第五名
姓  名 林邑丞 學  校 國立師大附中 年  級 1 年 1318 班

 

 

Hunger Games 3: Mockingjay

The Hunger Games trilogy has already become a remarkable classic. Mockingjay, the epic finale of the well-known dystopian trilogy, has impressed me once again by the splendid plot and the unforeseen ending.

In Catching Fire, we have already noticed that District 12 has destroyed by the Capitol, since Katniss Everdeen, the victor of District 12, had destroyed the force field of the arena of the third Quarter Quell, the seventy-fifth annual Hunger Games. By the rebels from District 13, Katniss was rescued and brought to District 13. However, Capitol captured Peeta Mellark. Katniss was persuaded to be a “Mockingjay” which was the symbol of the rebellion, inspiring people from all the districts of Panem to fight against the Capitol. Finally, with the triumph of the rebels, there was no more Hunger Games.

Mockingjay is a story that discusses concepts such as Humanity, The unscrupulous of government, and Civic awareness. First of all, the whole story has deeply embodied the disgraceful side of humanity. The author had created a dystopian society. The Panem, which the nation’s name in The Hunger Games universe is from a famous Latin phrase “Panem et circenses”, which means literally “Bread and Circuses”. The government from capital offers recreations, The Hunger Games, to citizens, so that the citizens only care about those superficial needs. Katniss hoped to be safe and undisturbed after she won the game, but she was wrong. Then, she supported the rebels to get a better life, but she lost her sister. By degrees, in this book, Mockingjay, Katniss even starts to doubt at the people around her— she lost confidence to human.

One of the horrific moments of the story was when the parachute-like bomb killed Primrose Everdeen, the beloved sister of Katniss. I was really shocked. Ironically, the reason that Katniss volunteered the game was to keep Prim safe; however, the President Coin, the leader of the rebels, deliberately placed Prim in the battle only to ensure Katniss’ support. This is the moment when the humanity was twisted. Also, you can see the humanity has been usually taken advantage of in The Hunger Games trilogy. In The Hunger games, Katniss played to be Peeta’s lover for getting Sponsors’ attention. In Catching Fire, she pretended that she was pregnant. Finally, in Mockingjay, she faked that she has crushed the baby only for begging the compassion from the people. But, in reality, aren’t we usually easy to be manipulated or be persuaded?

Although the Capitol has alleged that they have a justified reason to hold The Annual Hunger Games, which was to maintain the peace or to remember the history, they used an immoral, strong-armed way. The Capitol was running under the struggling of power and corruption, which led to an unbearable collapse. We can have a quick glance at the governments in the last book of the series, Mockingjay— both the Capitol and the rebels were totalitarians. They both reached their goals by fair means or foul. And this kind of situation exists nowadays. The totalitarians that wipe out the dissenters just to ensure the power, or commit genocide only because of the differences between races. Also, our attitude toward politics is getting more and more indifferent. In my opinion, we need to concern more about the public affair instead of caring about ourselves selfishly.

The last sentence in the story is very impressive to me, “…But there are much worse games to play.” This touched my heart so much. Luckily, I live in the place where there are no such these games. Luckily, I live in a society that embraces equality and freedom. I wonder if Katniss has ever regretted to be a mockingjay or not. Things change forever after she stepped into the arena— Her families, her life, even herself. If I were she, I wouldn’t stand it for a second. Thus, I really sympathize her and also admire her courage. In conclusion, this mockingjay-story offers us an opportunity to think of our future. What if human beings keep launching wars, damaging the environment? What if we keep being indifferent to everything? Then, someday we might be in an uninhabitable place, just like the story.