Previous
The Grandma’am
Crassus Snow is Coriolanus’s deceased father. Before the war, he was a munitions magnate whose business was based in District 13. He lost everything in the war, when nuclear bombs flattened 13 and destroyed the factories. Crassus joined the military and became a great commander, but he died when a rebel sniper shot him. Coriolanus was a young child at the time. All Coriolanus has left of his father is his compass, and he seldom thinks fondly of his Crassus—his father always made him feel afraid and inadequate. In the leadup to the Hunger Games, Coriolanus starts to get snippets of information about his father: apparently, he was best friends with Casca Highbottom, the current Dean at the Academy. Coriolanus can’t figure out how Dean Highbottom could’ve been his father’s best friend, yet hate Coriolanus so openly. Only after Coriolanus returns from District 12 does he learn the truth: Crassus was the one to write down Highbottom’s drunken ramblings and turn them into a proposal to be presented to their professor, Dr. Gaul. That proposal was for the Hunger Games. Dean Highbottom sees Crassus as morally corrupt, as he cared about his grade far more than he cared about the cruelty and carnage the Hunger Games would bring. Coriolanus, however, isn’t bothered by this revelation—by this point, he has chosen to follow in his father’s footsteps and prioritize his grades and his success over anything else.
Crassus Snow Quotes in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
The The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes quotes below are all either spoken by Crassus Snow or refer to Crassus Snow. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 30 Quotes
He went to the bathroom and emptied his pockets. The lake water had reduced his mother’s rose-scented powder to a nasty paste, and he threw the whole thing in the trash. The photos stuck together and shredded when he tried to separate them, so they went the way of the powder. Only the compass had survived the outing.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Crassus Snow Character Timeline in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
The timeline below shows where the character Crassus Snow appears in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3
...in the tunnel. The sound of its horn stirs up memories in Coriolanus: his father, Crassus Snow, was a military commander and required his family to meet him at the train...
(full context)
Chapter 6
...and to Grandma’am, there are no similarities between Capitol people and “districts.” She notes that Crassus Snow said that “those people only dr[i]nk water because it d[oesn’t] rain blood,” and she...
(full context)
Chapter 11
...a regular patron if Pluribus reopens the club, Pluribus chuckles that Coriolanus will be like Crassus—who used to be the last one in the club every night with “that rascal Casca...
(full context)
...can’t stop thinking about what Pluribus said about his father and Dean Highbottom. Even if Crassus and Highbottom were friends once, Highbottom clearly hates Coriolanus. But Coriolanus has no chance to...
(full context)
Chapter 12
...discuss how Coriolanus loved the parades when he was little. And Tigris recalls how, after Crassus Snow died, soldiers delivered a basket with food, including a turkey, to the apartment. Tigris...
(full context)
Chapter 16
...assurances about their children’s future. She couldn’t know what kids would experience—she’d never have predicted Crassus Snow’s son would end up in the Capitol Arena. She asks what the arena was...
(full context)
Chapter 19
...in his velvet smoking jacket, but he still gives Coriolanus a look that Coriolanus remembers Crassus giving him. Strabo says that while Coriolanus looks like Crassus, he’s not like Crassus at...
(full context)
Chapter 21
...believe Coriolanus didn’t know about the rat poison. Then, he noted that the handkerchief had Crassus Snow’s initials embroidered on it. He told Coriolanus to join the Peacekeepers, and Coriolanus desperately...
(full context)
Chapter 23
...Coriolanus finds a letter from Pluribus on his bunk. Near the end, Pluribus writes that Crassus and Dean Highbottom’s friendship dissolved near the end because of something Highbottom said was supposed...
(full context)
Chapter 25
...He feels great afterward; he loves taking tests. Maybe he’ll become a military commander like Crassus Snow.
(full context)
Chapter 30
Coriolanus uses Crassus Snow’s compass to navigate back to District 12. Back at the base, a doctor examines...
(full context)
Epilogue
...got one during the Hunger Games—which were Highbottom’s idea. But Highbottom explains that he and Crassus Snow came up with the idea for the games. Dr. Gaul had assigned them to...
(full context)
Snow notes that Crassus is dead, but Dean Highbottom points out that Dr. Gaul is still staging the Hunger...
(full context)
