Mockingjay

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2010

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-5

Part 1, Chapter 6-Part 2, Chapter 10

Part 2, Chapters 11-15

Part 2, Chapter 16-Part 3, Chapter 20

Part 3, Chapters 21-25

Part 3, Chapter 26-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Character Analysis

Katniss Everdeen

Katniss Everdeen is the protagonist of the Hunger Games trilogy. A brave and principled young woman, Katniss must learn to navigate her role as a symbol of the rebellion while confronting new and old traumas. At the start of the novel, Katniss feels lost and hopeless. After being controlled by the Gamemakers for so long, she struggles to regain her sense of identity outside the role she played for the Capitol. Her experiences in two Hunger Games arenas have left her mistrustful of powerful people, complicating her decision to ally herself with Coin and the rebels. Katniss tends to blame herself for the Capitol’s slaughter of many of her loved ones and deals with intense guilt as a result. Early on, she proclaims, “I hate almost everybody now. Myself more than anyone” (10).

Despite this misanthropic statement, Katniss remains a compassionate and caring person. She cares about her loved ones to the point that she is willing to sacrifice her life for them. Katniss takes on the role of Mockingjay in the hopes of protecting everyone she loves and atoning for her guilt, though she wonders, “Could any good I do possibly outweigh the damage?” (12). In battle, Katniss shies away from especially brutal or cruel tactics. She maintains that some things are “unacceptable to do to another human being” (160), even an enemy soldier. This humane outlook contrasts with her persistent desire to kill Snow, which is motivated by her need for vengeance. Killing Snow and ending the Hunger Games forever offer a chance to alleviate some of the guilt that weighs on her.

Katniss’s humanity is tested by a series of losses, culminating in the death of Prim. She is forced to violate her moral code several times, even killing a civilian to avoid capture by the Capitol. Her actions to save herself and others add to the weight of her guilt. After learning that Coin has been manipulating her, Katniss loses her hope for a better future. She almost capitulates to a new tyranny under Coin, but at the last moment, she reclaims her agency by killing Coin instead of Snow, disrupting the Capitol government’s cycle of violence and corruption.

At the end of Mockingjay, Katniss chooses to build a life with Peeta in District 12. She is still haunted by her trauma and will be forever, but she is able to move forward with hope for the future.

Peeta Mellark

Kindhearted and charismatic Peeta Mellark is Katniss’s friend, primary love interest, and fellow victor of the 74th Hunger Games. At the start of Mockingjay, Peeta has lost his entire family in the firebombing of District 12. The Capitol imprisoned and tortured him for his suspected involvement in the rebel cause. Snow forces him to act as a mouthpiece for the Capitol, relaying anti-war messages that are sometimes hard to distinguish from his genuine altruism.

In previous novels, Peeta has been vocal and unwaveringly certain of his love for Katniss. However, when he is rescued from the Capitol, he has been “hijacked,” conditioned into violently hating her. His recovery is a slow process that relies on recovering his positive memories of their time together. Peeta attempts to kill Katniss multiple times, almost forcing her to execute him in self-defense. Despite his brainwashing, he displays moments of goodwill, giving Katniss hope that he will return to his old self. Slowly, Peeta recovers from his conditioning. His healing is accelerated when Katniss is patient with him, symbolizing how Peeta brings out her best and most altruistic qualities.

Outside of his conditioning, Peeta’s worldview is guided by love and altruism. He doesn’t allow vengeance to make him cruel and avoids causing death whenever possible, taking the sanctity of life as seriously as Katniss does. At the novel’s end, Katniss chooses Peeta over Gale because he represents hope, goodness, and compassion.

Gale Hawthorne

Gale is Katniss’s childhood best friend and secondary love interest. In Mockingjay, he takes on an important role in the rebellion, becoming an efficient and, at times, ruthless soldier. Though Gale shares Katniss’s desire to protect the people he loves, he is primarily motivated to fight by his desire to avenge the Capitol’s crimes. This motivation leads him to participate in acts that Katniss finds unconscionable. He uses his hunting expertise to design traps to ensnare his enemies, accepting that civilian casualties are an inevitable part of winning the war.

Gale’s relationship with Katniss has been contentious ever since he had to watch her fall for Peeta in the arena. In Mockingjay, Gale pushes Katniss for a final answer to the question of who she loves. Katniss is attracted to Gale primarily because his presence reminds her of happier times before the Hunger Games ruined so much of their lives. Any chance of a relationship between the two is destroyed when Prim is killed using a strategy invented by Gale. Katniss decides against Gale’s “rage and hatred” (330).

After the rebels win the war, Gale takes a power position in the government, a vaguely ominous development considering his propensity for cruelty. He and Katniss do not mend their relationship. Katniss’s decision to leave Gale in the past represents her letting go of the life she had before the games and accepting them as a part of her story.

President Alma Coin

Alma Coin is the leader of District 13 and the eventual president of Panem. From the start, Coin is portrayed as a draconian leader driven by cold rationality. These qualities make her a strong commander for the rebellion but estrange her from Katniss, whose compassionate approach to life makes her Coin’s foil. Despite their interpersonal differences, Katniss initially trusts Coin because she is working against Snow.

Coin’s seemingly complete lack of humanity makes her a highly effective politician. She takes advantage of Katniss’s trust to manipulate her. She encourages Katniss to become the Mockingjay, then uses her to distract Snow and encourage fighting, which weakens the districts and clears a path to absolute power for herself. After Snow is deposed, Coin steps up as president of Panem. She promptly attempts to bring back the Hunger Games as a punitive measure against the Capitol, displaying the same inhumane reasoning as Snow.

Coin challenges Katniss’s black-and-white conception of morality. Her ascent to tyranny highlights the inefficacy of a revolution that doesn’t attack the underlying power structures of the existing government. By the time Snow’s scheduled execution rolls around, Katniss understands that Coin plans to continue the cycle of violence perpetuated by Snow’s government. She kills Coin instead of Snow, an act that reclaims her agency and demonstrates nuanced moral reasoning.

President Coriolanus Snow

Coriolanus Snow is the president of Panem. Snow is the primary antagonist of the previous two Hunger Games books. In Mockingjay, he remains largely out of sight, though his white roses are a frequent reminder that he is always watching Katniss.

Snow is a shrewd politician and a ruthless tyrant. He is keenly aware that “the Capitol [is] fragile” (146) and that its unequal power structures require constant upkeep. It’s known that he uses the Hunger Games to discourage rebellion in the districts, but Mockingjay reveals more about the tactics he uses to keep the Capitol under his thumb. Snow ensures that the citizens of the Capitol remain complacent by keeping them well-fed and distracted. He uses the Hunger Games as a fear tactic. In Chapter 12, Finnick reveals that Snow has been poisoning his political rivals for decades, even ingesting poison himself to allay suspicions. His actions seem to have caught up to him in Mockingjay, as he is slowly dying from the poison himself.

Katniss is fixated on killing Snow to avenge her many losses. She remains set on this goal until the war’s end when Snow tells her that Coin is the real enemy. He tells her honestly that they have both been fooled by Coin, who used Katniss to misdirect Snow’s attention from the rebellion brewing in the Capitol.

The last time Katniss sees Snow alive, he is restrained to a post, powerless and near death. Katniss decides that Coin is the greater threat to Panem and executes her instead of Snow. Snow dies still tied to the post. In declining to execute him, Katniss chooses justice over vengeance.