She must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our mother. Of course, she did. This is the day of the reaping. I prop myself up on one elbow. There's enough light in the bedroom to see them. My little sister, Prim, curled up on her side, cocooned in my mother's body, their cheeks pressed together. In sleep, my mother looks younger, still worn but not so beaten-down. Prim's face is as fresh as a raindrop, as lovely as the primrose for which she was named.
My mother was very beautiful once, too. Or so they tell me. Sitting at Prim's knees, guarding her, is the world's ugliest cat. Mashed-in nose, half of one ear missing, eyes the color of rotting squash. Prim named him Buttercup, insisting that his muddy yellow coat matched the bright flower. He hates me. Or at least distrusts me. Even though it was years ago, I think he still remembers how I tried to drown him in a bucket when Prim brought him home. Scrawny kitten, belly swollen with worms, crawling with fleas.
The last thing I needed was another mouth to feed. But Prim begged so hard, cried even, I had to let him stay. It turned out okay. My mother got rid of the vermin and he's a born mouser. Even catches the occasional rat. Sometimes, when I clean a kill, I feed Buttercup the entrails. He has stopped hissing at me. No hissing. This is the closest we will ever come to love. I swing my legs off the bed and slide into my hunting boots.
Supple leather that has molded to my feet. I pull on trousers, a shirt, tuck my long dark braid up into a cap, and grab my forage bag. On the table, under a wooden bowl to protect it from hungry rats and cats alike, sits a perfect little goat cheese wrapped in basil leaves.
Prim's gift to me on reaping day. I put the cheese carefully in my pocket as I slip outside. Our part of District 12, nicknamed the Seam, is usually crawling with coal miners heading out to the morning shift at this hour. Men and women with hunched shoulders, swollen knuckles, many who have long since stopped trying to scrub the coal dust out of their broken nails, the lines of their sunken faces.
But today the black cinder streets are empty. Shutters on the squat gray houses are closed. The reaping isn't until two. May as well sleep in. If you can. Our house is almost at the edge of the Seam. I only have to pass a few gates to reach the scruffy field called the Meadow. Separating the Meadow from the woods, in fact enclosing all of District 12, is a high chain-link fence topped with barbed-wire loops.
In theory, it's supposed to be electrified twenty-four hours a day as a deterrent to the predators that live in the woods - packs of wild dogs, lone cougars, bears - that used to threaten our streets. But since we're lucky to get two or three hours of electricity in the evenings, it's usually safe to touch. Even so, I always take a moment to listen carefully for the hum that means the fence is live.
Right now, it's silent as a stone. Concealed by a clump of bushes, I flatten out on my belly and slide under a two-foot stretch that's been loose for years.
There are several other weak spots in the fence, but this one is so close to home I almost always enter the woods here. As soon as I'm in the trees, I retrieve a bow and sheath of arrows from a hollow log.
Electrified or not, the fence has been successful at keeping the flesh-eaters out of District Inside the woods they roam freely, and there are added concerns like venomous snakes, rabid animals, and no real paths to follow.
But there's also food if you know how to find it. My father knew and he taught me some before he was blown to bits in a mine explosion. There was nothing even to bury. I was eleven then. Five years later, I still wake up screaming for him to run. Even though trespassing in the woods is illegal and poaching carries the severest of penalties, more people would risk it if they had weapons.
But most are not bold enough to venture out with just a knife. My bow is a rarity, crafted by my father along with a few others that I keep well hidden in the woods, carefully wrapped in waterproof covers. My father could have made good money selling them, but if the officials found out he would have been publicly executed for inciting a rebellion. Most of the Peacekeepers turn a blind eye to the few of us who hunt because they're as hungry for fresh meat as anybody is.
In fact, they're among our best customers. But the idea that someone might be arming the Seam would never have been allowed. In the fall, a few brave souls sneak into the woods to harvest apples.
But always in sight of the Meadow. Always close enough to run back to the safety of District 12 if trouble arises. Where you can starve to death in safety," I mutter. Then I glance quickly over my shoulder. Even here, even in the middle of nowhere, you worry someone might overhear you. When I was younger, I scared my mother to death, the things I would blurt out about District 12, about the people who rule our country, Panem, from the far-off city called the Capitol.
Eventually I understood this would only lead us to more trouble. So I learned to hold my tongue and to turn my features into an indifferent mask so that no one could ever read my thoughts. Do my work quietly in school. Make only polite small talk in the public market. Discuss little more than trades in the Hob, which is the black market where I make most of my money. Even at home, where I am less pleasant, I avoid discussing tricky topics.
Like the reaping, or food shortages, or the Hunger Games. Prim might begin to repeat my words and then where would we be? In the woods waits the only person with whom I can be myself. I can feel the muscles in my face relaxing, my pace quickening as I climb the hills to our place, a rock ledge overlooking a valley. A thicket of berry bushes protects it from unwanted eyes. The sight of him waiting there brings on a smile.
Gale says I never smile except in the woods. My real name is Katniss, but when I first told him, I had barely whispered it.
Everything I loved about this novel is the fact that it had been just an entertaining narrative. Gamers in the game may go from being ordinary, superior children to savage murderers through the night, all for the sake of survival.
The lottery process is organised so that poorer kids are entered into the drawing more occasions than wealthy children, raising their chances their titles will be predicted. I also appreciated the strategy component of the matches.
Everything that occurs in the time the title is attracted to the time once the victor returns house is closely staged for the amusement of their taxpayers at The Capitol and also for gamers to property wealthy sponsors. I had too many queries from the film. Since not only did this publication answer these questions I had, but painted a much greater image of the figures, in addition to the narrative. I understand exactly what the fuss is about. The story appeared and I simply adore the characters.
As a parent I can not even imagine sending my kid off into the Hunger Games. Obviously, winning tributes are actors and need to function as mentors to prospective tributes—many of whom will perish. Nonetheless, the remainder of the year she would be happy, except the gambit by that she was able to conserve Peeta one-third of her love triangle and herself in the very first book among these should have expired, each of the principles of this Hunger Games , has riled President Snow.
Snow plans to do all in his power to ensure that she does not live her out in popularity and relaxation. The President could have discovered it tactical to let things lie, but every Games attracts Katniss back to the spotlight. Another significant justification is that component is a essential bridge between the initial and the last novels in two manners.
A couple of the most emotionally intense moments of this book involve the initial sparks of rebellion until the Games even start to get replayed. In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.
Collects all three adventures of Katniss and the District 12 team, as they compete in the annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts of Panem against one another. Suzanne Collins' dystopian trilogy envisions a world where survival and violence quite literally take the center stage.
To maintain order, suppress independence, and punish past rebellions, the Capitol selects two participants, or tributes, from each of the twelve districts to fight in an annual televised death match called the Hunger Games. The book provides biographical information about the author and offers a perspective on her influences.
A series of essays, which discuss aspects of the novel, focusing on Katniss, her struggles, and the meaning and impact of violence, allow readers to gain a greater insight into the intersection between social issues and literature. For 21st-century young adults struggling for personal autonomy in a society that often demands compliance, the bestselling trilogy, The Hunger Games remains palpably relevant despite its futuristic setting. For Suzanne Collins' characters, personal agency involves not only the physical battle of controlling one's body but also one's response to such influences as morality, trauma, power and hope.
The author explores personal agency through in-depth examinations of the lives of Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Haymitch, Cinna, Primrose, and others, and through an analysis of themes like the overabundance of bodily imagery, social expectations in the Capitol, and problem parental figures. Readers will discover their own 'dandelion of hope' through the examples set out by Collins' characters, who prove over and over that human agency is always attainable.
This collection of fresh essays on Suzanne Collins's epic trilogy spans multiple disciplines. The contributors probe the trilogy's meaning using theories grounded in historicism, feminism, humanism, queer theory, as well as cultural, political, and media studies. The essayists demonstrate diverse perspectives regarding Collins's novels but their works have three elements in common: an appreciation of the trilogy as literature, a belief in its permanent value, and a need to share both appreciation and belief with fellow readers.
A philosophical exploration of Suzanne Collins's New YorkTimes bestselling series, just in time for the release ofThe Hunger Games movie Katniss Everdeen is 'the girl who was on fire,' but she is alsothe girl who made us think, dream, question authority, and rebel. The post-apocalyptic world of Panem's twelve districts is a dividedsociety on the brink of war and struggling to survive, while theCapitol lives in the lap of luxury and pure contentment.
At everyturn in the Hunger Games trilogy, Katniss, Peeta, Gale, and theirmany allies wrestle with harrowing choices and ethical dilemmasthat push them to the brink. Is it okay for Katniss to break thelaw to ensure her family's survival? Do ordinary moral rules applyin the Arena? Can the world of The Hunger Games shine alight into the dark corners of our world?
Why do we often enjoywatching others suffer? How can we distinguish between what's Realand Not Real? This book draws on some of history's most engagingphilosophical thinkers to take you deeper into the story and itsthemes, such as sacrifice, altruism, moral choice, and gender.
If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying. In Catching Fire, the second novel in the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before Show menu Top novels.
Historical Horror Humorous Mystery Romance. Home Catching Fire. Read Catching Fire online free. Author: Suzanne Collins. Genres: Young Adult , Science Fiction. Series: The Hunger Games 2.
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