The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

Though the cabbage soup Coriolanus is making disgusts him, he knows he must eat it—it won’t do if his stomach rumbles during the reaping. Nobody can know that his family, once one of the most powerful in the Capitol, is now “as poor as district scum.” As he cooks, Coriolanus worries about his shirt. His cousin Tigris found the old shirt in the back of Coriolanus’s deceased father’s wardrobe to fix up, but she and the shirt are gone now. She doesn’t have anything to trade for something better except her body, the thought of which makes Coriolanus sick.

Coriolanus’s grandmother begins her morning routine of playing the recording of the Capitol Anthem, “Gem of Panem,” and singing along. She’s been doing this daily for a decade—and she’s a terrible singer. Coriolanus wonders whether more furniture would muffle the sound, but there’s no way for his family to afford more furniture. Like most apartments in the Capitol, the Snows’ was damaged during rebel attacks, and the family had to burn many books and wood carvings during the siege. Other families have begun to recover, but not the Snows. Coriolanus wonders how long he can keep up this charade.

Coriolanus wonders whether he can call in sick if Tigris doesn’t return with the shirt. He digs through the fridge to find more ingredients for his soup and discovers a pot of terrible-looking shredded potatoes. Sighing, Coriolanus remembers how Avoxes, tongueless workers, used to collect trash—before people stopped throwing things away out of necessity. These days, waste—and prosperity—are starting to come back, though. 

As Coriolanus’s grandmother hits the final notes of the anthem, Coriolanus sighs. She keeps talking about how Coriolanus is going to be president one day, but she hasn’t been mentally with it for years now. Coriolanus pokes at his soup and realizes he can’t skip the reaping. His communications professor, Satyria Click, has arranged for him to get one of the 24 Hunger Games mentorships—and if he doesn’t go, he might lose out on the mentorship and the cash prizes that will pay for his university education.

Tigris comes in through the front door, interrupting Coriolanus’s thoughts. She excitedly offers him a garment bag. Inside is a classy, cream-colored shirt with black velvet cuffs and collar and gold and ebony cubes for buttons. Coriolanus happily says, “Snow lands on top,” the saying that emotionally got them through the war. Tigris explains how she spent the entirety of the last 24 hours updating the shirt and then dumps the potatoes from the fridge (her source for ironing starch) into the soup.

Noticing the time, Coriolanus gulps down some soup and changes into his school uniform pants, almost too-small boots, and the dress shirt. He isn’t very tall, but most of his peers aren’t tall—growing up during wartime stunted everyone’s growth. Then, Coriolanus parades into the living room to show Tigris how he looks. Tigris squeals and calls in their grandmother, whom they call Grandma’am. Grandma’am appears with a fresh red rose from her rooftop garden and offers it to Coriolanus to pin to his shirt. A thorn punctures his finger, causing him to bleed, but Tigris quickly trims up the rose and pins it to Coriolanus’s shirt. Then, Coriolanus heads down the apartment building’s stairs and out into the city.

The apartment building is on the Corso, which was once a grand avenue. Coriolanus remembers when it was grand, but though the streets are clear these days, there’s still rubble from the bombings on the sidewalk. Sometimes, Coriolanus wonders if the debris on the street is there to remind people of how horrible the war was. It’s essential that nobody forget the war, which is why the Hunger Games exists. “Forgetting could lead to complacency.”

Coriolanus slows as he reaches Scholars Road so he’s not too sweaty—but it’s also July Fourth and scorching hot, so that’s a bit of a lost cause. He approaches the Academy, the finest secondary school in the Capitol. Fortunately, it’s tuition-free and provides lunch, supplies, and uniforms. Coriolanus tries to look dignified as he climbs the grand staircase. If he does well as a mentor to one of the Hunger Games tributes, he’ll win a prize that should cover tuition at the University. Mentors are new this year. Pairing bright Academy seniors with tributes is supposed to pique interest and get people to watch the Games, which most people avoid—all the Games consist of is dumping tributes into an old amphitheater with weapons so they can murder each other.

Coriolanus heads for Heavensbee Hall and accepts a goblet of posca (watery wine), but only drinks enough to cover his cabbage breath. Knowing he has to be charming since he doesn’t have any money, Coriolanus greets friends and teachers as he moves toward Satyria. Coriolanus is annoyed when the gym teacher, Agrippa Sickle, heads his way, followed by her aide Sejanus Plinth. Sejanus is dressed beautifully; his father was a District Two munitions manufacturer who bought the Plinth family’s life in the Capitol, mostly by funding the Academy’s reconstruction after the war. Coriolanus hates “climbers” like the Plinths, and he especially hates the Plinths since the Snow family was in the munitions business too. But their business was in District 13, which was nuked and is no longer habitable. Coriolanus has ignored Sejanus since Sejanus first appeared on the playground.

Professor Sickle greets Satyria and compliments Coriolanus’s shirt, which she recognizes as being Coriolanus’s father’s. As the professors chat, Sejanus sighs to Coriolanus that his family is moving closer to the school—the Capitol is going to start taxing properties in the city, and many people won’t be able to afford their homes. Privately, Coriolanus panics: his family won’t be able to afford the apartment on Tigris’s meager salary. But a bell rings, signaling that the reaping is about to begin.

Dean Casca Highbottom, the man who created the Hunger Games, will oversee the mentor program. As usual, he’s clearly on a drug called morphling, so he slurs as he reads the assignments. As Dean Highbottom goes down the list, Coriolanus begins to worry: he hoped for a tribute from Districts One, Two, Four, or 11, as tributes from those districts tend to win. Coriolanus gets the final assignment: the girl from District 12.