Sunrise on the Reaping Placeholder 4: Parallels Between Katniss and Haymitch

Day 2 of Sunrise on the Reaping Conversation!

I’m halfway through the second Hunger Games prequel (late delivery of the book and a closing shift at work meant I couldn’t begin reading the actual codex copy until 10:30 last night) and, so far, so great. I hope your reading has Exceeded Expectations as much as mine has despite having some very high expectations, indeed.

In this fourth Placeholder post, a place for discussion of specific ideas while we read or after our first reading (Release the Spoilers!), let’s talk about the ways that Haymitch’s first trip to the Capitol parallels Katniss Everdeen’s odyssey in agony during The Hunger Games (book one in the series). I summarized what we learned from the ‘Sneak Peeks’ in my Predictions post Monday this way:

both of the Scholastic ‘Sneak Peeks’ were heavy in resonances with the first Hunger Games novel: the wake-up for an early morning trip to the woods on Reaping Day, a food gift from family, a note that Haymitch found the plums in the forest (he’s a forager?), the slightly off relationship with the widow-mother, the beloved younger sibling, the borderline clandestine meeting with a dear friend of the opposite sex and conversation on the edge of argument about the Reaping, Buttercup the cat and Lenore’s geese not being friends of our heroine and hero.

There are a bunch more, of course, in the actual book. Please share your list and your first thoughts about why you think Collins is writing this prequel as the earlier echo of the later series.

Sunrise on the Reaping Placeholder Posts:

1: First Impressions — Delight or Dismay?

2. The Epigraphs from Orwell, Blake, and Hume

3. Collins’ Signature Story Structure

4. Katniss-Haymitch Parallels (Books 1 and 5)

5. Breaks with Catching Fire Version of Quarter Quell

6. Catching Fire Cast of Characters, Echoes