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Catching Fire (Part 1) 2682 Views
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Description:
We volunteer you as tribute to watch this video analysis of Katniss in the second book of the Hunger Games series. After the berry suicide attempt that went down at the end of the first book, readers were left questioning Katniss’s motivations. Is she just selfish and craving hero-worship from all of Panem? Is she acting out of romantic interest for Peeta? Is she just a really good friend/sister who is trying to protect everyone else? Is she deliberately trying to provoke the Capitol and start a political revolution? We’ll let you decide for yourselves, but we think we can all agree that she is a boss with a bow and arrow.
Transcript
- 00:10
Catching Fire, a la Shmoop. Becoming a celebrity is apparently not all
- 00:18
it’s cracked up to be.
- 00:22
Katniss should really be enjoying her newfound fame…
- 00:25
…attending exclusive parties…
- 00:28
…hobnobbing with the social elite…
Full Transcript
- 00:32
…and putting out her own line of leather tote bags.
- 00:41
But in Suzanne Collins’ sequel to The Hunger Games…
- 00:43
…our hero finds that celebrity is… something of a mixed bag.
- 00:50
Is Katniss actually better off now than before she participated in the Hunger Games?
- 00:56
At a glance… heck yeah.
- 00:56
She’s uber-rich. She can eat whatever she wants,
- 00:57
...no more having to hunt down food in the woods .
- 00:57
Which really cuts down on her monthly arrow expenses.
- 00:58
Let’s check out this passage from the book and see if we can get inside her head:
- 01:03
I mourn my old life here. We barely scraped by, but I knew where I fit in, I knew what
- 01:09
my place was in the tightly interwoven fabric that was our life.
- 01:14
I wish I could go back to it because, in retrospect, it seems so secure compared with now, when
- 01:20
I am so rich and so famous and so hated by the authorities in the Capitol.
- 01:25
Okay, so she lives in a nicer place now, with all of the amenities she had ever only dreamed
- 01:31
about. But we have a feeling Katniss isn’t shallow.
- 01:32
Now that her stomach’s full, is she content? Or is she still… hungry for something?
- 01:34
While the luxuries are nice… are they keeping everyone in the other districts fed, clothed
- 01:40
and safe? Katniss is also “hated by the Capitol.”
- 01:45
At least when she was poor, she was unknown. And not reviled by an entire government body.
- 01:53
Does it really even matter whether Katniss is better off now?
- 02:00
Her friends and neighbors are certainly more well-fed these days.
- 02:03
Her victory in the arena means that people in District 12 get more food for the next
- 02:08
year…
- 02:10
…and while there’s a rebellion a-brewin’…
- 02:13
…there’s a lot less pain and suffering among those Katniss cares about.
- 02:25
She has become a symbol of change and progress…
- 02:28
…so the question may not be whether things are better in her world…
- 02:32
…but whether things are better in the world as a whole.
- 02:36
What do you think?
- 02:37
Is the path to Katniss’ happiness through her stomach?
- 02:42
Is something inside her still growling?
- 02:46
Or is it… not all about her? Shmoop amongst yourselves.
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