Mockingjay

The power of the media is an important motif throughout the Hunger Games series. The Capitol uses televised propaganda and manipulative narratives to support its acts of cruelty against the districts. In Mockingjay, propaganda takes on new importance as a war tactic. The rebels and the Capitol engage in a media battle to control the war narrative. Suzanne Collins explores the importance of propaganda to the war effort and the inevitable consequences of manipulating public opinion.

The Capitol government is made up of seasoned propagandists. In The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, Snow airs cherrypicked interviews with the tributes and victors of the Hunger Games, carefully structured to push his desired narrative. It follows that Katniss’s TV crew, comprised largely of defectors from the Capitol, will be equally skilled at spinning information in favor of the rebels.

One of Katniss’s primary duties as the Mockingjay is to act in short propaganda videos called “propos.” The propos are largely unscripted, featuring Katniss in the heat of combat or speaking candidly about her past. By the time the war is in full swing, almost every aspect of Katniss’s life is televised. Using such natural footage may seem admirable, but it is a deliberate choice based on the TV crew’s knowledge that the public responds best to Katniss when she is being herself. Regardless of Katniss’s intentions, disseminating her words is designed to inflame the other districts into taking up arms against the Capitol.

Early on, the rebels’ propaganda seems to serve a good cause. The propos strengthen the efforts of rebels across Panem and help to unite all of the districts against the Capitol. The image of an oppressed majority banding together to rise up against their oppressor is familiar and appealing. The rebels know this and use it to their advantage, framing the war effort as a heroic act of unity on the part of the districts. This image begins to fall apart as Coin and other rebels demonstrate increasingly questionable morals.

The attack on the Nut in District 2, carried out under the guise of bringing the district over to the rebel side, destroys District 2’s military forces and kills a large chunk of its populace. In the aftermath of the attack, the rebels film one of their most successful propos, in which Katniss reminds the districts, “We all have one enemy, and it’s the Capitol” (185). In keeping with the motif of war weaponizing aspects of humanity that are otherwise good, Katniss’s heartfelt words are used as a tool to send people from the districts to their deaths.

The most egregious instance of propaganda comes when rebel fighters, acting on Coin’s orders, drop bombs on a group of children in the Capitol. Plutarch ensures that the attack is aired live, then swiftly blames it on Snow. Because of the rebels’ successful campaign for district-wide unity, the public swallows this lie and the last of Snow’s supporters turn against him. It is a masterfully executed piece of propaganda that is as effective as it is monstrous.

Coin and Plutarch are such effective manipulators that Katniss doesn’t know she has been fooled along with the rest of Panem until Snow points it out. Even with his years of experience creating his own propaganda, he is fooled by Coin’s game in the heat of battle, misdirecting all of his resources toward catching Katniss while the entirety of Panem turns against him. Only when the battle is over and he has time to reflect does he realize the truth. As he says to Katniss, “We have both been played for fools” (304).

Snow’s revelation confirms Katniss’s worst fears. She has once again been used by “another power player…as a piece in her games” (54). Though the rebels’ propaganda succeeded in helping the districts topple the Capitol, it was also an indispensable tool in Coin’s power play. By participating in the rebels’ propaganda—indeed becoming a propaganda symbol here in the form of the Mockingjay—Katniss has unwittingly helped open the door to another tyrant.

After Katniss kills Coin, her trial is televised. This detail proves that even with Snow and Coin dead, propaganda is an inescapable part of life in Panem. Though Katniss can’t stop the manipulation of the media, she no longer has to participate in it as she sheds her Mockingjay role.

Mockingjay doesn’t outright condemn propaganda. The videos produced by the rebels arguably achieve more good than bad. The war’s final result is that the Hunger Games are banned, and the new rebel government appears to be run democratically. Yet countless good and innocent people have died in service of that goal, some of whom would still be alive had they not been encouraged into battle by the Mockingjay. By showing how propaganda can be used for both noble and corrupt purposes, Collins encourages readers to consider the media’s power and think critically about the narratives presented to them.