Dear Lucia,
Recently I was in a bit of a reading rut and couldn’t bring myself to enter a whole new world, but at the same time I didn’t want to read a story I had previously read. This lead me to read Susan Collins’ “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” This book is a prequel to the super popular Hunger Games trilogy, and takes place 40 years earlier at the 10th games, but follows Cornelius Snow. Yup, the man who became Panem’s president and had an obsession with roses. Enjoy!
Plot
I am not going to spoil the plot for you. I will, however, give you the basics. In this story the Snow family is struggling financially and they struggle to keep fed after the war. Cornelius (it is so strange after the whole trilogy calling him Snow to call him Cornelius) is at a prestigious academy where he gets the opportunity to secure a spot at University by being a mentor in the Hunger Games. At this point, the Games are not really watched, loved, or celebrated. They are treated as a punishment and that is it. Cornelius gets picked to mentor the district 12 female tribute, Lucy Grey.
As the preparation for the Games go on, Cornelius becomes instrumental in introducing components that later become huge parts of the annual tradition, such as the betting and being able to order food for tributes.
Big Thoughts
I was torn while reading this book. The whole time, I kept thinking about what this teen became in the later series. I went into this book expecting a try-hard excuse for his trauma that he projected then onto Katniss. While this is sort of what I got, I also found myself understanding the difficult choices that he had to go through. What Collins did in this book makes me mad- she turned Snow human in a way that I was not expecting. Her writing style is with such authority that I found myself nodding along to ideas that when I take a step back, I do not agree with. Cornelius repeatedly makes decisions that fundamentally, make him a bad person (according to my set of morals).
I know, logically, that in order for Snow’s hatred of Katniss to be so profound after so many years, there was going to be a lot of similarities between Lucy Grey, Cornelius’ love interest, and Katniss. One thing that felt very forced, to me, was that Lucy Grey not only sung the songs that had an astounding impact in the revolution, but composed several of them. This, of course, would make Snow’s reaction to them all the more powerful, but feels too coincidence to be true. I love the symbolism, and additionally his hatred for the mockingjays playing out, but it felt like if Lucy Grey had been one thing or another, not all of the things Katniss was, then that would make it more believable.
Collins Jabs
While I was reading, I was also wondering why Collins decided to come out of her writing hiatus to make another book in this world. As someone who dabbles in the arts, it can be comforting to return to a world that has already been created and fleshed out, and even widely loved as is the case in Panem. She has other series besides the Hunger Games, and surely she is set off for life with the profits of the books, movies, and all other merch.
There are some subtle, and other not so subtle, jabs at modern politics and society that can be seen in this book. I feel as though using a system that was already inherently rebellious and political, and then twisting it to see the other side, and see all the corruption running throughout, Collins was able to make her points even clearer. For example, in the first few chapters it is mentioned that the reaping day is on July 4th. July 4th, of course, being American independence day. Seeing as I only finished this book about an hour ago, I haven’t come up with a full fledged analysis of why this would be particular to the reaping, the clear indication and alignment to American politics and American ideals cannot be missed.
More subtly, Collins introduces a character named Dr. Gaul. This name has so much suggestion behind it, I could write a whole paper on that alone. I will give the highlights now, but please understand that the list could go on. First of all, for the general population, Gaulic imagery generally refers to a “barbaric” type of people, seeing as they were contrary to the Romans (more specifically Caesar). Dr. Gaul is quite obviously barbaric in the modern sense in this book. She is a head game maker and is responsible for making the mutts and releasing them into the arena. Additionally, she pushes Cornelius into a sort of twisted mindset that he sadly embraces by the end of the book. Secondly, the Gauls are generally considered the precursors to French society. This is a fascinating connection because France is seen as a modern and art loving nation (even in early history, specifically thinking of renaissance era). The similarities between the trilogy’s version of Panem is so strongly tied to decadence (my mind is called to a party scene where they throw up food to make room for more while people starve in the districts) and likewise Marie Antoinette’s famous “Let them eat cake” declaration from her palace as her people were starving.
Last Thoughts
Having read the triology first, as most people had, this book was hard to read, knowing vaugley how it ended. The story therein kept leading me with false hope, perhaps the Snow we knew in the series was a different man, but no. Collins leads us on a path that could have been avoided all together. Again, no (big) spoilers, but seeing Cornelius interact with his classmates and make decisions in regard to the capital instead of the people he knew was heartbreaking. I think this book comments on an equal number of topics as the original, in a new way. The brutality of war, of suffering, of losing people and the struggle for power. But this book also looks at the corruption by the corrupt, especially in fragile masculinity. Cornelius tried so hard to keep up appearances, for fear he would be seen as less than, he felt as though he could not ask for help. The districts work together to stay afloat, but the Capital seems as though it is a constant Arena.