Mockingjay, Fire & Mental Breakdown
Mental breakdown is definitely hanging around our heroes in this final installment of the Hunger Games. Peeta was hijacked. Finnick was half-insane, Haymitch was too sober, and well, Katniss was half-sane.
Fire was all over Panem. Rebellions and wars in every district, houses burnt, spirits burnt, hatred and distrust grew even bigger. and Katniss, as always, was on fire. "If we burn, you burn with us" was what Katniss said in her first propo to the Capitol. Well, that exactly what happened.
It's quite shocking to see how the author transformed Katniss from a hero, to a lunatic. From a girl who ignite the rebellion, to a girl who betrayed the rebels. In the end, all the pressures were proved too much for a teenager. Although we all knew that Katniss did the right thing by killing Coin, the people of Panem didn't know. To saw a hero being put in a trial, unable to defend for herself, and eventually sentenced to insanity, is quite tragic for me.
But friends, that what makes Mockingjay a fantastic way to end the Hunger Games. I love the idea of a hero who is also vulnerable and shaken, rather than having a hero who's too strong and always knows what to do. Even Harry Potter always did the right thing, he never went ballistic. But Katniss did. Katniss is a conditioned hero. A hero that is forced, made and used as a pawn. Katniss lost her ways so many countless times, didn't know who to trust, cannot differ the truths from lies. These also happend to Peeta, who surprisingly, didn't play the role of star-crossed lover in Mockingjay. I never saw that coming, you know, the hijacked-Peeta, Peeta who didn't remember loving Katniss so badly, Peeta who somehow resented the girl whom he always wanted to protect. So, there are definitely countless surprising elements that the author has prepared for us, and they worked. I felt agitated by Katniss who was so weak. But realized that she was only 17. Too young to be turned into a mockingjay that the rebels wanted. The damage has been done. The after-effect of the war is permanent for our heroes.
Conclusively, I'm satisfied by how The Hunger Games ended. It's a happy ending in so many tragical ways. The loss of a number of people and characters I love, all for the price of one free world -- a world where Hunger Games doesn't exist, where human lifes actually matter.
In the end, for Katniss to return to District 12, for Gale to leave Katniss, and for Peeta to stand by Katniss, are the best happy endings we can get. So this very entry marks the end of my review of the Hunger Games trilogy. May the odds be ever in your favor.
Peeta and I grow back together. There are still moments when he clutches the back of a chair and hangs on until the flashbacks are over. I wake screaming from nightmares of mutts and lost children. But his arms are there to comfort me. And eventually his lips. On the night I feel that thing again, the hunger that overtook me on the beach, I know this would have happened anyway. That what I need to survive is not Gale's fire, kindled with rage and hatred. I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that. So after, when he whispers, "You love me. Real or not real?" I tell him, "Real."
