Mockingjay
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Am I the only person who found almost all the characters unlikable by the end of the book?
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Vaughn wrote: "Molly wrote: "Vaughn wrote: "Molly wrote: "Vaughn wrote: "But that's the characters you hate . Not the writing. Being a writer, its easy to create a lovable character. But creating characters th..."Yes, i'm well aware of what happened there, the same sort of thing actually happens in the DPRK too. Seriously, read up on the prison camps and the reeducation camps. it's horrifying, and incredibly tragic that people don't pay more attention to it. Anyway, You'd be surprised to know that Hitler was well liked in the beginning and in early WWII because of a combination of propaganda and telling people what they wanted to hear. It's understandable considering just how badly the Germans had been beaten down by the Treaty of Versailles, that the people would embrace someone who made them feel good about themselves again. The treaty had destroyed their economy, humiliated them, and made them responsible for the entire war (it wasn't entirely they're fault, but they got pinned with all the blame and debt)
Hitler did things that gave the people back their belief that Germany had a special place in the world. He removed the blame for the last war from the germans and pinned it on the Jews. The Germans didn't lose, they were betrayed by the jews. He told the Germans they were great, and deserved more than what they had been given by the Treaty. He used the carrot and the stick.
Besides, as horrible as this sounds, antisemitism wasn't rare before Hitler came around, and it's not rare today. There's still a good bit of Antisemitism all over the world, even in Europe. And if a group isn't really well liked to begin with, and people are looking for someone to blame for their problems, it's easy to manipulate those feelings of distrust and dislike into hatred and blame.
That's not to say very German liked Hitler. In fact there was a good few who didn't. And its not like what happened in the camps was common knowledge at the time. Citizens usually weren't directly involved, and the camps weren't near city centers, they were isolated. Those who did know about the camps didn't have clear idea of what exactly was going on there. Even once they did know, there was still some antisemitism because of the years of propaganda.
That's why the lack of propaganda from the Capitol bothers me so much. It plays an incredibly important role in controlling people and maintaining power. The people living in the capitol should have been the love and envy of every citizen of the districts. The Presidents should have been held in very high regard, or at least viewed as absolutely essential for the people of Panem and they're safety. The capitol could even play up the creaking away of district 13 and use them as an ever looming threat that the government is protecting the people from. They could have made up threats from the outside world, or at least used new footage district 13 instead of the same old crap they had been playing for 75 years (how did it take so long for people to notice it was the same footage?). The districts were so isolated, even from each other, that they probably never would have known all of it was a lie. Collins gave the capitol plenty to work with, I just wish she would have had them use it.
Molly wrote: "Vaughn wrote: "Molly wrote: "Vaughn wrote: "Molly wrote: "Vaughn wrote: "But that's the characters you hate . Not the writing. Being a writer, its easy to create a lovable character. But creatin..."You're still in school aren't you? You take this waaaaay too serious. This was a fun discussion but you are making it less so. So have a good one.
Molly wrote: "Vaughn wrote: "But that's the characters you hate . Not the writing. Being a writer, its easy to create a lovable character. But creating characters that start out one way then another is very d..."
Actually, that isn't true. Characters aren't created for you to love and agree with them, they're created to tell you their story. Characters make mistakes, they do risky things, they choose the wrong paths, and sometimes they have view and feeling that you don't agree with. If you lived Katniss's life, then you would probably see the world as she does. If you had been threw two Hunger Games, your father dying, your mother going off the deep end, and having to provide for your entire family by yourself at such a young age, you would be pretty bitter and closed off also. A character's personality and views should not affect the way you feel about a story.
Yes, I suppose she Collins could have added a chapter that's completely irrelevant to the story, just to provide information that's completely irrelevant to the story.
Okay, that was sarcastic so I'm going to re-write that:
I honestly wasn't really paying attention to whether she did that in her writing a lot, but you need to remember sometimes it's a good thing to tell instead of show, otherwise the story would be and endless flow of flash-backs. In the example that you gave, telling was better than showing, Katniss may not even have had any flashbacks to show. All Katniss knew is that they were mean, they actually fought over the chance to be in the Hunger games, and that the Capitol favored their district because of it. If in your opinion they were good people, well.. That's your opinion.
It wasn't common knowledge that the fence wasn't always electrocuted, nor that people could actually getting away with it. It was also something that the few people who did know about it, weren't willing to give up easily. Katniss isn't starving. After she learned to hunt and what-not, she could provide for herself and her family, they didn't have an abundance, but they weren't starving. Peeta's family was on the richer part of District 12, bread is something fairly important, so they made enough money to purchase a pig and I'm sure they were extra careful about making sure it wasn't stolen. Most of the District was starving, but you don't see much of them and you have to remember: they're used to being starving, they've been that way their entire lives, so Katniss isn't going to go into detail of how skinny they were or anything, because that's normal to her.
Although animal guts do have a lot of nutritiousness value, they also carry a lot of parasites. Contrary to popular belief you not all of the "bad stuff" can be cooked out of an animal. As for the dandelions, if I recall correctly, the dandelions were outside of the gate, unless you're referring to the meadow at the end Mockingjay, where Peeta and Katniss's kids were playing, in that case they grew after the war ended.
Actually, that isn't true. Characters aren't created for you to love and agree with them, they're created to tell you their story. Characters make mistakes, they do risky things, they choose the wrong paths, and sometimes they have view and feeling that you don't agree with. If you lived Katniss's life, then you would probably see the world as she does. If you had been threw two Hunger Games, your father dying, your mother going off the deep end, and having to provide for your entire family by yourself at such a young age, you would be pretty bitter and closed off also. A character's personality and views should not affect the way you feel about a story.
Yes, I suppose she Collins could have added a chapter that's completely irrelevant to the story, just to provide information that's completely irrelevant to the story.
Okay, that was sarcastic so I'm going to re-write that:
I honestly wasn't really paying attention to whether she did that in her writing a lot, but you need to remember sometimes it's a good thing to tell instead of show, otherwise the story would be and endless flow of flash-backs. In the example that you gave, telling was better than showing, Katniss may not even have had any flashbacks to show. All Katniss knew is that they were mean, they actually fought over the chance to be in the Hunger games, and that the Capitol favored their district because of it. If in your opinion they were good people, well.. That's your opinion.
It wasn't common knowledge that the fence wasn't always electrocuted, nor that people could actually getting away with it. It was also something that the few people who did know about it, weren't willing to give up easily. Katniss isn't starving. After she learned to hunt and what-not, she could provide for herself and her family, they didn't have an abundance, but they weren't starving. Peeta's family was on the richer part of District 12, bread is something fairly important, so they made enough money to purchase a pig and I'm sure they were extra careful about making sure it wasn't stolen. Most of the District was starving, but you don't see much of them and you have to remember: they're used to being starving, they've been that way their entire lives, so Katniss isn't going to go into detail of how skinny they were or anything, because that's normal to her.
Although animal guts do have a lot of nutritiousness value, they also carry a lot of parasites. Contrary to popular belief you not all of the "bad stuff" can be cooked out of an animal. As for the dandelions, if I recall correctly, the dandelions were outside of the gate, unless you're referring to the meadow at the end Mockingjay, where Peeta and Katniss's kids were playing, in that case they grew after the war ended.
Molly wrote: "Vaughn wrote: "Molly wrote: "Vaughn wrote: "But that's the characters you hate . Not the writing. Being a writer, its easy to create a lovable character. But creating characters that start out o..."
Actually, that's a fairly common tactic for repressive governments (that's how master's controlled their slaves back in the Civil War days, for instance). They were weak, starving, they didn't have the resources, and if they failed to overtake the Capitol there fate would be 100x worse than the Hunger Games. You have to remember the last war took place less than one hundred years ago, there may have even been people who fought in the last war, still alive. They were afraid to fight back.
When the Capitol gave into Peeta and Katniss during the first Hunger Games, it gave the Districts hope. That small rebellion started the revolution.
Actually, that's a fairly common tactic for repressive governments (that's how master's controlled their slaves back in the Civil War days, for instance). They were weak, starving, they didn't have the resources, and if they failed to overtake the Capitol there fate would be 100x worse than the Hunger Games. You have to remember the last war took place less than one hundred years ago, there may have even been people who fought in the last war, still alive. They were afraid to fight back.
When the Capitol gave into Peeta and Katniss during the first Hunger Games, it gave the Districts hope. That small rebellion started the revolution.
Vaughn wrote: "Molly wrote: "Vaughn wrote: "Molly wrote: "Vaughn wrote: "Molly wrote: "Vaughn wrote: "But that's the characters you hate . Not the writing. Being a writer, its easy to create a lovable character..."Yeah. I'm about to have a huge midterm on all of this stuff next week, and I've stuffed my brain so full of it that I've been sharing what I learned with everyone, because I think it's interesting and I want to hear their opinions about it. So I'm sorry about being such a know-it-all. I wasn't meaning to be. I just get excited when I get to share the things I've learned.
Heaven wrote: I honestly wasn't really paying attention to whether she did that in her writing a lot, but you need to remember sometimes it's a good thing to tell instead of show, otherwise the story would be and endless...
I suppose I saw the Careers to be a good idea by the districts. I thought it was much smarter of those districts to take a small hand full of kids and train them exceptionally well for the hunger games. I thought it was more merciful on the kids going into the hunger games, since they would know what to do and actually stand a chance of not being killed in a horrific way, and it was more merciful on the families of the districts in general, who wouldn't have to worry about losing their children to hunger games every year since they had careers to do that instead. I don't agree with the blood thirsty nature o the careers, but I really don't think the idea is evil, or that the people are evil just for being careers.
I also don't feel that working in more information about the government would have been irrelevant because it would made for much better world building in my opinion. Collins managed to work in plenty of silly romance subplots and pages about the pretty clothes Katniss gets to wear, I don't see why couldn't give us more relevant information about the evil oppressive government that katniss was fighting. At least then we could know HOW the government managed to controlled the people. A purely tyrannical government doesn't last long because people eventually realize "Well, what can they do to me that they haven't already done?" When you have nothing to lose but your own hellish life, why there's no reason not to fight back.
As for the animal guts: Katniss was in the Hunger Games, and they were going to last about a week. She was either going to die by the hand of an opponent or have to kill them. Any illness or parasite she would have gotten from the organs wouldn't effect her for at least a few days, and it certainly isn't something the Capitol couldn't fix.
How were they unlikable? If anything they should be more likable after all the crap they went through during the games (specifically: Katniss, Peeta, and Gale). All the evil people like President Snow, yeah. But the main characters, I can't say I agree.
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Yes no one much cared for the Capitol. I don't think many people cared for Hitler either you know what happened there, right? Just saying.