Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Propaganda, Spectacle, and Morality
Children
Government and Power
Human Nature
Trust and Loyalty
Summary
Analysis
Coriolanus is disgusted, but he can’t look away. This represents a new level of violence; the Capitol has always let the tributes kill each other. This is Dr. Gaul’s doing. Heavensbee Hall suddenly doesn’t feel like a party. Sejanus leaps up, throws a chair into the screen, and runs away, calling everyone “monsters.” Onscreen, the gong sounds and the tributes race into the arena’s tunnels. Jessup, Tanner, Coral, and Reaper grab weapons first. Lucky encourages viewers to bet on their tribute of choice and cuts back to the arena. Now, Marcus is the only tribute in sight. Coriolanus refuses Lysistrata’s suggestion that he go after Sejanus. He hates that people think he and Sejanus are friends; this will only cause trouble.
Though Coriolanus is horrified by what he sees on the screen, he and his classmates (aside from Sejanus) know how important it is to pretend to be okay with this. Going along with torturing Marcus—and by extension, going along with whatever the government says is correct—is how these kids are one day going to obtain powerful positions themselves. So while Sejanus is doing the morally better thing by standing up and rejecting this abuse, he’s also putting himself in danger since he’s openly defying the government. This is also why Coriolanus refuses to go after Sejanus; he recognizes the danger in what Sejanus does.
Themes
A half-hour later, Lamina, Pup’s District Seven tribute, creeps in front of the barricade erected where the bombs opened the arena to the street. Lamina chooses an ax and a knife from the pile of weapons and then climbs the steel poles where Marcus hangs. She looks at home on the beam on the top. Then, she says something to Marcus. He responds, and Lamina then kills him with her ax. Pup happily screeches that Lamina is “his girl,” and she got the first killing of the games. His communicuff pings—people have bought Lamina food—and Pup then sends Lamina a water bottle. It takes 15 minutes and the first bottle breaks, but a drone successfully delivers a bottle to Lamina.
Without knowing what was said between Lamina and Marcus, it's impossible to tell, but Lamina killing him appears to be more of a mercy killing than anything else. And yet, Pup celebrates Lamina as though she’s a bloodthirsty fighter, not someone who compassionately put Marcus out of his misery. This shows how effectively Dr. Gaul has warped how people see ethics in the Hunger Games. There’s no such thing as mercy or compassion—the kids in the arena are framed as murderous monsters.
Themes
Lamina stays on top of the beam while Reaper prowls in the stands. Lucky struggles to make hosting interesting; the Games have never had a host before. Lepidus arrives in the hall to interview Pup live, but the morning is boring. After lunch, not much happens. Lamina eats some bread and then ties herself to the beam and sleeps. Capitol News shows footage of the plaza in front of the arena, where there are two dogs dressed as Lucy Gray and Jessup. Coriolanus’s communicuff pings, signaling more food.
It's clear that the Games are in new territory this year, with the mentoring program and a host. The fact that what’s actually going on in the arena is so boring helps explain why so few people want to watch: when kids aren’t horrifically murdering each other, there’s nothing to see. It’s going to take more changes before the Hunger Games are the spectacle Dr. Gaul wants.
Themes
Early in the evening, Lucky interviews Dr. Gaul. Dr. Gaul insists that since most of the tributes died before the Games started, they’re actually at the same place they were last year in terms of tribute deaths. She also notes that because of the bombing, tributes have lots of places to hide. But they’ll show themselves soon so they can get food. Then, she suggests that Lucky pull her half-rabbit, half-pit bull mutt out of a hat. After this, the other spectators in the hall leave, but the mentors stay on through the evening. Coriolanus enjoys dinner and strategizes with Lysistrata about getting their tributes food.
Dr. Gaul makes the point that the Games are also different this year because, for the first time, the tributes have places to hide—this will naturally prolong the Games, as it’ll take time for the tributes to all find each other. And again, there’s symbolism here: the arena is like this because of the rebel bombs, so Dr. Gaul can essentially blame this year’s drawn-out Hunger Games on the rebels, rather than take responsibility herself.
Themes
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When the mentors return to their seats after dinner, the screen shows District Three’s tributes Circ and Teslee creeping around the arena. District Three is the technology district, and the kids poke at the fallen drones that brought Lamina her food and water. They poke at the drones until they light up, and they take them back to the tunnels when they see someone else emerge. It’s Reaper, carrying Dill. Dill looks tiny, and red spittle is coming from her mouth. Lysistrata says it looks like Dill has tuberculosis as Reaper lays the girl in the sunshine and heads back to the tunnels. Clemensia says she’s not sending Reaper anything; he didn’t do anything to deserve it. Felix, Dill’s mentor, sends her water. But Dill doesn’t acknowledge it and Treech from District Seven takes the water. Dill dies at sunset.
Through the way that Lamina killed Marcus, and the way that Reaper carries Dill into the arena so gently, the novel starts to create the impression that the tributes in the district are kinder and more compassionate than those watching them—who aren’t killing people, but who desperately want to see the kids in the arena kill each other. The district kids clearly aren’t as morally bankrupt as people like the Grandma’am suggest they are; rather, in these difficult circumstances, they seem to take the moral high ground despite everything else.
Themes
Not long after, Lucky signs off—it’s dark and there’s nothing to see in the arena. The mentors shake hands with Felix and head home. Coriolanus knows that Lucy Gray has a chance if she can just outlive the sick tributes. He also wonders if she’s thinking of him. As he steps into the apartment, his dreams of showering and going to sleep are dashed. Grandma’am and Tigris are in the kitchen with Ma, who’s crying and apologizing. Ma explains that Sejanus is missing. Coriolanus suggests he was upset about seeing Marcus and went to cool off. Grandma’am, annoyed at having to entertain someone like Ma at this hour, implies that Ma should return home in case Sejanus is there. Sejanus agrees to walk her to her car. But on the TV, he and Ma watch as a male figure steps into the arena. It’s Sejanus.
Coriolanus is so obsessed with winning that it never occurs to him to question how it is that the Capitol can allow children to become as ill as Dill was. To him, it’s a good thing that Dill was so sick, since it neatly gets rid of her. This also causes Coriolanus to dehumanize Dill and see her illness not as a condemnation of the Capitol, but as a boon for him. It’s a sign of Grandma’am and Coriolanus’s privilege that they’re not more sympathetic to Ma. Given Sejanus’s outburst earlier, he could be in danger from Dr. Gaul—but instead, they’re just mad that they can’t happily ignore other people’s trouble.
Themes
