Sunday, May 1, 2011

Reading – Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, p. 1- 44

In chapter 1, Katniss is enjoying life back in District 12 when the time for the victory tours come.  At the end of the chapter, Katniss finds President Snow in her house.

In chapter 2, Katniss talks with President Snow, a white-haired man with snakelike eyes who smells like roses and blood.  The first thing they do is to agree not to lie to each other.  He tells her that he has a problem – one that started the moment she pulled out the poisonous berries.  In several of the districts, people viewed her little trick as an act of defiance, not an act of love.  And if a girl from District 12 can defy the Capitol and walk away unharmed, what is to stop them from doing the same? What is to prevent an uprising?  President Snow threatens her family and Gale.  He wants her to convince everyone that she is in love with Peeta.  The tour will be her only chance to turn things around.  He tells her to aim higher in case she falls short – meaning he wants her to convince him.

In chapter 3, her prep team comes to get her ready for the tour.  They are also excited because since she is now a victor, she gets to be a mentor in the next Hunger Games.  This is the year of the Seventy-fifth Hunger Games, and that means it’s also a Quarter Quell.  They occur every 25 years, marking the anniversary of the districts’ defeat with over-the-top celebrations and, for extra fun, some miserable twist for the tributes.  For the second Quarter Quell, the Capitol demanded that twice the number of tributes be provided for the arena – that was the year Haymitch won.  The old team – Peeta, Katniss, Effie, Haymitch, Cinna, and Portia – get on the train and leave for the victory tours.  On the train, Katniss tells Haymitch everything that has happened with President Snow and how they’re all going to die if she fails.  She asks if he could just help her get through the trip, but he tells her it’s not just this trip.  He tells her that even if she pulls it off, they’ll be back in another few months for the Games in which she and Peeta will be mentors now and every year from here on out.  And every year, they’ll revisit the romance and broadcast the details of their private life, and she’ll never, ever be able to do anything but live happily ever after with Peeta.  The full impact of what he’s saying hits her.  She will never have a life with Gale, or never be allowed to live alone.  She will have to be forever in love with Peeta.  If she wants to keep those she loves alive and stay alive herself, she’ll have to marry Peeta.

That is really unfortunate for Katniss.  To be forced into something like marriage would be really horrible.  Although I do really like Peeta and I kind-of hope they get back together, I like Gale a lot.  I’ve thought from the beginning of the series that Katniss and Gale would be together, but now it’s of course a complicated love triangle of sorts.  I wonder who she will choose.  I also think the Quarter Quell will have something to do with this book because Katniss and Peeta will be mentors.

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