Okay, by now, if you have been following my biweekly Book of the Week column, you probably have learned two things about me: I love Jodi Picoult, and I love The Hunger Games. This column focuses on the latter half of these two loves. For those who have been following the latest Hunger Games news, the movie Sunrise on the Reaping comes to theaters in a week, and I have already bought my tickets. But to get ready for this movie premiere, I have decided to reread the book, and I thought I would share some of my thoughts on it! So, anyways, here you go!
I think that the newer Hunger Games prequels are hard to enjoy because nothing compares to the nostalgia and depth of the original trilogy. What can seem like a story about overcoming cruel governments and sad love tropes is really more about the desensitization to violence, PTSD, coping, and sacrifice. What disappointed me, though, is that within the first chapter, Sunrise on the Reaping didn’t even try to seem like anything deeper than a love story. That is unfortunate given the context of all the other books, but maybe it is just part of the larger question the books are trying to ask: To what extent will people go for love?
In chapter 14 of Catching Fire, we learn from Katniss and Peeta that Haymitch also won his games during a Quarter quell, where the reaping pool was doubled to 48 tributes in one arena. Haymitch won by using the force field. After experimenting with it, he learned that if you fell off the arena, you could bounce back, and he used that to win his final fight. In Sunrise on the Reaping, though, within the first few chapters, we learn that Haymitch only has one motivation for winning: return to District 12 and be with the girl he loves. At first, I thought it was strange to see a tribute wanting to win the Games motivated almost entirely by love. Even Peeta, who I think is the closest example of another person driven mostly by love, has another motive: refusing to play the Capitol’s games. I also don’t think the Hunger Games series was ever as overtly about love as Sunrise on the Reaping is at the beginning. Even in the other prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Snow’s initial motivation was making sure his family didn’t go bankrupt.
Haymitch’s motivation rested entirely on the people he loved and cared for, even in the Games, where he partnered with the younger tributes and took care of them. I think the point of this book, in a series about love, is to show how force and losing hope can really hurt a person for the rest of their lives. This book gives us the full context for the bitter, alcoholic man we see in the trilogy. Haymitch is someone who is smart — someone who eventually has hope restored back into his life by mentoring Katniss, and someone who seems alright by the end of the trilogy even after losing all the people who he has ever loved.
I’m really excited to see the movie adaptation of this book to analyze how it ties to the original books, and to see the filmmakers’ vision of the arena. I’m also excited to hopefully get a better understanding of the book, since I know Suzanne Collins is extremely intentional about how she writes, and the original series reveals more depth every time you watch or read it. I love talking about this literary universe, so let me know your thoughts as well. Until next time! Have a nice weekend, and thank you for reading.
