Nightlock and ‘The Hanging Tree’
“I spread out my fingers, and the dark berries glisten in the sun. I give Peeta’s hand one last squeeze as a signal, as a goodbye, and we begin counting…” THG, Ch.25
“Are you, are you, Coming to the tree
Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me.
Strange things did happen there, No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree.” MJ, Ch.9
“The thought of Peacekeepers dragging Gale away starts the tune playing in my head again… ‘Are you, are you, Coming to the tree.’
‘Take it, Peeta,’ I say in a strained voice. I reach out and close his fingers over the pill.” MJ, Ch.24
The scene in the Capitol, where Katniss gives her permission for Peeta to accept the nightlock pill from Gale, reveals several things to the reader.
It is a parallel that refers back to the first arena where Katniss realized that “death right here, right now would be easier” (Ch.25) than killing Peeta to ensure her victory. And that she was willing to risk both their lives if there was any chance for both of them to survive.
In other words, she chose that they would either both live or both die, together.
In MJ, when Gale gives Peeta the means by which he can kill himself, Katniss has another choice to make. She imagines Gale captured by the Peacekeepers, without his means of suicide. But in the end, her thoughts are for Peeta. She fully expects to not survive her mission, that she’ll “go to the Capitol and kill Snow, than die for my trouble.“(Ch.14)
And the one she has chosen to hang on the tree with her is Peeta, if it comes to that tragic point. Just like in the first arena. The symbolism makes it clear. It is with the same nightlock poison.
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