dissecting the games, ch 7 thru 9

Remember....don't read these posts if you haven't read The Hunger Games!

There's a lot going on in now.  The Games are getting closer and closer and now it's time to show the Gamekeepers what they're all about.  It's also the chance for tributes to see each other up close & personal before they start killing each other.

• Peeta's mother is even more of a bitch than originally thought
• Peeta & Katniss fight over how great he thinks she is
• Haymitch, waaaaay smarter than we thought??
• we meet Rue - kind of
• two of my favorite quotes
• maybe Effie isn't as horrible as we thought?
• Katniss beats Peeta
• And it makes him feel bad?
• Gale makes life happier
• Katniss is like a dead slug
• Cinna makes Katniss real
• Katniss turns herself into a girl
• Peeta's big reveal

The training begins.  We find out just how truly awful Peeta's mother is when he reveals that during their 'goodbye time' she says that maybe District 12 will have a winner again - and she doesn't mean Peeta.  Haymitch wants the two to stick together like their friends.  Keep up appearances as best they can.  Does he already know Peeta loves Katniss?  Was his plan in place before or after Cinna had them hold hands during the opening ceremonies?  At this point, it's clear that Peeta knows he will die in the Games, but he's determined to make sure Katniss doesn't.

There's a point where they're trying to keep conversation going and Katniss tells Peeta about the time she was chased by a bear.  He laughs, looks engaged and she thinks he's better at this (faking business) than she is, but I think he is actually interested in what she has to say.

We get to see the steel in Katniss's spine when she goes in for her private training session and shoots 'at' the Gamemakers' table hitting the apple in the roasted pig's mouth.  Then she concludes with 'Thank you for your consideration.'

Lovely.

Of course, afterwards she freaks out 'cause she's pretty sure something bad will come of that.  And when she finally comes out of her room to join the others for dinner we finally get to see a side to Effie that shows she's not as idiotic/awful/useless as we thought.  But everyone is surprised and rewarded by Katniss's number and even Peeta's number is better than expected.

After this scene Katniss runs through how she met Gale.  They were both so young, but already heads of their households.  She says how being out in the woods with Gale she was sometimes actually happy.  And of course she was!  This was the only time she not only felt that she was doing something, but she also got to do it with someone who knew how she felt and she could be herself with.  She didn't ever have to be strong for Gale.  She just had to be herself.

So in the wake of their number shockers Peeta tells Haymitch that he wants to train separately.  Katniss's first feeling is betrayal, but she doesn't believe that feeling because how can you be betrayed by someone you never trusted.  Dun-dun-duuuuunnnnn....

A bit of comedic relief is injected as Katiss gets a charm school lesson from Effie and leaves in a huff holding her dress up to her thighs.

Then back down to business as Haymitch and Katniss try to determine how she's portray herself to the masses.  Well, Haymitch tries to decide while Katniss fumes.  My favorite line is here where Haymitch says they want to know about her....'But I don't want them to!  They're already taking my future!  They can't have the things that mattered to me in the past!'

After all this gets them nowhere Katniss holes up in her room where she throws a full on tantrum.  One of the things I just don't like about her.  Don't get me wrong, I can't imagine what she must feel like.  Basically, she knows she's going to die.  It IS unfair and all these lessons and training are annoying, but dang it girl, suck it up.  This is my dilemma with Katniss.  Yes, I admire her.  Her strength and determination to keep her family from starving.  Her honesty and her grudges.  Yes, I admire her.  But I don't like her.  And I know it's not fair.

And then Cinna tells her to be herself.  During her three minute interview with Caesar it's as if she becomes the person she would have been had her father not died.  If all the responsibilities of life on the Seam hadn't rested on her shoulders.  She answers honestly still, but she revels in her beauty, in the dress & the attention.  She giggles and all of a sudden you see Katniss as a girl, not as a provider or a fighter or the daughter of a dead coal miner.  To me, it is truly one of the best scenes in the book.

Now it's Peeta's turn and he has everyone rolling in the aisles until....Caesar asks him if he has a girl back home and he tells everyone in Panem that the girl he's in love with he's going to have to kill.

And then it's onto the Games.