’s a complicated person, but I’m going to stick to some more basic ideas. First, he makes some questionable choices. He was drunk most of the time, and he was kind of really mean to Katniss and Peeta. He kept Katniss in the dark about a lot during her first Games, and I understand that he wanted to keep her innocent or whatever, but it was really annoying and could have killed her. Like, figure it out, Haymitch! She needs to know as much as possible to have any hope of survival. But I have to cut him some slack—he really did think he was making the right choice, and I guess it worked, because she survived and thrived in those Games.
Those were really all of the characters I wanted to talk about today. I think they were all rather common beliefs (except for maybe the President Snow one). Keep reading, book nerds, and may the plots be ever in your favor (okay…now I’m done with that joke).