{"id":71,"date":"2010-12-13T09:52:53","date_gmt":"2010-12-13T17:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=71"},"modified":"2015-02-07T21:10:34","modified_gmt":"2015-02-08T05:10:34","slug":"mark-reads-the-hunger-games-chapter-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2010\/12\/mark-reads-the-hunger-games-chapter-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcThe Hunger Games\u00e2\u20ac\u2122: Chapter 18"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the eighteenth chapter of The Hunger Games<\/em>, everything is fucked up and awful. This is supposed to be a YA book??? COLOR ME SURPRISED<\/em><\/strong>. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re intrigued, then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Hunger Games<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I sort of want to take back my prediction about Rue. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want this true anymore.<\/p>\n

This chapter is some of Collins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s best writing and exists as justification for why the book was written in the narration style she chose. The urgency makes more sense than ever, as we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re left to experience the heartbreak and trauma as it unfolds.<\/p>\n

The boy from District 1 dies before he can pull out the spear. My arrow drives deeply into the center of his neck. He falls to his knees and halves the brief remainder of his life by yanking out the arrow and drowning in his own blood. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m reloaded, shifting my aim from side to side, while I shout at Rue, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Are there more? Are there more?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s matter-of-fact. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just the reality of this now. Katniss has now killed three people and she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even hesitate with this boy. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dead just seconds after the arrow enters her neck.<\/p>\n
Shit is so goddamn real, guys.<\/p>\n
Rue has rolled to her side, her body curved in and around the spear. I shove the boy away from her and pull out my knife, freeing her from the net. One look at the wound and I know it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s far beyond my capacity to heal. Beyond anyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably. The spearhead is buried up to the shaft in her stomach. I crouch before her, staring helplessly at the embedded weapon. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no point in comforting words, in telling her she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be all right. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no fool.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Wow, this is seriously awful. I am not very attached to anyone in this book at this point, but Rue is about to die. And I kind of feel horrible about it? Not gonna lie, this is legitimately sad to me.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You have to win,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she says.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to. Going to win for both of us now,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I promise. I hear a cannon and look up. It must be for the boy from District 1.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
THIS SHIT IS FUCKED UP.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she says, but I barely catch the word.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Oh\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6could you not? Like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6oh, this is going to be awkward. Is this kind of over-the-top cheesy? I mean\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6I know if fits. Music means a lot to Rue and Katniss. (Music reminds Katniss of her father.)<\/p>\n
I get it and I get why Collins put it here. I imagine to some people this is gut-wrenching and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t blame them, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a bit too much for me. THIS IS JUST A PERSONAL PREFERENCE, I DO NOT BLAME COLLINS FOR THIS.<\/p>\n
Though, the final lines of the song are pretty damning.<\/p>\n
Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true<\/em><\/p>\n
Here is the place where I love you<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Ok, that is a pretty heavy. I just have a cold, empty heart for this kind of stuff. But I realize what Rue means to Katniss, how she represents Prim and how she also represents trusting, loving innocence. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gone.<\/p>\n
Heavy metaphor, sure, but I appreciate it just the same.<\/p>\n
For a moment, I sit there, watching my tears drip down on her face. Rue\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cannon fires. I lean forward and press my lips against her temple. Slowly, as if not to wake her, I lay her head back on the ground and release her hand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Yeah, ok, this is really goddamn sad. If I had any tears left after reading Harry Potter<\/em>, I might have shed a tear here. BUT I DIDN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T BECAUSE J.K. ROWLING STOLE ALL MY SAD<\/em>.<\/p>\n
OK, MOVING ON.<\/p>\n
I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop looking at Rue, smaller than ever, a baby animal curled up in a nest of netting. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bring myself to leave her like this. Past harm, but seeming utterly defenseless. To hate the boy from District 1, who also appears so vulnerable in death, seems inadequate. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the Capitol I hate, for doing this to all of us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
You know, I hate them too. Like a seething, bitter hatred. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even care about Katniss that much and I hate them for exposing her all the other Tributes to this bullshit.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this moment that Katniss has a revelation: Peeta\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s statement on the roof of the Training Center finally make sense. Katniss is owned by the Capitol. She murdered three people and just watched a twelve-year-old girl die in front of her, ostensibly because of her. The only act left, the only form of rebellion that makes sense, is to show that they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t completely <\/em>owned by the Games.<\/p>\n
A few steps into the woods grows a bank of wildflowers. Perhaps they are really weeds of some sort, but they have blossoms in beautiful shades of violet and yellow and white. I gather up an armful and come back to Rue\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s side. Slowly, one stem at a time, I decorate her body in flowers. Covering the ugly wound. Wreathing her face. Weaving her hair with bright colors<\/p>\n
They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have to show it. Or even if they choose to turn the cameras elsewhere at this moment, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have to bring them back when they collect the bodies and everyone will see her then and know I did it. I step back and take a last look at Rue. She could really be asleep in that meadow after all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Goodbye, Rue. You were probably the most interesting character of the bunch and your time was too short. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m gonna miss you.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve no idea where to go. The brief sense of home I had that one night with Rue has vanished. My feet wander this way and that until sunset. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not afraid, not even watchful. Which makes me an easy target. Except I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d kill anyone I met on sight. Without emotion or the slightest tremor in my hands.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Well, this is scary turn of events. Has Katniss come unhinged? The thing is that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been built up as this dependable, focused individual and Rue\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death has now caused her to become\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6well, empty.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help when Katniss appears to get Rue\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gift from her sponsor, which arrived too late. LIKE SERIOUSLY GUYS, WAY TO RUB IT IN HER FACE. But Katniss does regain her composure to begin to do anything she can to subvert the Games:<\/p>\n
I lift my face and step into the falling rays of sunlight. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My thanks to the people of District Eleven,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I say. I want them to know I know where it came from. That the full value of their gift has been recognized.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Definitely my favorite part of this chapter. Sure, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tiny, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a gesture that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so outright defiant of what these games are meant to do: homogenize and dehumanize. Sure, Katniss has the emotional depth of a spoon, but she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not dense.<\/p>\n
There are only six tributes left. Holy shit.<\/p>\n
Heaviness infuses my whole body, as if there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s liquid lead in my veins. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve lost the will to do the simplest tasks, to do anything but lie here, staring unblinkingly through the canopy of leaves. For several hours, I remain motionless. As usual, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the thought of Prim\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s anxious face as she watches me on the screens back home that breaks me from my lethargy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I blame this lethargy on a combination of shock and depression. I remember how lethargic and unmotivated I used to be back when I suffered from depression and this is strangely reminiscent of those moments. But Prim (and Rue, in a way) help Katniss get out of her tree, pack up and consolidate, and figure out what on earth she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supposed to do.<\/p>\n
I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t answer that question or any of the others that Katniss has. What exactly do you do<\/em> after all this? Where is everyone? Are they coming after her to exact revenge?<\/p>\n
I really think I stand a chance of doing it now. Winning. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just having the arrows or outsmarting the Careers a few times, although those things help. Something happened when I was holding Rue\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hand, watching the life drain out of her. Now I am determined avenge her, to make her loss unforgettable, and I can only do that by winning and thereby making myself unforgettable.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Calling it: Katniss is going to kill Peeta. I mean, she has to, right? This will be her justification and I imagine the guilt of it will carry over to the next book.<\/p>\n
But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m surprised by how quickly the guilt wells up in her over what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done so far.<\/p>\n
I hear Gale saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How different can it be, really?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Amazingly similar in execution. A bow pulled, an arrow shot. Entirely different in the aftermath. I killed a boy whose name I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know. Somewhere his family is weeping for him. His friends call for my blood. Maybe he had a girlfriend who really believed he would come back\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I think this guilt will also extend to the rest of the series. (Which, by the way, I was thinking\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no way the next two books will features Katniss playing the Hunger Games, right? Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t answer that.) Katniss is going to have to come to terms with what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done so far and I imagine that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only worse shit to come.<\/p>\n
And yet\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6Collins still manages to surprise me. Trumpets sound in the arena, which is rare, but it means that the Gamemakers are going to make an announcement to all remaining Tributes. Katniss says this is usually reserved for an announcement of a feast to goad those still alive into one area for the final battle, but hey, guess what? Not at all what happens here.<\/p>\n
Claudius Templesmith\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s voice booms down from overheard, congratulating the six of us who remain. But he is not inviting us to a feast. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s saying something very confusing. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a rule change in the Games. A rule change! That in itself is mind bending since we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really have any rules to speak of except don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t step off your circle for sixty seconds and the unspoken rule about not eating one another.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
My prediction, when I read this, was that the Gamemakers would institute a time limit on the Game in an attempt to speed things up. Oh, how wrong I was.<\/p>\n
Under the new rule, both tributes from the same district will be declared winners if they are the last two alive. Claudius pauses, as if he knows we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not getting it, and repeats the change again.<\/p>\n
The news sinks in. Two tributes can win this year. If they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re from the same district. Both can live. Both of us can live.<\/p>\n
Before I can stop myself, I call out Peeta\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Well, holy shit, Suzanne Collins. So now Peeta is (probably) going to survive??? Since Katniss obviously has to win, now there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the chance for Peeta to as well? OH, GALE IS GONNA BE SO JEALOUS.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a neat twist. I dig it so far. But\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6there is still the chance that Peeta is going to die.<\/p>\n
I see that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve now made it to Part III. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Victor.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Holy shit, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re almost to the end!<\/p>\n
$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the eighteenth chapter of The Hunger Games, everything is fucked up and awful. This is supposed to be a YA book??? COLOR ME SURPRISED. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re intrigued, then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Hunger Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,488],"tags":[28,24,29,27],"class_list":["post-71","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hunger-games","category-the-hunger-games-novel","tag-katniss-everdeen","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\/71","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=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}