Louise’s Comments (group member since Dec 16, 2013)

Louise’s comments from the On Tyrants & Tributes : Real World Lessons From The Hunger Games group.

She did not make it into the movies, but another multiple meanings name award goes to Purnia, one of the "good" original female Peacekeepers who successfully ends Gale’s beating. Assuming her name is short for Calpurnia, we have:

1) Lex acilia calpurnia: the ancient Roman law against political corruption. The Capitol presumably isn’t a big fan of this one! Though it is interesting that Purnia's generation of Peacekeepers were "corrupt" in their willingness to ignore the rules and participate in black market food trade, but their "corruption" actually helped the 12 citizens economically.

2) Lex Calpurnia: even more ancient Roman law that established the first Roman court If there were any courts in District 12, Purnia's successor Romulus Thread ignored them.

3) Julius Ceasar’s wife, who allegedly had a premonition of Ceasar's downfall. Could her willingness to befriend the Seam have been a sign that she recognized that the Capitol's tyranny could not continue forever?

4) the wise and protective maid from To Kill a Mockingbird (another great book about class struggle with a mockingbird as a central symbol) , another character who managed to earn respect, authority and even a degree of power despite being part of the repressed class.

I think this is right on the money. One of two changes I would make in the first HG movie would have been to include a flashback of Katniss's father teaching her, and her making the connection to "herself" and other edible plants through his plant book, after being re-invigorated by Peeta's sacrificial gift of bread.

The other change, of course, is to reshoot the bread-tossing scene with appropriately aged (and sized… Jennifer Lawrence does not pull off "starving" well.

I love the fact that Katniss returns to her father's (and her mother's, before she was overcome by grief/depression) by creating her own book of Hunger games history to honor the fallen and by helping to start a new industry of medicinal plants in District 12.

Spoiler Alert: I loved the fact that they introduced us to Snow's granddaughter in the second movie. She only gets mentioned briefly in Mockingjay, in the scene where they are voting on whether to subject the Capitol children to their own Hunger Games. Johanna relishes the thought of killing Snow's granddaughter in revenge. Showing her in the second movie gives a very nice indication of how Snow is losing control, with his own grandchild imitating Katniss's hairstyle and wishing for a boyfriend like Peeta.

I think the brutality of war and the lasting effect it has, even on the "winners" is very important. Practically everyone has PTSD by the end.

I am a psychology professor at Mary Baldwin College and a writer on www.hogwartsprofessor.com. I have never taken an online course before, but I am supposed to teach my first one in January so I thought I would sample a topic of interest to me. I am also fond of Harry Potter and the Divergent series.