Mockingjay

With Coin’s ascension to president of Panem, Finnick, Boggs, and the others lost in the battle against the Capitol appear to have died in vain. Rather than toppling the totalitarian government, District 13 has equipped it with a new leader.

Coin’s decision to hold a final Hunger Games with tributes reaped from the Capitol cements her status as a tyrant. The public wants to see the Capitol hurt because they have spent decades being starved, tortured, and killed off by Snow’s government. Coin’s choice contains none of that rage or pain. Her way of thinking is coldly well-reasoned, devoid of emotion. For her, holding another Hunger Games is a political move that will “balance the need for vengeance with the least loss of life” (314). This is the second time she has planned to sacrifice children to maintain public support, casting doubt on her promise that these punitive Hunger Games will be the last of their kind.

Watching the people who were supposed to restore equality exercise the same cold disregard for human life as the Capitol makes Katniss doubt whether change is possible or whether humans are naturally disposed to subjugate others. She laments that Panem has not learned from its mistakes after 75 years of oppression. After spending almost the entire novel hyper-focused on Snow as the source of all evil in Panem, Katniss realizes that the oppression of the districts is not the fault of one person but rooted in a system built on the ancient human desire for power and control. In light of her own experiences in the Hunger Games, Katniss’s decision to vote “yes” on their continuation indicates how resigned she feels to the cycle of violence. The fact that she casts her vote “for Prim” suggests that she is still motivated by the need for revenge.

Snow’s execution is meant as another piece of propaganda for Coin. She keeps her promise to let Katniss kill him only because the beloved Mockingjay shooting her longtime tormentor is good press for the rebel government. When Katniss faces Snow, he is an old man, powerless and dying. He no longer represents a real threat to Panem, so shooting him would only fulfill Katniss’s desire for revenge. Instead, she turns her bow on Coin, who does pose an active threat to Panem. In doing so, she reclaims her agency from Coin’s manipulations and offers Panem the chance to break away from the cycle of corruption.

Collins equates Coin’s way of thinking with Gale’s. The “ends justify the means” philosophy they share drove Gale’s invention of the bombing strategy that killed Prim. Gale’s potential culpability in Prim’s death puts the final nail in the coffin of his relationship with Katniss. No matter what happened on the day of the attack, she will forever associate him with the loss of her sister. At the end of the novel, Gale’s character comes to represent “fire, kindled with rage and hatred” (330), while Peeta is associated with “rebirth,” compassion and hope. Katniss decides that Peeta is the person she wants to spend the rest of her life with, settling the question that has loomed over her for the entirety of the series. Though she was initially insulted by Gale’s assertion that she would choose whoever can help her survive, this does factor into her final decision. For better or worse, surviving two Hunger Games and a war have conditioned Katniss to see life as a game of survival. Peeta is a good partner for her because of their genuine love and because that love has repeatedly helped keep Katniss alive. Having begun their Love in Wartime, the two share a mutual understanding of the other’s pain, loss, and survival that equips them for a lifetime together.

Collins leaves open the question of whether the government installed by the rebels will be any better than Snow’s. Commander Paylor is, at least, a democratically elected leader, which is more than could be said about Coin or Snow. In the hovercraft back to 12, Plutarch and Katniss have a frank discussion about human nature. Though they acknowledge that people are frustratingly resistant to learning from their mistakes, falling into the same traps of ego, greed, and cruelty over centuries, Plutarch offers up the hopeful possibility that “maybe this will be it…the time it sticks” (321). With the news that Paylor’s government has banned the Hunger Games, Mockingjay ends on a similarly hopeful note, implying that Panem’s darkest days are behind it for good.