Please note this thread and post were started in August, 2010, when Mockingjay was published. For a look at Hogwarts Professor articles that discuss the whole series at length go here and for discussion leading up to and about the Lionsgate film go here. Be fore-warned: Writing on this two year old thread or any of the ‘Mockingjay Discussion’ Points will not be seen by many readers.

The Peeta story arc took a dramatic turn in Mockingjay as Ms. Collins revealed Mr. Mellark as less the Christ figure of unconditional love on whom Katniss depends (see chapter 14, p. 195) than a shattered post-traumatic shock survivor that has been used and abused by equally brutal partisans in the Panem war. That we get a “happy ending” (?) with Peeta and Katniss raising a family in District 12 is not cause of celebration but for agonizing reflection about the broken lives wars leave in their wake, most obviously in the lives of the surviving soldiers.

My question for discussion is what do you think of the several Peetas we see in Mockingjay — the heroic resistor of his hijacking that saves District 13, the mutt-tation Peeta that is rescued, the recovering Peeta who with Katniss becomes a fire-mutt phoenix at the war’s end? Is his chrysalis and transformation under torture and during his struggle to regain his memory allegorical? Political commentary? Or is he a Christ figure?

Ms. Collins closes Mockingjay with these notes that suggest he is (chapter 27, p. 380):

What I need [to survive] is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that.

Your thoughts?

Due to the revolution in the districts preventing a proper reaping, Mockingjay does not have a proper Hunger Games arena with tributes. With Plutarch Heavensbee, the former Capitol chief Gamesmaker, calling the shots about the production values of how the war is going to be packaged and presented to Panem viewers, the series finale has repeated Hunger Games elements. Finnick and Katniss simultaneously joke that the Capitol defense pods are just Hunger Games death race items turned to urban warfare usage (see chapter 18, p. 251) and the ubiquity of film crews in every combat situation delivers the message that war is not so much about about achieving political goals with force as it is an opportunity to film a ‘propo’ video with high production values to sway teevee watchers.

Were you struck by the television wars between District 13 and the Capitol? Beetee (Volts) and Plutarch’s studio and live action film crews seemed to be the real warriors of District 13 because they were the ones responsible for the teevee message that was crafted from any fighting. And, as the rebels’ cause is shown in the end to be not much different than the Capitol’s — both seem to be about power and control — their shared dependence and acceptance of the teevee medium as essential for political victory seemed another slam on the television industry. Your thoughts?

I laid out an involved theory about how the Mockingjay Rebellion was set-up by Haymitch and companythat I called the Pearl Plot. Mockingjay didn’t tell us very much about the pin, whether Katniss Everdeen was chosen deliberately by the revolutionaries, or how the organization of the rebellion worked under District 13 direction. Ms. Collins left these details to our imagination while making it very clear that the technocrats living in their sterile underground bunkers in District 13 were definitely in charge.

Were you disappointed or relieved that there wasn’t more explanation or back-story for the mysteries set-up in the first two books of the trilogy?

I predicted last week that Mockingjay would deliver three things without fail unless Ms. Collins decided to leave the rails entirely for the series finale. Those three things were:

1. We get the same 27 chapter, 3 part book structure in Mockingjay that we’ve read in Games and Fire.
2. Not only that, we also get the same basic story sequence of Katniss going to the Capitol and enduring a deadly maze. They defeat the arena they’re put in and Katniss leaves the Capitol.   And –
3. Following character story arcs, Katniss will become the playwright of the Mockingjay rebellion script to “speak truth to power,” both the rebellion leaders and the Capitol President, and she will put her life at risk, not to mention the rebellion, in order to save Peeta. Peeta will do what Christ figures do in stories of this kind.

Pulling out the score-card,  number one was right, number two was correct in essentials, and number three had a big hit and a big miss. The “truth to power” arrow-to-Coin and death of Snow confirmed the last but, except for Haymitch’s complaints, it seems that Katniss would have let the shattered Peeta remain broken, bitter, and forgotten.

And Christ figure? He does die and rise from the mental and spiritual death he experiences in Capitol torture, offer himself sacrificially for death (repeatedly), and ultimately work for Katniss’ redemption and life as a mother.

How did you score this? Three of three? Two out of three?