Read Online The Girl Who Was on Fire by Diana Peterfreund, Carrie Ryan, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Leah Wilson, Terri Clark, Blythe Woolston - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Diana Peterfreund, Carrie Ryan, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Leah Wilson, Terri Clark, Blythe Woolston
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“yes” to Coin’s proposal for one last Hunger Games and that he will back her up by saying yes, too.
Though Haymitch rarely does what Katniss wants him to, he at least does seem to have her long-range interests at heart. The
architects behind the rebellion itself, as we and Katniss eventually learn, have little regard for Katniss’ best interests at all.
District 13: From Mirage to Fun-House Mirror
I so wanted to root for District 13.
When the mirage is dispelled at the end of Catching Fire and we learn that District 13 is a real brick-and-mortar place, I cheered. But this is Panem after all, and what seems to be real never is. For soon the ugly truth is revealed. The district proves to be a distorted mirror-image of the Capitol itself.
District 13’s continued existence is more than hinted at in Catching Fire during Katniss’ encounter in the Forest with District 8 escapees Bonnie and Twill, who clue her in to the looped tape of 13’s devastation that the Capitol has been using in its TV broadcasts. Even so, it’s a shock to both Katniss and us when 13 has a hovercraft, not to mention a fully functioning underground society. As Katniss learns, 13 is the real “seat” of the rebellion, the brains and part of the brawn behind it all. Thirteen still possesses nuclear weapons, airpower, and a population where everyone is trained to be a soldier.
When the reader first enters District 13 there is no inkling of how it has managed not just to survive the earlier rebellion, but how it continues to exist. How it is able to welcome the refugees from District 12? It integrated them immediately into its community—under the condition that they adhere to the austere conditions: the strict enforcement of food rationing; the requisite military training; the martinet-like adherence to minuteby-minute schedules.
Along with Katniss, we gradually discover that District 13 has not welcomed the survivors out of kindness—oh, no! It has
acted primarily to replenish its population, recently decimated by a pox that left many of the survivors infertile—Katniss notices the relative paucity of children in the district.
And then we meet Coin. Alma Coin is the president of the District. Katniss’ gut reaction to her—something that, by this point in the series, the reader trusts—is wonderfully described by Collins: “Her eyes are gray ... The color of slush that you wish would melt away” ( Mockingjay ). There is a cold, calculating quality to Coin—and comparing her eyes to “slush” foreshadows that she is really a counterpoint and twisted mirror image of the Capitol’s President Snow.
We learn that District 13’s survival occurred because of a kind of “deal with the devil” they negotiated with the Capitol. After all, it was only 13 and the Capitol that possessed nuclear weapons—enough to blow most of Panem to bits and to render the whole country a radioactive wasteland. So the Capitol let 13 survive on the condition that District 13 be portrayed as a smoldering, uninhabited ruin through the fakery of old video tape aired endlessly on TV. Thirteen made the deal, and the appalling images of 13’s destruction quenched the burgeoning rebellion. No other district wanted to meet the same fate. On this make-believe foundation the Capitol built its tyrannical reign.
District 13 did not just go away, however. Instead, it bided its time, until it could launch a new rebellion. Its tentacles were carefully spread through many districts, and we learn at the end of Catching Fire that at least in terms of saving Katniss in the Quarter Quell, tributes from Districts 3, 4, 7, 8, and 11 were in on the plan.
But as the story plunges into out-and-out guerilla warfare, the mask of Coin’s idealism begins to crack. Coin not only plans
to have Katniss conveniently killed, a move worthy of Snow, but her plans after the rebels take the Capitol and imprison Snow show that her own innate corruption and evil matches Snow to the
Though Haymitch rarely does what Katniss wants him to, he at least does seem to have her long-range interests at heart. The
architects behind the rebellion itself, as we and Katniss eventually learn, have little regard for Katniss’ best interests at all.
District 13: From Mirage to Fun-House Mirror
I so wanted to root for District 13.
When the mirage is dispelled at the end of Catching Fire and we learn that District 13 is a real brick-and-mortar place, I cheered. But this is Panem after all, and what seems to be real never is. For soon the ugly truth is revealed. The district proves to be a distorted mirror-image of the Capitol itself.
District 13’s continued existence is more than hinted at in Catching Fire during Katniss’ encounter in the Forest with District 8 escapees Bonnie and Twill, who clue her in to the looped tape of 13’s devastation that the Capitol has been using in its TV broadcasts. Even so, it’s a shock to both Katniss and us when 13 has a hovercraft, not to mention a fully functioning underground society. As Katniss learns, 13 is the real “seat” of the rebellion, the brains and part of the brawn behind it all. Thirteen still possesses nuclear weapons, airpower, and a population where everyone is trained to be a soldier.
When the reader first enters District 13 there is no inkling of how it has managed not just to survive the earlier rebellion, but how it continues to exist. How it is able to welcome the refugees from District 12? It integrated them immediately into its community—under the condition that they adhere to the austere conditions: the strict enforcement of food rationing; the requisite military training; the martinet-like adherence to minuteby-minute schedules.
Along with Katniss, we gradually discover that District 13 has not welcomed the survivors out of kindness—oh, no! It has
acted primarily to replenish its population, recently decimated by a pox that left many of the survivors infertile—Katniss notices the relative paucity of children in the district.
And then we meet Coin. Alma Coin is the president of the District. Katniss’ gut reaction to her—something that, by this point in the series, the reader trusts—is wonderfully described by Collins: “Her eyes are gray ... The color of slush that you wish would melt away” ( Mockingjay ). There is a cold, calculating quality to Coin—and comparing her eyes to “slush” foreshadows that she is really a counterpoint and twisted mirror image of the Capitol’s President Snow.
We learn that District 13’s survival occurred because of a kind of “deal with the devil” they negotiated with the Capitol. After all, it was only 13 and the Capitol that possessed nuclear weapons—enough to blow most of Panem to bits and to render the whole country a radioactive wasteland. So the Capitol let 13 survive on the condition that District 13 be portrayed as a smoldering, uninhabited ruin through the fakery of old video tape aired endlessly on TV. Thirteen made the deal, and the appalling images of 13’s destruction quenched the burgeoning rebellion. No other district wanted to meet the same fate. On this make-believe foundation the Capitol built its tyrannical reign.
District 13 did not just go away, however. Instead, it bided its time, until it could launch a new rebellion. Its tentacles were carefully spread through many districts, and we learn at the end of Catching Fire that at least in terms of saving Katniss in the Quarter Quell, tributes from Districts 3, 4, 7, 8, and 11 were in on the plan.
But as the story plunges into out-and-out guerilla warfare, the mask of Coin’s idealism begins to crack. Coin not only plans
to have Katniss conveniently killed, a move worthy of Snow, but her plans after the rebels take the Capitol and imprison Snow show that her own innate corruption and evil matches Snow to the
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