Mockingjay

“Is this really what we want to do? Kill ourselves off completely? In the hopes that—what? Some decent species will inherit the smoking remains of the earth?”

Throughout Mockingjay, Katniss struggles to balance the necessity of the rebellion with the destruction and loss of life resulting from the war. It’s unknown whether Peeta’s words are scripted by the Capitol, but he touches on the truth that large-scale war has the potential to devastate humanity.

“Another force to contend with. Another power player who has decided to use me as a piece in her games, although things never seem to go according to plan.”

Katniss’s struggle for agency is a major part of her coming-of-age journey. She has been exploited by the Capitol during her formative years, leaving her uncertain of who she is outside of the scripts, costumes, and storylines that have been forced upon her. She recognizes early on that Coin is using her in the role of the Mockingjay but incorrectly assumes that it is for a good cause.

“Frankly, our ancestors don’t seem much to brag about. I mean, look at the state they left us in, with the wars and the broken planet. Clearly, they didn’t care about what would happen to the people who came after them.”

Panem is a post-apocalyptic dystopia. Mockingjay contains several references to the old world, presumably the present day that readers are living in. These references act as a warning, suggesting that modern humans are on the path to bringing on an apocalypse through wars and climate change. They also reference the cyclical nature of human corruption.

“My ongoing struggle against the Capitol, which has so often felt like a solitary journey, has not been undertaken alone. I have had thousands upon thousands of people from the districts at my side. I was their Mockingjay long before I accepted the role.”

Standing in the hospital in District 8, Katniss recognizes the symbolic power of the Mockingjay for the first time. As the Mockingjay, she becomes something more than herself, a figurehead capable of igniting the rebellion. With the power of this role comes a responsibility to the people she influences.

“‘Fire is catching!’ I am shouting now, determined that he will not miss a word. ‘And if we burn, you burn with us!’”

After the Capitol bombs a District 8 hospital, Katniss leverages the flames consuming the building as a motif. She warns Snow that violence against the districts will only empower the rebellion and provoke revenge. The image of a fire growing out of control foreshadows how the war has the unintended consequence of destroying many of the people and places that Katniss loves.

“Don’t be a fool, Katniss. Think for yourself.”

Mockingjay explores how the ability to think for oneself is vital. In some ways, Katniss is excellent at this. She frequently disobeys orders when they go against her instinct or moral code. Yet she is taken in by the same propaganda she creates and fails to see past Coin’s face, a costly mistake.

“Johanna Mason, the tribute from District 7, in the last arena. I was trying to prevent her from going into the jungle where the jabberjays mimicked the voice of loved ones being tortured, but she brushed me off, saying, They can’t hurt me. I’m not like the rest of you. There’s no one left I love.”

Katniss’s bonds to other people enable Snow and Coin to manipulate her. In the world of Mockingjay, having no one left to love provides a twisted form of protection from a government that doesn’t hesitate to use love as a weapon.

“‘How do you bear it?’ Finnick looks at me in disbelief. ‘I don’t, Katniss! Obviously, I don’t. I drag myself out of nightmares in the morning and find there’s no relief in waking.’”

Finnick captures the fact that for many victims of the Capitol, the trauma of the arena and the wars can never be forgotten. There is no moving past their suffering. They can only hope to accept it and move forward with it.

“‘I guess there isn’t a rulebook for what might be unacceptable to do to another human being.’ ‘Sure there is. Beetee and I have been following the same rulebook President Snow used when he hijacked Peeta,’ says Gale.”

This quote displays the fundamental differences between Katniss and Gale. No matter what the Capitol does to her or her loved ones, Katniss can’t sink to their level of depravity. Gale, on the other hand, sees reciprocal brutality as fair game.

“But then…I’m also a girl from District 12. Not President Snow. I can’t help it. I can’t condemn someone to the death he’s suggesting.”

Katniss believes that deliberately killing innocent people would make her no better than Snow, showing that she views ethics and morals as a zero-sum game. Her understanding of these concepts evolves as she becomes more heavily involved in the war.

“These people’—I indicate the wounded bodies on the square—‘are not your enemy!’ I whip back around to the train station. ‘The rebels are not your enemy! We all have one enemy, and it’s the Capitol! This is our chance to put an end to their power, but we need every district person to do it!’”

Katniss’s fiery speech calling for interdistrict unity illustrates how propaganda is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, unity between oppressed people is invaluable in defeating an oppressor. On the other, Katniss is unwittingly playing into Coin’s master plan to weaken the districts.

“‘But that kind of thinking…you could turn it into an argument for killing anyone, at any time. You could justify sending kids into the Hunger Games to prevent the districts from getting out of line,’ I say. ‘I don’t buy that,’ he tells me. ‘I do,’ I reply. ‘It must be all those trips to the arena.’”

This quote illustrates how Katniss’s experience in the Hunger Games has affected her idea of morality. She balks at Gale’s suggestion that violence against civilians is a fair form of revenge, because the Capitol used the same justification to send her into the arena twice.

“I think about the Capitol. The excess of food. And the ultimate entertainment. The Hunger Games. ‘So that’s what the districts are for. To provide the bread and circuses.’

‘Yes. And as long as that kept rolling in, the Capitol could control its little empire.’”

In Mockingjay, Katniss learns about how the Capitol maintains its inequitable system by taking away political power from even its own citizens. This quote from Plutarch frames the citizens of the Capitol as victims in their own right.

“But if Coin sent Peeta here, she’s decided something else as well. That I’m of more use to her dead than alive.”

Here, Katniss realizes that Coin is not her ally. Just like Snow, Coin is happy to throw her away once she’s outlived her use. Still, she mistakenly believes that Coin is acting in the interest of the districts.

“They lost their lives. Because of me. I add them to my personal list of kills that began in the arena and now includes thousands.”

Katniss has a tendency to assign herself blame for murders committed by the Capitol. The fact that she keeps a list of kills illustrates that she still doesn’t take death lightly, despite all that she has seen and done.

“Dead or alive, Katniss Everdeen will remain the face of this rebellion.”

Coin uses Katniss’s apparent death to create more propaganda for the rebels. Her exploitation of Katniss’s posthumous image exemplifies her cold, rational strategy and proves that the Mockingjay symbol exists as something outside of Katniss herself.

“The expression on her face says she recognizes me. She opens her mouth to call for help. Without hesitation, I shoot her through the heart.”

Katniss, who avoids killing innocent people at all costs, coldly executes a woman from the Capitol. This moment illustrates how war can bring out the worst in everyone involved, no matter their motivations. No one escapes with a completely clean conscience.

“A need for revenge can burn long and hot. Especially if every glance in a mirror reinforces it.”

Though Katniss is speaking about Tigris, this quote applies to herself. Every time she looks in the mirror, she is reminded of her survivors’ guilt, which motivates her need to avenge snow.

“Real or not real? I am on fire.”

Suzanne Collins heavily incorporates the motif of fire into Mockingjay. After Prim is killed and Katniss badly burned by Coin’s bombs, she is symbolically consumed by the fallout of the war that she started. The symbolic fire she intended to burn the Capitol with has turned on her too.

“But I wasn’t watching Coin. I was watching you, Mockingjay. And you were watching me. I’m afraid we’ve both been played for fools.”

Despite his cruelty, Snow is always honest with Katniss. Here, he tells her that Coin has fooled them both with her sophisticated military and political ploys. Coin overtakes Snow as Mockingjay’s main antagonist.

“Would they have been happy, out in the wild, or would the dark, twisted sadness between them have grown up even without the Capitol’s help?”

So much of Katniss’s life has been manipulated by the Capitol that she can only wonder what would have happened without its intervention. Here, she mourns the ordinary life she might have had as a normal girl, not the Mockingjay. Collins raises the question of whether Katniss and Gale would have been happy together had the war not exposed their differing morals.

“All of those people I loved, dead, and we are discussing the next Hunger Games in an attempt to avoid wasting life. Nothing has changed. Nothing will ever change now.”

With Coin’s ascension, Katniss witnesses corruption pass from one tyrant to another. Realizing that the problems with Panem are the problems with all of humanity, she despairs that fighting for a better future is hopeless.

“Because something is significantly wrong with a creature that sacrifices its children’s lives to settle its differences. You can spin it any way you like. Snow thought the Hunger Games were an efficient means of control. Coin thought the parachutes would expedite the war. But in the end, who does it benefit? No one.”

Despite everything she has seen and done in the war, Katniss maintains her moral code. No matter the justification, she knows that the killing of innocents is always wrong.