dissecting the games, ch 3 & 4

I can't keep up with the twitter business.  Yeah, I suck.  Oh well.  I'm still reading the tweets Lauren posts & reading along so I guess maybe I don't suck that bad?

Remember, if you haven't read the books, don't read this post.  If you don't want to read the books (cause you're crazy) but do want to see the movies, don't read this post.

Anyhoo....let's move on to chapters 3 & 4.  Here's what we know:

• Katniss is already preparing for the games - no crying
• despite her bitterness she loves her mother
• doesn't really trust her to take care of Prim
• Peeta's father is much better than his mother
• the mockingjay pin comes from Madge
• Gale's goodbye was the worst - made me cry - again
• District 12 is in the Appalachians
• the Capitol is in Colorado
• Madge starts the revolution?
• Katniss's birthday is May 8th
• she's named for a plant
• Haymitch might not be as useless as thought

 So the names have been called and Katniss & Peeta are whisked away to the fancy(er than they're used to) rooms where they'll say goodbye to family & friends.  Katniss wastes no time in instructing her mother & Prim how to take care of themselves while she's gone.  And despite her inner monologue insisting that she's not going to return to District 12 she begins taking steps to fight, like making sure she doesn't cry so cameras can't catch it and people think she's weak.

Peeta's father comes to her and gives her a bag of cookies and tells her that he will make sure that Prim is taken care of.  Madge arrives to give Katniss the mockingjay pin.  And finally, Gale.  He does what Katniss did to her mother & Prim, his best to make sure she can survive the games.  And he too promises that her family doesn't starve.

On the train ride to the Capitol we learn that the Capitol is somewhere in the Rocky Mountains and District 12 is in the Appalachian Mountains.  While the Appalachians span from eastern Canada through 18 US states we can assume from the fact that District 12 supplies coal that they're somewhere in the Coal Region of Northern Pennsylvania.

Katniss studies Madge's mockingjay pin for the first time and realizes that the pin is sort of a slap in the face to the Capitol.  Does this mean that it was Madge, not Katniss who really starts the revolution?  And maybe even more so as it seems to be deliberate whereas Katniss seemed to stumble upon rebellion?

We learn a lot more about Katniss's father here and the sting of losing him is harsh.  She recounts the months after he died again and the moments after Peeta's offer where it seemed hope had finally taken flight.  She finds katniss, the plant she's named after, growing in a pond and remembers her father's joke 'As long as you find yourself, you'll never starve.'

Finally, Haymitch starts to become the mentor he is supposed to be for Katniss & Peeta.  He makes them a deal after the a quick fight at the breakfast table.  If they don't interfere with his drinking he will stay sober enough to help them.  There's some 'controversy' about Haymitch in the movie when it comes to his drinking.  Though I believe Woody Harrelson did a great job as Haymitch, he did seem to get - and stay - sober really quickly.  There wasn't much discussion and it didn't seem like he was the alcoholic in the movie that he was in the book.  I'm not sure I necessarily agree with this.  Though there are certain points where it's mentioned that he takes a swig out of his flask after the vomiting on the train incident he seems to keep everything under control.

And there we are at the end of Chapter 4...