Mockingjay: A Great Addition to Hunger Games

by Isabel Alter & Abby Chaver
The much-anticipated final book of The Hunger Games Triology, “Mockingjay,” does not end happily, or rather ends as happily as one might expect from the violent and wildly popular young adult fiction book.

The book, by Suzanne Collins, was recently released on August 24. Reaction was overwhelmingly postive, readers’ love reaffirmed by the abundance of Collins’ famous violence and supsense. 

“Mockingjay” is set in a post-apopalytic North America, the tattered remains of Mexico, America and Canada have come together to form “Panem.” 

The “rose out of ashes” country is is separated into 13 different districts, each of which is known for their respective export, and the Capitol, where the leader of the tryrant governement, president Snow, resides.

The Capitol is a place of overwhelming wealth , while the rest of the districts are mostly kept in poverty, none more so than the home district of the Heroine, Katniss Everdeen.

The Capitol maintains a fierce hold on the districts to prevent another rebellion, to do this each district is required to send both a girl and a boy to compete against one another.

As the book continues she becomes disillusioned with the rebellion, which she inspired with a rebellious act in the first book that had unintended consequences.

Even as she becomes more involved in the war as its public face, she begins to realize that the form of government used in the rebel district is not much better then the one they are fighting to bring down.

The core point of The Hunger Games series, and particularly “Mockingjay,” is to demonstrate the horrors of war and violence. Katniss spends most of the book suffering emotionally and physically, never quite able to stay on her feet amid the anguish affecting all those around her.

She seems far weaker emotionally than in the first two books, but this is appropriate considering the losses she has sustained.

However, to the reader the deaths are so numerous they become insignificant and one almost stops paying any attention to them.

By the time Katniss performs her most rebellious act, it seems improbable that she will live.

The epilogue brings some closure to the series. At the end there is still a hollow feeling, which was perhaps the point.

The whole saga is an emotional rollercoaster that often spirals down. However, this mirrors the struggles of the characters, and somehow prevents the story from feeling like an emotionally draining tearjerker.