Welcome, welcome, my first official post regarding the Hunger Games. This entire series, from reading the book, to taking notes, to editing, to writing my opinions on what i’m discussing…is all going to take a while. Whether you’re here from the very start of this series, or if you come in the middle, you’re going to have guaranteed content for a couple of years on the hunger games SERIES. Not just book 1, i’m talking about every single book Suzanne Collins decided to get up and write.
anyway, I started this series on TikTok, TikTok is now banned (didn’t even last for a full day…) but I still want to continue the series. honestly, I think I have more free range on here because I can make the video explaining, then I can just write my full opinion on what I just explained. You get to watch and read, wowwwzzers.
on to chapter 1.
I had to separate chapter 1 into two parts because I talk too much. tewww much, and I talk slow as well, so sorry if my silky smooth voice makes you feel sleepy.
As I said in the video, I loved the hunger games as a kid…for more context I had a poster of josh hutcherson “Peeta” on my wall behind my bed. ugh if I find a photo, ill insert it in this post later. I had all of the og trilogy books, and I wrote/read fanfiction…and I still go through moods where I want to read some…but we don’t talk about that out loud. But yes, I love this series, it holds a special place in my heart, that’s why I want to talk about it so badly.
part 1 itself is the first section of chapters that we’re going to be discussing. don’t confuse yourself with this post being labeled “chapter 1, part 1” because this is specifically just me explaining the first part of chapter one. The next post will finish the rest of chapter one.
anyway, Part 1 of the hunger games is called “the tributes”
given context clues, the first few chapters of the hunger games is going to be about tributes: who they are, what they are required to do, how do you become one? do you even want to become a tribute?
the answer is, no you do not want to, but let’s actually find out why.
the book itself starts off with our main character, Katniss Everdeen waking up and taking note of her surroundings. I honestly love how this story starts because we’re really just following Katniss’s movements, which lead us to meet important characters.
for instance, Primrose Everdeen, Katniss’s sister is the first character we meet. She is an important figurehead for this story because of what she represents. I’ll get more into this when we get to the next chapter, but Prim is someone that Katniss believes to be one of the sweetest and innocent people in her lives. Prim is her sister after all, but Katniss just wants to protect her since their family has already been through the worst.
Prim had moved from Katniss’ bed to her mother’s because she’s on edge. it’s reaping day, and it’s going to be Prim’s first year eligible. Prim is 12 and that is when reaping age starts…it ends at 18. 7 years praying that your name doesn’t get pulled for the Hunger Games… a fight to the death. We’ll get more into the Games and what they are in the next part. All you need to know right now is that it’s causing my girl Prim and Katniss anxiety.
Katniss gets ready to go hunting. She hunts to feed her family because her family would not have anything if she didn’t dedicate her time to hunting.
by the way, Katniss is only 16.
this book does a good job of describing how poor district 12 is. She goes towards this barbed wired fence that is supposed to be electrified 24/7, but it’s really a good day if it even gets 2-3 hours of electrification. Supposedly the fence is supposed to keep out wild animals that will plague the town and destroy/harm the villagers of district 12, but in all honestly it’s definitely just a scare tactic to keep people from moving outside of the fence.
the reason why Katniss hunts is because no one else in her family is able to provide, or at least she was the one that stepped up. Her father got blown to bits in a mine explosion.
district 12 is already a poor district, but the side of district 12 that Katniss is from is called the Seam. Which is why Katniss’ dad was a coal miner as most workers from the Seam are coal miners. District 12 is the coal district as well, so it’s not a big surprise.
another character introduction…Gale Hawthorne. Honestly, outside of the love triangle that im forced to endure, I don’t have much of an opinion or care about Gale. Very much ignored him when I read this series as a middle schooler for the most part…until we got to Mockingjay. I’ll try to do him a bit more justice.
For now, we understand that Gale is Katniss’ person. Both of their dad’s were blown to bits in the coal mine explosion. Both have to hunt to provide for their family.
Katniss states that Gale is the only one who she can be herself around, and it’s purely because they relate to each other in ways other people cannot. They share trauma, strife, hardship, and grit, of course they’re going to get along on a different level. Even via looks, they look like they could be related. This is where we get into the physical differences between the groups of district 12.
people from the seam, the poorest parts of district 12, have olive skin and straight black hair. Katniss and Gale resemble each other in looks, even giving the vibe that they may be related. which I kinda think is weird, especially since we know that there’s going to be a set up for Katniss and Gale’s friendship to potential lovers. i’ve heard that couples that are together for a while start to look like each other; however, this is them being a product of what generations of families had to endure due to coal mining. maybe it’s not that weird and im a bit judgmental; after all, it’s stated that most of the families who work in the mines look similar. it’s just the constant usage of relativity and in later books Gale is constantly being addressed as her “cousin” for other reasons, that we have to get into later.
anyway, the other side of district 12 is the merchant side. it’s a small class (aren’t most rich classes small anyway?) that worked or catered towards peacekeepers and officials. I do want to emphasize that the merchant class is considered the wealthier part of district 12, but don’t get this wrong, all of these hoes are poor in stark comparison to other districts and ESPECIALLY the Captiol. They can’t even afford doctors in district 12, thus there’s apothecaries instead to heal people. Katniss doesn’t look like her mother and sister because they resemble people of the merchant class. Light hair (which I can only assume is blonde) and blue eyes, your classic white people. She has said that her mom really had to have loved her father to leave the comfort of the merchant realm for a life in the seam.
this begs me to bring up the fact that Katniss having family who are from the merchant class allows her able to navigate situations with people who are considered higher class than her. In some cases, she doesn’t really harbor much hate or dislike towards them, being friends with merchant kids, albeit not a lot. Growing up, Katniss was more outspoken, but her mother sealed it into her that she cannot talk the way that she does or she will face big trouble. This context will just help set up her reactions vs people, such as Gale, later on in the story.
shoot, even now, as Gale and Katniss are talking in the woods, chopping it up like buds, Gale says “what if we just run away?” Katniss is like…this plan is not well thought out because they would most likely get caught and they would have to bring their families…which would most likely drag them down. Gale starts talking about how he would have kids if the Games didn’t exist; honestly ill just write my own version of their dialogue
Katniss: I don’t want no kids
Gale: well if I didn’t live here…
Katniss: but you live here, so what are we talking about?
Gale: okay girl….
Katniss doesn’t realize that all this talk is Gale hinting that he likes he more than he lets on. He’s trying to gauge her reactions and if she leans towards him in that way. In her own mind, she’s like “why is he bringing up kids? there’s never been anything romantic between Gale and I”
Katniss comes off very obtuse i’m not going to lie, but I don’t actually think she is…it’s when she’s narrating…it’s like girl can you be so serious right now. But I relate to her, seeing all the signs and choosing to ignore them.
ugh, so they do their hunting-gathering jam and they go to the Hob to trade off some of their meat and fish. Greasy Sae makes soup in the Hob’s blackmarket. They trade 6 of the fish for good bread and salt, which I don’t know how good of a tradeoff this is, but again the district is poor.
i’m going to end this section here because the rest of the chapter is in my part 2 video, which I don’t know when i’m going to post. If you wanna watch part 2, then you can just visit my TikTok, which videos will be posted on their first, but eventually will make their way over here. Let me know what you think and if you wanna discuss some of the themes of chapter 1, part 1. This was fun for me lmao.
