Book vs. Movie - The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

By Ben Gruchow

July 2, 2015

At least one of these flowers is alive, sheesh.

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Note: For the purposes of not spoiling the events of Part 2, and for addressing the bifurcation of the adaptations in general, we will consider Mockingjay as two books. Having said that: Part 1 spoilers abound; read at your own risk if you haven’t read the book or seen the first film.


The Hunger Games series

The Hunger Games series are about the nation of Panem (which has grown out of the ashes of North America following catastrophic events), its 12 “districts”, each specializing in the production of a valuable resource; their creation of a grisly, televised fight to the death between children called the Hunger Games, and a growing rebellion against the Capitol’s tyranny. The first book introduces us to 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, both of District 12. Katniss will become our protagonist and a central figure in the rebellion.

Mockingjay (Part 1)

In the immediate aftermath of the 75th Hunger Games and the total destruction of her district, Katniss finds herself in District 13, which was previously only hinted at and is thought to be a wasteland by the other twelve districts. During the Dark Days, the Capitol and District 13 arrived at an impasse, with weapons of mass destruction pointed at each other with the rest of the country in the middle. The Capitol privately agreed to let District 13 divorce itself from Panem’s rule, provided that they stand down. The aboveground structures were bombed, and District 13 was thought to be wiped out of existence. With Katniss’ status as an icon of a growing rebellion, District 13 (headed by its President, Alma Coin) seeks to take down the Capitol by turning the other districts to their side. In the meantime, residents of the district have strict regimens as far as diet, activity, and work, and all resources are rigidly conserved. It’s into this environment that the surviving residents of District 12 find themselves, along with the defecting Capitol citizens who are joining the rebellion.




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The Book

In broad strokes, Mockingjay 1 is about motivation and control, and bringing the two into balance through will. District 13, with its daily regimen and concrete-bunker environment (going outside is a luxury), represents the essence of control; President Coin is a little-seen figure who maintains absolute neutrality and pragmatism, and under her governance, the district operates like a well-oiled machine. She heads up the rebellion, but lacks a motivating factor for it. That motivating factor is meant to be Katniss - an individual with motivation, but no control. She has an all-consuming desire to rescue Peeta Mellark (taken by the Capitol) and to kill President Snow (head of the Capitol and the series’ primary antagonist). However, she has no concrete plan for accomplishing these things; her stability and sanity suffer for it.

Mockingjay 1, thus, has an unfortunate but necessary duty to discharge: Having been through two Games (with all of the attendant packaging and trivialization by the Capitol’s media and citizens), having been repeatedly threatened with harm against her family, her district, and herself by a party that has every resource and political reason to make good on those threats, we must now observe the cost in some detail. Katniss spends most of Mockingjay 1 in a disaffected daze, to the degree where she barely resembles the protagonist we’re familiar with. The book goes to sufficient lengths to document behavior that would be appropriate for a trauma victim, and the early going is therefore a little nebulous; we haven’t been exposed to the meat of the book’s story yet, and so we’re largely watching a damaged 17-year-old girl - one who has been depicted thus far with a good amount of willfulness and strength - attempt to hide from the world.


Continued:       1       2       3       4

     


 
 

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