{"id":200,"date":"2011-02-17T07:00:52","date_gmt":"2011-02-17T15:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=200"},"modified":"2011-02-13T17:58:17","modified_gmt":"2011-02-14T01:58:17","slug":"mark-reads-mockingjay-chapter-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2011\/02\/mark-reads-mockingjay-chapter-15\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘Mockingjay’: Chapter 15"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fifteenth chapter of Mockingjay<\/em>, Collins quickly shows us how much this series has improved from the first book by metaphorically punching us in the face. <\/em>If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re intrigued, then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Mockingjay<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The implications of what Gale is suggesting settle quietly around the room. You can see the reaction playing out on people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s faces. The expressions range from pleasure to distress, from sorrow to satisfaction.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The majority of the workers are citizens from Two,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Beetee neutrally.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153So what?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Gale. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never be able to trust them again.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This is not a good idea, Gale. The more I think about it, the more I hope that other people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t buy it as well. There has<\/em> to be another option than to suffocate an entire mountain base.<\/p>\n
Katniss seems to be the first to jump towards disagreeing with Gale and I have so much respect for her for doing so.<\/p>\n
I have to close my eyes a minute, as the image rips through me. It has the desired effect. I want everyone in that mountain dead. Am about to say so. But then\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also a girl from District 12. Not President Snow. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help it. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t condemn someone to the death he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s suggesting. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Gale,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I say, taking his arm and trying to speak in a reasonable tone. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Nut\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an old mine. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be like causing a massive coal mining accident.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Surely the words are enough to make anyone from 12 think twice about the plan.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
RIGHT?????<\/em> I know they have to fight back, and I know that any sign of mercy on the part of the rebels might be interpreted as weakness by the Capitol. But what Gale is advocating for is murder. He wants to murder all of those people without giving them the chance to surrender or anything.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But not so quick as the one that killed our fathers,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he retorts. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Is that everyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s problem? That our enemies might have a few hours to reflect on the fact that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re dying, instead of just being blown to bits?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
UGH THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING. There is certainly a part of me that feels Gale is right, that the situation is desperate enough to warrant such a drastic course of action. But most of me is like NO NO NO NO PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS SUFFOCATION IS AN AWFUL WAY TO GO<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how those District Two people ended up in the Nut,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I say. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They may have been coerced. They may be held against their will. Some are our own spies. Will you kill them, too?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I would sacrifice a few, yes, to take out the rest of them,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he replies. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And if I were a spy in there, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBring on the avalanches!\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Katniss, HIGH FIVES FOREVER<\/em>. That is a brilliant point. It is wonderful. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s subtle enough to convey the message that the rebels are operating within a zone of ignorance regarding who is in the Nut and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a way to make Gale force to acknowledge what he is doing. Unfortunately, Gale doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care. He knows he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be killing innocent people and the ends justifies the means.<\/p>\n
Please do not go through with this plan.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You said we had two choices,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Boggs tells him. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153To trap them or to flush them out. I say we try to avalanche the mountain but leave the train tunnel alone. People can escape into the square, where we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be waiting for them.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
A slightly, slightly<\/em> better idea, but still. This is murder. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to kill a lot of innocent people.<\/p>\n
But after consulting Coin in District Thirteen, the choice is made. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll trigger the avalanches and leave the train station open for people to escape. Katniss suits up as the Mockingjay and heads over to the Justice Building to watch over the train station.<\/p>\n
Ugh, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s making me nervous just typing this up, having to read this again. Gale\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan turns out to be perfect, even more so than they predicted:<\/p>\n
Whole sections of the Nut collapse before our eyes, obliterating any sign that human beings have ever set foot on the place. We stand speechless, tiny and insignificant, as waves of stone thunder down the mountain. Burying entrances under tons of rock. Raising a cloud of dirt and debris that blackens the sky. Turning the Nut into a tomb.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
They did it. They actually did it. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no way to avoid the obvious now. People died instantaneously. Some will die in a few hours. But a lot<\/em> of the people in that building are never going to see the next day, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a high chance most of them never deserved it at all. So, so fucked up.<\/p>\n
Collins is rather brilliant for putting this act into context. It triggers a very specific and horrific memory for Katniss, of the day there was an explosion in the mines in District 12, and her and Gale\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fathers did not return alive. In one of the more poetic passages of the series, she parallels the sound of the sirens, the black debris and soot that litters the air, and the inevitable terror of the moment to what the rebels just did to those in the Nut.<\/p>\n
If there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a more helpless feeling than trying to reach someone you love who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trapped underground, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know it. The wounded. The bodies. The waiting through the night. Blankets put around your shoulders by strangers. A mug of something hot that you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t drink. And then finally, at dawn, the grieved expression on the face of the mine captain that could only mean one thing.<\/p>\n
What did we just do?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve become that which you were fighting against. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re murdering people because you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re supposed to, because in war our morality is twisted and bent to fit the needs of the moment. This is not to suggest that war or violence is inherently immoral, either, but this<\/em> act in this<\/em> war is pretty damn awful. Did it need to happen? Hell that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably the worst part of it. It might be a necessary evil.<\/p>\n
Haymitch interrupts this flashback and instructs Katniss to head indoors in case the Capitol retaliates and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s out in the open. She heads down inside of the Justice Building and, in a direct parallel to Katniss\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s memory, she sits inside the cold, soulless building and waits. And waits. She waits for any sign of life to come out of the train tunnel and even though her father isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t in this group, she can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but feel how eerily similar this all is to that day years ago. Boggs comes by to accompany her and let her know that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re simply going to keep the tracks open so that the citizens inside the Nut can get as many people out as possible. The rebels who had pushed the Peacekeepers back a few blocks so that the train station wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t in their possession are using the opportunity to rest. Haymitch, meanwhile, has an update on Peeta.<\/p>\n
Apparently, when he watched the clip of Katniss singing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Hanging Tree\u00e2\u20ac\u009d outside the house by the lake, he said he remembered the song. Katniss initially discounts it as progress until Haymitch adds that Peeta specifically remembered that he heard the song from Katniss\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s father.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the first connection to you that hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t triggered some mental meltdown,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Haymitch. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something, at least, Katniss.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It is something. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s small and subtle, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something.<\/p>\n
I expected survivors to begin pouring out of the train station rather quickly, but was instead shocked to read that hours pass without a sign of life. Night arrives and giant spotlights are set up outside the train tunnel. No one comes. Midnight strikes. Not one train comes out of the mountain.<\/em><\/p>\n
Sometime past midnight, Haymitch asks Katniss to head to the steps of the Justice Building to give a speech that will be broadcast not only to the country, but amplified for anyone who may still be alive inside the Nut. Katniss agrees because it seems like the only way left to save lives and heads outside, awaiting Haymitch to tell her what to say. And just as she begins her speech, introducing herself, a set of trains rapidly pull into the station.<\/p>\n
The pair of trains comes screeching into the train station side by side. As the doors slide open, people tumble out in a cloud of smoke they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve brought from the Nut. They must have had at least an inkling of what would await them at the square, because you can see them trying to act evasively. Most of them flatten on the floor, and a spray of bullets inside the station takes out the lights. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve come armed, as Gale predicted, but they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve come wounded as well. The moans can be heard in the otherwise silent air.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s utter chaos. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to tell you yet again that Collins truly excels at this sort of writing, but I do love giving her praise for this. She doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore the poetry of the imagery she provides, drawing parallels to the past and using the first-person-present to ramp up the intensity. She is simply fantastic<\/em> at building and creating these moments of terror and confusion and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very easy to feel as if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been dropped into the situation yourself.<\/p>\n
Katniss stops being an observer when she notices a young man stumble out of the train and fall to the floor, burn marks across his back. She yells to the rebels to stop firing on those who are coming out of the trains and then:<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m nearing the young man, reaching down to help him, when he drags himself up to his knees and trains his gun on my head.<\/p>\n
I instinctively back up a few steps, raise my bow over my head to show my intention was harmless. Now that he has both hands on his gun, I notice the ragged hole in his cheek where something\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfalling stone maybe\u00e2\u20ac\u201dpunctured the flesh.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Good fucking god. What is Katniss going to do? What has she done? Did she just put herself in needless danger? Maybe so, but she also clearly wanted to help out and ensure more people didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t die. But now the situation is so much more intense.<\/p>\n
His garbled speech is barely comprehensible. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Give me one reason I shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t shoot you.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
We know Katniss performs best when unscripted. She cannot fake things to save her life. So the first words out of her mouth are completely genuine: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the problem, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I lower my blow. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We blew up your mine. You burned my district to the ground. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got every reason to kill each other. So do it. Make the Capitol happy. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m done killing their slaves for them.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I drop my bow on the ground and give it a nudge with my boot. It slides across the stone and comes to rest at his knees.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not their slave,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the man mutters.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Maybe not, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to ignore Katniss\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s point. When she elaborates, she gives it a wonderfully powerful context.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I say. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why I killed Cato\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6and he killed Thresh\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6and he killed Clove\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6and she tried to kill me. It just goes around and around, and who wins? Not us. Not the districts. Always the Capitol. But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m tired of being a piece in their Games.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Peeta. On the rooftop the night before our first Hunger Games. He understood it all before we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d even set foot in the arena. I hope he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s watching now, that he remembers that night as it happened, and maybe forgives me when I die.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Simply beautiful. Collins, bravo<\/em>. I never thought the story would reach a point like this, but I love it. Katniss has realized that even she has been complicit in the reign of terror, even though she was defending herself. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a poignant way for us to be reminded of the power of identity, especially an identity forged separate from the oppression the Capitol smashes down on its citizens.<\/p>\n
As Katniss gains the confidence that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s finally found a way to break this perpetual struggle between the districts, she continues to speak openly about what has happened. Why have the people in the Nut turned against their own victors and citizens? Why have the rebels agreed to kill people crawling from the rubble of the blast? Why isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the focus on the real enemy?<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Who is the enemy?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d whispers Haymitch.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153These people\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI indicate the wounded bodies on the square\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u0153are not your enemy! We all have one enemy, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the Capitol! This is our chance to put an end to their power, but we need every district person to do it!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
$\"\"$ <\/p>\n
I LOVE IT. Katniss, LOOK AT YOU. LOOK AT YOUR LIFE. LOOK AT YOUR CHOICES. They are wonderful and I love you forever for them<\/em>.<\/p>\n
The cameras are tight on me as I reach out my hands to the man, to the wounded, to the reluctant rebels across Panem. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Please! Join us!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
My words hang in the air. I look to the screen, hoping to see them recording some wave of reconciliation going through the crowd.<\/p>\n
Instead I watch myself get shot on television.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
$\"\"$ <\/p>\n
NO. NO!!!!! YOU ARE FUCKING KIDDING ME.<\/em><\/p>\n
A;LKSDFJ A;L KSDFJ @!#$ 48U SADFJ 234 ^#$&^<\/p>\n
That is seriously the worst cliffhanger of a chapter ever. In the history of ever. WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the fifteenth chapter of Mockingjay, Collins quickly shows us how much this series has improved from the first book by metaphorically punching us in the face. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re intrigued, then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Mockingjay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,5],"tags":[28,23,39,24,29,27],"class_list":["post-200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mockingjay","category-hunger-games","tag-katniss-everdeen","tag-mark-reads","tag-mark-reads-mockingjay","tag-mark-reads-the-hunger-games","tag-so-fucked-up","tag-suzanne-collins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}