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Dr. Volumnia Gaul
Dean Highbottom is the dean of students at the Academy. He’s also credited with inventing the Hunger Games. But while he holds these prestigious roles and distinctions, Highbottom is also a known morphling addict, which students—namely Coriolanus—make fun of him for behind his back. Perplexingly for Coriolanus, Dean Highbottom seems to hate him for seemingly no reason. Highbottom also expresses sentiments throughout the Hunger Games that suggest he doesn’t see children from the districts as lesser than their Capitol counterparts—for instance, he suggests that what sets Capitol and district kids apart is their access to dental care; and when Lucy Gray wins, he surreptitiously gives her a handful of cash and apologizes—and he perhaps doesn’t support the Games at all. Coriolanus also suspects that Dr. Gaul is somehow controlling Highbottom, since Highbottom never seems happy to be sitting in on her sessions with the mentors. Dean Highbottom is all too happy, in Coriolanus’s opinion, to accuse him of cheating in the Games and send him to join the Peacekeepers. Throughout the novel, Coriolanus hears from Pluribus Bell that Dean Highbottom and his father were friends when they were students, an assertion that makes no sense to Coriolanus given how much Dean Highbottom hates him. But upon Coriolanus’s return to the Capitol, he learns the truth: Highbottom and Crassus Snow were best friends, but Highbottom never forgave Crassus for writing down his drunken ideas that eventually became the Hunger Games and submitting the proposal to their professor, Dr. Gaul. He hated Crassus because Crassus cared more about his grades than about people’s lives, an accusation that Highbottom also throws at Coriolanus. Coriolanus, however, isn’t perturbed, as he poisons a bottle of morphling that he throws away in Highbottom’s office trash can.
Dean Casca Highbottom Quotes in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
The The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes quotes below are all either spoken by Dean Casca Highbottom or refer to Dean Casca Highbottom. 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:
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Chapter 9 Quotes
“My condolences on the loss of your friend,” the dean said.
“And on your student. It’s a difficult day for all of us. But the procession was very moving,” Coriolanus replied.
“Did you think so? I found it excessive and in poor taste,” said Dean Highbottom. Taken by surprise, Coriolanus let out a short laugh before he recovered and tried to look shocked. The dean dropped his gaze to Coriolanus’s blue rosebud. “It’s amazing, how little things change. After all the killing. After all the agonized promises to remember the cost. After all of that, I can’t distinguish the bud from the blossom.”
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Chapter 13 Quotes
“But surely, you’re not comparing our children to theirs?” asked Lucky. “One look tells you ours are a superior breed.”
“One look tells you ours have had more food, nicer clothing, and better dental care,” said Dean Highbottom. “Assuming anything more, a physical, mental, or especially a moral superiority, would be a mistake. That sort of hubris almost finished us off in the war.”
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Epilogue Quotes
“Because we credit them with innocence. And if even the most innocent among us turn to killers in the Hunger Games, what does that say? That our essential nature is violent,” Snow explained.
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Dean Casca Highbottom Character Timeline in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
The timeline below shows where the character Dean Casca Highbottom appears in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
Dean Casca Highbottom , the man who created the Hunger Games, will oversee the mentor program. As usual,...
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Chapter 2
...Coriolanus wonders if this assignment has to do with the fact that he jokingly calls Dean Highbottom “High-as-a-Kite-Bottom”—or if this means the Snow family is no longer powerful. Trying to control his...
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...get dessert. They’re serving apple pie today, a rarity. But as Coriolanus studies the slices, Dean Highbottom thrusts an enormous piece at him and then asks what Coriolanus plans to do after...
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Chapter 4
A guard ushers Coriolanus in. Dean Highbottom is in the lab with a small old woman. The old woman is poking a...
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...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...
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Chapter 5
Coriolanus is shocked; his academic record is spotless. Dean Highbottom tells him to go, and Coriolanus does. Later that evening, Coriolanus heads for the zoo....
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Chapter 6
...for her. Dr. Gaul is in the biology lab with her muttation rabbit, along with Dean Highbottom . Dr. Gaul offers some rhymes, gathers the questionnaires, and flips through them. She asks...
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Chapter 7
...and Arachne were better friends than they were. At the all-school assembly, Satyria, rather than Dean Highbottom , speaks about Arachne. Other teachers and staff praise Arachne and announce that Arachne’s funeral...
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Chapter 9
...ridiculous, but he stays quiet. As the crowd starts to disperse, Coriolanus turns to find Dean Highbottom staring at him. They exchange condolences and Coriolanus praises the procession. To his surprise, Dean...
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Fortunately, Dean Highbottom wasn’t lying about the pie. Coriolanus fills his plate and chooses the biggest slice he...
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Chapter 11
When the meeting ends, the mentors head for the biology lab. Dean Highbottom takes roll as Dr. Gaul drops carrots into the muttant rabbit’s cage. She starts by...
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...so the Capitol has the upper hand. Sejanus deems this immoral, and Dr. Gaul taunts Dean Highbottom . Coriolanus wonders if Highbottom is like the rabbit. Cheerfully, Dr. Gaul asks the students...
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...Crassus—who used to be the last one in the club every night with “that rascal Casca Highbottom .” This shocks Coriolanus.
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...the guitar home and 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...
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Chapter 12
To start the meeting, Dr. Gaul and Dean Highbottom review the performances from last night. According to Lucky Flickerman, Tanner and Jessup are the...
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...Dr. Gaul what she loved, and she says she loves that it proved her right. Dean Highbottom says it’s lunchtime before anyone can ask her to clarify. Coriolanus didn’t bring lunch and...
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Chapter 13
...and walks to the Capitol News studio. He tries to look cool and unruffled, but Dean Highbottom tests him by deeming Coriolanus’s kiss with Lucy Gray “touching.” Dr. Gaul notes that unfortunately,...
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Dean Highbottom speaks next about the mentorship program. He notes that the mentors have learned to respect...
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The interview over, the mentors head back to the Academy in vans. Coriolanus puzzles over Dean Highbottom ’s radical suggestion that the districts are just poor, not lesser. He wonders whether he’s...
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Chapter 15
...up at the arena, and Coriolanus leads Ma to a news van with Dr. Gaul, Dean Highbottom , and Peacekeepers around it. Though Dr. Gaul asks Coriolanus for ideas on how to...
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...do but die. He only changes his mind when Coriolanus shares that Dr. Gaul and Dean Highbottom won’t show his death on TV. Coriolanus encourages Sejanus to leave the arena so he...
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Chapter 16
...The Peacekeepers march him outside and deposit him near the news van. Dr. Gaul and Dean Highbottom ignore Coriolanus and Sejanus; finally, an ambulance appears to take the boys to the Citadel....
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Chapter 18
...studio, who’s trying to get his pet parrot to speak. The parrot won’t speak, but Dean Highbottom notes that the bombing created an entirely new arena—and the addition of the drones means...
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Chapter 20
...biology lab. Coriolanus is ecstatic—until he enters the lab to find not Dr. Gaul, but Dean Highbottom . On a table is an Academy napkin, a handkerchief, and Coriolanus’s mother’s compact. Five...
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Chapter 21
...Coriolanus asked to be assigned to District 12. Then, Coriolanus thinks through his meeting with Dean Highbottom . Highbottom accused Coriolanus of stealing the napkin from the Academy. Tapping the compact, he...
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Chapter 22
...out Coriolanus’s diploma. With the diploma, Coriolanus can become an officer. The boys discuss that Dean Highbottom ’s vendetta against Coriolanus is wearing on people—and Sejanus reveals that most people pity Coriolanus...
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Chapter 23
...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 to be...
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Chapter 24
...guitar. She asks if Pluribus might sell her some strings; she still has money from Dean Highbottom . He gave her cash and apologized. This shocks Coriolanus.
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Epilogue
...effects. But before he can head home, Coriolanus heads for the Academy and knocks on Dean Highbottom ’s office door. He asks the dean for his mother’s compact, which Highbottom hands over....
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Dean Highbottom asks if Snow grew a heart in the districts, but Snow says he got one...
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Snow notes that Crassus is dead, but Dean Highbottom points out that Dr. Gaul is still staging the Hunger Games. He started taking morphling...
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...of rat poison in the nearby alley and painstakingly put it into Sejanus’s morphling bottle. Dean Highbottom will never suspect the bottle now in his trash can. As Dean Highbottom dies, hopefully...
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