To Survive

Happy to share that I finished the first book in the Hunger Games!  Listened to it all weekend while I was cleaning out and organizing closets-- made the time go by much more quickly!
I will admit that I greatly enjoyed this book.  I wanted to write today a bit about survival, which I feel is one of the many prominent themes of this book.  How does one survive while keeping dignity and sense of self?  During the hunger games, Katniss had to fight off fire, poisonous insects, hunger, thirst, and of course her peers or tributes.  To survive, she had to outsmart and even kill her opponents.

I connect this book's theme of survival to political survival between the Capital and its districts, social survival between the rich and poor, and survival of life.  For Katniss, she is the definition of a survivor, and her surviving these games came as no surprise.

Katniss outsmarted the capital, and my prediction for book two is that she will suffer for it.  Peeta and Katniss have survived together, yet they are still under the capital's control.  I believe book two will become another story of survival.  How will Peeta and Katniss's lives be changed after surviving these games?  How will she handle returning to District 12? How will she handle her relationship with Peeta?  After she confesses to playing into the "star-crossed lovers" image to help win the game, Peeta is heartbroken.  They arrive back home and put on a show for the crowd one last time:

"One more time? For the audience?" he says. His voice isn't angry. It's hollow, which is worse. Already the boy with the bread is slipping away from me. I take his hand, holding on tightly, preparing for the cameras, and dreading the moment when I will finally have to let go.” 

Collins shares his voice was "hollow" and this is worse than "angry." Wow, that's powerful craft.  We all know that hollow voice and look of goodbye.  Katniss is no doubt confused but now seems to be entering back into her district solo.  Can she now survive without Peeta?  What happens after she "let's go?"  Definitely planning to get my hands on book two in this series!