In the critical context, "Perhaps I Am Watching You Now: Panem's Panopticons", Kelly Wezner tells us about how each character is driven slowly insane by how they believe they have been or had been watched throughout their lives. But perhaps the most compelling character review would be on Katniss; about how confusing the role of the Mockingjay is. The main point of the whole essay is the fact that Katniss believes she was being watched the whole time when in reality, the Mockingjay was...
Our young star Katniss, torn apart by two different men, (secretly though) returns to her childhood home, damaged, mind whirling, ready to be left alone and go back to her old life... Not so fast, capitol citizens! A crisp rose has been left in Katniss's room. Who could it be from?
Katniss knew right away who it was from and became deathly afraid, for now she understands, he's been watching. And it's more than just the Games. It's rather funny though, because now she knows she must watch herself. The whole show of the Hunger Games is what to edit and what to not edit, and that is what the Capitol as well as Katniss must do.
The Capitol's intentions on watching and broadcasting is to show punishments, to keep control, and to warn people of rebellion against the Capitol, Wezner explains, (Perhaps I Am, 149). See, for some odd reason, the Capitol has very talented special effects artists who can manipulate videos and show certain dramatic scenes - such as a bombing that never happened, so that they can scare the districts from rebelling. And the Capitol is great at what they do - they succeed in scaring most of the people. Operative word here is most. Katniss, Finnick, and their crew are not most. And they learn that they must manipulate themselves to create the rebellion using Capitol cameras. And they succeed as well with the help of their own hackers, such as Beetee (I believe) who can hack into the system and broadcast their own shows, which is where the Mockingjay comes into play. This is when I start believing the connection from the Mockingjay as a symbol is being used.
Wezner gives a great rendition to the whole watching role with President Snow's quote that he wasn't actually watching anyone but the Mockingjay while Katniss was watching P. Snow. She states that,
"Coin's manipulation of the panoptic gaze has led to the destruction of the Capitol and the near-destruction of Katniss," (Perhaps I Am, 156).
But I disagree to an extent. You see, I believe Katniss and the Mockingjay are two separate people. Throughout the final two books, I really believed this. In my head, Katniss is the person to fight and the person who thinks she must fight for her world's sake (and by world I mean the districts) and for her family's sake. But what she doesn't understand is that the Mockingjay is a character. The Mockingjay is a person or maybe even just a symbol for Coin to use to help people stand up against the Capitol. I feel it has always been this way, especially from the start. When Cinna first puts her into her wedding dress, and as she turns, she goes aflame; the garb falls off her and reveals the Mockingjay dress. This is the first instance that really shows that she isn't even behind the whole "Mockingjay Movement", remember that she doesn't dress herself, and eventually doesn't make decisions for herself (District 13 may help with that), though until the day that she does take her mind back to herself.
She doesn't kill P. Snow. And that left me in awe. She does not kill him. After all this time of being scared out of her mind about him, she sides with him, and decides that after all, he is not the bad guy. Wezner states that she found that Katniss's efforts to end the Hunger Games have substituted in another way to become controlled, and that is the ways of District 13. I wholeheartedly agree with this one, I believe both are the bad guy, that while one is killing lives, the other is killing lives as well. There are just two different ways of this happening here. While one is literal, the other is mentally. People aren't allowed a choice in either instance, and by killing the one who is not a prisoner forces the ways of both Presidents to subside.
In the end, I believe Katniss will never live as happily ever after as we want her to, but she can live as happily ever after as she can, which is with love and kindness, and apparently still being watched. Will they ever go un-watched?
This may contain spoilers if you haven’t read the entire series!!
ReplyDeleteYou make some really great points about people manipulating information in your response. I agree that the Capitol used editing to their advantage all the time. When they were playing the videos of “live” feed from district 13 it was really just an old video they kept reusing. I also agree with your thought about Katniss really having two separate roles in the rebellion, herself and the Mockingjay. I feel like the rebellion manipulated Katniss almost as much as the Capitol did. This also ties in well with how the media has the ability to manipulate what we hear and see on TV. A good example of this is all of the presidential campaign commercials that are on TV now. One says one thing and another says something totally opposite. It’s hard to know who to trust.
Yeah, I agree with ya. It seems like no matter what, Katniss is being used or controlled by some other person than herself, and I feel like her goal was to become her own person and live the way she chooses, not who someone else chooses for her.
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