another thing i wanted to bring up in context of WHY i think it’s so hard to read mockingjay is because it’s the book where everything that you thought about katniss and about the entire world of the first two books just completely breaks down.
i want to look at one moment again, and funnily enough, another moment that features gale. it points to a lot of the broader themes i’ve brought up, and it brings the a lot of the moments in the previous hunger games into sharp clarity. it’s on page 39 of mockingjay, where she’s going over her list of demands:
“I skim my list. ‘Gale. I’ll need him with me to do this.’
‘With you how? Off camera? By your side at all times? Do you want him presente as your new lover?’ Coin asks.
She hasn’t said this with any particular malice–quite the contrary, her words are very matter-of-fact. But my mouth still drops open in shock. ‘What?’
‘I think we should continue with the current romance. A quick defection from Peeta could cause the audience to lose sympathy for her,’ says Plutarch.
[…]
I’m rattled by the turn in this conversation. The implications that I could so readily dispose of Peeta, that I’m in love with Gale, that the whole thing has been an act. My cheeks begin to burn. The very notion that I’m giving any thought to who I want presented as my lover, given our current circumstances, is demeaning.”
this exchange is so crucial for why it’s so hard to read mockingjay. all this time we’ve been thinking, wow katniss is so smart, she’s figured out how to kill everyone in the games, she survived the games TWICE she’s so great. but you realize, in this moment, how easily that can come crashing down. yes, katniss is smart. but katniss hasn’t survived so long because she’s some sort of child prodigy.
and that’s what’s so key about coin. coin is just the same as snow—but she doesn’t have his flair for the dramatic. rather than telling katniss to convince him she’s in love with peeta in a dramatic meeting in her own study, acting like katniss has any control over her narrative, coin just says “oh, do you want gale to be presented as your love interest.” she doesn’t care how katniss feels or about giving katniss the idea that she’s in control of her own narrative. snow challenges her, and lets her fail. coin simply tells her that the narrative will always be controlled by whatever coin decides. and in mockingjay, none of the adults around her really let her feel like she’s in control anymore. plutarch gives her scripts to recite. haymitch talks in her ear. 13 literally prints a schedule on her arm. the adults around her have realized that they can manipulate her for their personal political goals and their personal gains in power. and mockingjay is a book where katniss realizes that over and over again.
so that’s why this moment, when coin just casually asks her if she wants a new love interest, is so hard to read. because it’s hard for katniss to experience. up until now, katniss (and, by extension, the reader because the book is in first person) thought she was in control. she knew she was pretending to be in love with peeta for the camera—she thought SHE was the one doing the manipulating, the one that was two steps ahead of everyone. and it’s here that she realizes she never was. she never had the control that she thought she did.
so, as a reader, too, this makes mockingjay really difficult to read. because you keep realizing that everything you thought about katniss was wrong, because everything katniss thought about katniss was wrong. yes, she has a gift for understanding the media and for considering how her image is being presented. but that’s not only the reason she survived. she’s also a very lucky girl. she’s lucky to be given cinna who designs her memorable outfits. she’s lucky that thresh spares her life. she’s lucky that haymitch sends her the supplies she needs. she’s resourceful and smart, of course. but she really only survives as long as she does because of the people around her.
the hunger games says “may the odds be ever in your favor”—and they were in katniss’s favor. it’s just that it’s not until mockingjay that we realize how much of that was just the varying degrees of manipulation from the adults around katniss. she’s not a teenager destined to save the world, she’s just a little girl who gets used for political games. and when she realizes that, she hates that. and as a reader, we hate that too.