Finishing a
good book is like losing a close friend. For two weeks Katniss Everdeen was my
best friend… but much to my dismay.. her story is done. I want to share my
thoughts and hear other people’s opinions as well.
If you
haven’t read all the Hunger Games series and plan to (or plan to watch the movies) then do
not read this!
First I would
like to address the Gale vs. Peeta debate. As the book developed I was pretty
neutral about who I thought she might choose, and who I thought she should
choose. In the beginning I will admit I was rooting for Gale, especially in
Catching Fire when he told her he loved her and they kissed, but in the arena
when she kissed Peeta and she said she felt something inside her, I began to
change my mind. By the time their story had progressed in Mockingjay all I
could think about the whole time was, what is going to happen to Peeta? And
when he was rescued and brought to District 13, brainwashed and damaged, I was
devastated, as was Katniss. That’s when I knew it had to be Peeta and at one
point even Gale admits it. The last page when she describes why she chose*
Peeta, it’s not just Peeta she’s choosing it’s also a representation of a way
of living life and prevailing that she’s choosing. That there can still be
compassion after all of the pain and “the bright yellow that means rebirth
instead of destruction.”
*I don’t think there ever was a choice, it was
always going to be Peeta
In some
forums I read, some people thought Katniss and Peeta’s love story wasn’t “epic”
enough at the end. In my opinion it’s not a love story, it’s about war and the
role it plays in humanity. They were broken, but in the end they did love each
other. It was real and that’s what made the story so beautifully heartbreaking
to finish.
Now second
topic: President Coin. I don’t know what everybody else thought, but I thought
there should have been more of an explanation behind the trial. Am I supposed
to believe that Katniss killed the primary leader of the revolution and that
they just attributed it to her being crazy and everybody bought it? Or do we
assume that the other districts understood who President Coin really was? I
felt like this could have been an opportunity to develop the story further, but
maybe the point is that Katniss didn’t owe anybody an explanation anymore. I knew eventually there would be
some sort of showdown/confrontation between her and Coin and I loved the
symbolism of her using the arrow to kill her instead of Snow. She wasn’t going
to be a token anymore for anybody’s war…for anybody’s dishonesty and
justifications of what’s right and what’s wrong.
Finally, I
thought this story was quite deep to be considered a young adult series, with
all the anti- war symbolism and because of the damaging effects on the
characters from the horrifyingly traumatic events. I keep wondering how they
will spin this in the movies, how Hollywood will take the shining heroine and
turn her into a broken, mentally unstable girl who hides in closets and
contemplates suicide. Ultimately that’s what makes this story so ironic because
Katniss never wanted to be star or an icon, but she was forced to be one in her
world and now in ours.
