![]() ![]() Through the symbol of the mockingjay, Collins outlines the basic problem with symbols and non-literal messages: they’re so open to interpretation that they can mean essentially opposite things to different people. On the other hand, to many of the people who live in the Capitol, the mockingjay is merely a symbol of the Hunger Games themselves, and thus a symbol of the government’s power (or its tyranny). It represents actions like her refusal to allow Peeta to die during her first Hunger Games, or her noble speech about Rue, a young girl who died in the Games. To Twill and Bonnie, for instance, the mockingjay is a symbol of Katniss’s defiance of the government’s orders. The most overt symbol in the novel, the mockingjay, is subject to interpretations from many different characters. On closer inspection, Catching Fire is largely about how to interpret ambiguous signs and symbols. ![]() This surprise ending encourages us to go back and rethink our initial assumptions about Catching Fire. Haymitch Abernathy, who had seemed to be little more than a lazy alcoholic, turns out to be a shrewd, resourceful man, one who has been planning a rebellion President Snow’s government. At the “twist ending” of Catching Fire, it becomes clear that Suzanne Collins has been deliberately misleading us for most of the book. ![]()
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