Hogwarts Professor

This is the second part of a three part ‘Unlocking’ series on the more esoteric, allegorical meanings of Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy with special emphasis on the series finale, Mockingjay. For the first part, see ‘Unlocking Mockingjay: The Spiritual Allegory.’

We left yesterday’s discussion of  the Hunger Games as an echo of Dante’s allegorical journey with Katniss as soul and Peeta as Spirit or Christ. We’ll return to Peeta in a moment to explain his superficially un-Christ like behaviors in Mockingjay, but we need to look at Gale through our allegorical glasses first. Who or what does he represent in this story of the pure heart’s spiritual transformation?

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It’s been almost two weeks now since we started the contemplative “slow mining” of Mockingjay, the thoughtful digging that John Ruskin said fine art required to come to the gold and jewels beneath its surface. The conversation for the most part has focused on the surface narrative features, i.e., Gale’s choices, the new Peeta, and Katniss’ “boy troubles,” as well as on the violence of the moral and allegorical layers. With the exception of the conversations about ‘The Hanging Tree‘ and ‘The Meadow Song,’ then, we haven’t got much deeper into this powerfully painful book than parsing the romantic partnership possibilities and deciphering the transparencies about the evils of war and television.

Guess what? I don’t think the Katniss-Peeta-Gale love triangle is why we love The Hunger Games. I’m pretty sure, too, that the postmodern morality message of ‘Real/Not Real‘ acts as little more than another hook, along with the romance and the allegorical tit-for-tat content about war and teevee, to engage the reader profoundly.

The real reason we love The Hunger Games and are moved and disturbed by the Mockingjay finale is the spiritual allegory and literary alchemy of the trilogy, the meaning we enter into and experience consequent to our engagement at the surface. Hunger Games is a retelling of Dante’s divinization; traveling alongside Katniss Everdeen on her harrowing journey through the Inferno and Purgatory to the White Rose of spiritual perfection in Paradise, we share imaginatively in her transformation from child of the Seam to Mockingjay-Phoenix and union with God. [Read more…]

Tim Schock thinks Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins is making a pro-gun statement inside her ‘horrors of war’ piece. Prepare to be “schocked” if you think Mockingjay is an argument for gun-control; here are the passages from the text that suggest Ms. Collins is telling us the only way to keep the Capitol and District 13 Brave New World technocrats from taking over our lives (with their senseless wars) is to keep and bear arms.

Take it away, Tim Schock! [Read more…]

Tim Schock wrote on the Peeta thread a comment I thought worthy of greater attention and further exploration than it would receive there. He suggests that Peeta was right about Coin and District 13 in his interview statements to Caesar Flickerman and that Katniss only comes to appreciate his seemingly traitorous insights after Prim’s death and the Mockingjay’s conversation with President Snow in the Rose Room. Mr. Schock equates the fictional Snow and Coin with the real-life Presidents Bush and Obama, which equation will no doubt offend partisans of left and right; please keep your comments focused on the question Was Peeta Right? or they will be deleted. Here is the original Schock comment:

From Steve Barkmeier, some challenging thoughts on the story relationship of Buttercup, Primrose Everdeen’s cat, and Primroses’ sister, Katniss:

Prim’s cat, Buttercup, doesn’t have many appearances in the first two books of The Hunger Games trilogy. However, his involvement comes at key points in the series. In addition, he plays a pivotal role in Mockingjay. I believe that Buttercup serves a purpose in the series as Katniss’s alter ego and points towards Katniss’s relationship with herself throughout the series. [Read more…]