Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay

By Suzanne Collins

Have you ever thought about how media manipulates consumers to buy their products, such as starting a sweepstakes on Facebook to earn more followers. In the book Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, the Capitol and District 13 both manipulate Katniss and her friends. At first I thought just the Capitol was controlling Katniss and the rest of Panem, but now I think that District 13 is doing the same.

District 13 is just as powerful and controlling as the Capitol. One part where the author communicates this idea is “What they want is for me to truly take on the role they designed for me. The symbol of the revolution. The Mockingjay. I won’t have to do it alone. They have a whole team of people to make me over, dress me, write my speeches, orchestrate my appearances- as if that doesn’t sound horribly familiar- and all I have to do is play my part.” This shows that District 13 is trying to control what Katniss does, looks, and says. This sounds a lot like when Katniss went into the Hunger Games. She had a prep team to make her look good, a mentor to tell her what to do, and an escort to show her what to say. Katniss has not yet realized that District 13 is as controlling as the Capitol.

District 13 is trying to manipulate Panem. A part of the text that makes me think this is “Yes, other people had plans, I think. Has Peeta guessed, then, how the rebels used us as pawns? How my rescue was arranged from the beginning? And finally, how our mentor, Haymitch Abernathy, betrayed us both for a cause he pretended to have no interest in?” This proves that District 13 is trying to manipulate Katniss by turning her mentor who she trusted against her. Katniss is beginning to realize that District 13 is not so trustworthy after all, and that they might be as bad as the Capitol. Still Katniss has not done anything to prove her point. Katniss should try to find a way to destroy both the Capitol and District 13.

District 13 starts thinking like the Capitol did during the Hunger Games. This is shown in the text, “I'm not with Snow now. I'm in Special Weaponry back in 13 with Gale and Beetee. Looking at the designs based on Gale's traps. That played on human sympathies. The first bomb killed the victims. The second, the rescuers.” This shows that District 13 was thinking like the Capitol: heartless, and willing to kill dozens of children. Gale and Beetee could have set off those bombs, killing a pen full of children. If they were willing to think like the scheming Capitol just to win the war, it makes me think that District 13 and the Capitol were never any different in the first place.

Overall, District 13 manipulated their own population to think that they were the good guys, but in reality they were never much better then the Capitol. Katniss only realizes this in the end when she shoots President Coin instead of President Snow. This story relates to real life because the Capitol and District 13 both manipulated Panem to get the population on their side, and today the media manipulates consumers to get them to buy their product. The Hunger Games trilogy may be a science fiction novel, but it relates to present day remarkably.