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 has never felt so exposed—and he’s never empathized more with the trapped zoo animals. He feels even worse when he notices the Capitol News cameras; their slogan is “If you didn’t see it here, it didn’t happen.” Knowing it’ll look worse if he panics, Coriolanus tries to look bored. But he sweats as the tributes circle and taunt him. Lucy Gray rescues him when she says, “Own it.” Casually, Coriolanus puts his rose behind her ear and offers her his hand so he can introduce her to people. He leads her toward the bars, to a gaggle of children, and asks if they’d like to meet her. Lucy Gray makes her way along the fence, shaking several children’s hands and complimenting them. The crowd seems to love her.
Capitol News’s slogan introduces an important idea: that through its broadcast, it shows people what’s real and what’s truthful. Anything that doesn’t appear on TV, essentially, didn’t happen or isn’t true—so going forward, it’s important to pay attention to what ends up on TV and what doesn’t. In this situation, though, Coriolanus and Lucy Gray figure out how to work with this idea by turning this mishap into a performance. The truth, of course, is that Coriolanus is terrified and shouldn’t be here. But with careful acting, he can project the opposite and start to rehab the Snows’ image.
Themes
Lucy Gray seems surprised when she straightens up and finds herself face to face with a camera. The accompanying reporter introduces himself as Lepidus Malmsey. As Lepidus asks questions, Lucy Gray explains that she’s not really District 12; she’s a Covey, a musician, and the Covey used to travel everywhere. Peacekeepers just forced them to stay in District 12. Lucy Gray says the dress was her mother’s—but her mother is dead. Then, she draws Lepidus’s attention to Coriolanus. Coriolanus says he takes his job of introducing his tribute to the Capitol seriously, though his teachers didn’t give him permission to be here.
Though Lucy Gray doesn’t say so outright, she makes it clear that Peacekeepers (who, as soldiers for the Capitol, stand in for the Capitol here) are to blame for the fact that she’s technically from District 12 at all. The Capitol, she suggests, has created division where there didn’t used to be any. It’s possible to see the mentor program as a halfhearted attempt to remedy this, as it will seem, at least, like the mentors will get to know their tributes and discover that they’re not so different.
Themes
Just then, doors open in the back of the monkey house and Peacekeepers head straight for Coriolanus. Coriolanus tells the camera to come visit Lucy Gray Baird at the zoo, kisses her hand, and then follows the Peacekeepers out. As soon as the doors close behind them, a Peacekeeper snarls that Coriolanus wasn’t supposed to be there. The Peacekeepers transport Coriolanus across town to the Academy. On the various TVs on the streets, Coriolanus sees snatches of Lucy Gray—and he knows they did well. He’s feeling good by the time they reach the Academy and the Peacekeepers escort him to the biology lab. On the door is the list of mentors and their tributes, which makes Coriolanus feel like an afterthought.
The Peacekeepers clearly aren’t a monolith; the drunk Peacekeeper who let Coriolanus accompany the tributes in the truck cage wasn’t doing what he was supposed to do, per this Peacekeeper. This is a reminder that groups in general aren’t monoliths and are, instead, made up of different people with different perspectives and motives. As Coriolanus sees himself on TV, he confirms that he has a knack for manipulating situations to suit him.
Themes
A guard ushers Coriolanus in. Dean Highbottom is in the lab with a small old woman. The old woman is poking a stick at a caged rabbit, which has been modified and now has the jaw strength of a pit bull. This is Dr. Volumnia Gaul, the Head Gamemaker. She’s frightened Coriolanus for years as she habitually tortures animals in front of students. Laughing, Dr. Gaul recites a children’s rhyme of sorts about Coriolanus and his tribute falling in a zoo cage. She encourages Coriolanus to finish the rhyme—and when he does, she says he could be a Gamemaker one day. This seems like a boring, no-skills job, but Coriolanus modestly treats this as a compliment.
Dr. Gaul is a frightening figure: she speaks in warped nursery rhymes, which make her seem less frightening. But she also tortures animals and is the Head Gamemaker, which means that she’s the one responsible for what happens during the Hunger Games. Coriolanus understandably wants to tread carefully around her, as she seems more than capable of lashing out at him for any reason or no reason.
Themes
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Dr. Gaul asks why Coriolanus got in the cage. Coriolanus says it’s all part of getting people to watch the Games. Dean Highbottom seems skeptical that Coriolanus truly understands why they have to keep the Games alive. At the Dean’s prodding, Coriolanus says they have to keep the memory of the war alive because people love children. But remembering how he almost starved during the war, Coriolanus amends this and says people sometimes love children. Dean Highbottom tells Dr. Gaul this is a “failed experiment,” but Dr. Gaul insists it’s only a failure if no one watches the Games. She excuses herself to visit her “mutts”; her reptiles are doing well. Before Coriolanus can follow her, Dean Highbottom says Coriolanus will receive a demerit for being reckless—three demerits, and he’ll be expelled. Dean Highbottom drops morphling on his tongue.
Interestingly, Highbottom seems to be advocating against the Games, which makes little sense at this point. Saying they (or, perhaps, the mentorship program) are a “failed experiment” suggests that they’re already not doing what Highbottom, the Games’ architect, intended them to do. This, of course, raises the question of what he intended the Games to do. As Coriolanus talks about the Games, he reveals what Capitol children have been told to think and believe about them. And he’s starting to see that while in theory, Panem loves its children, in reality, the country has done little to protect children—Capitol or district.
Themes
