{Spoiler Alert}
At Last! Here we are at the end of this series on the Hunger Games. I followed the movies, so this is the second part of Mockingjay. Recall that throughout the series I’ve been following two threads of influence: Love/resistance vs. hatred/violence. When I got to part 1, however, these two shifted focus a little into the difference between hatred/cruelty vs. “just war.”
Indeed, those two trains of thought emerge almost explicitly right at the beginning of this movie, which takes us quickly to the battle in District 2 against “The Nut,” an important military compound. They can’t get in because of it’s defenses, so a debate breaks out between Commander Paylor, Katniss, and Commander Lyme on one side versus Gale & President Coin on the other. They are arguing over whether or not it is best to simply bury everyone inside alive. Gale tells Katniss that the civilians inside who are supporting the Capitol, even by “mopping the floor,” are fair game in war. Katniss responds: “With that logic you can kill anyone.” She’s right, of course. By arguing for that kind of total war, Gale is on his way becoming the very monster he wants to destroy. This is reinforced by the way that Gale is shown discussing his trap double-exploding bomb and the fact that Katniss tells him “Goodbye” at the end because she realizes that it was his design, his bomb, and his philosophy of war that ultimately killed Prim, even if he didn’t do it himself.
The debate is resolved with a compromise which brings us to the train station where Katniss is nearly killed (twice) while trying to convince the people there to turn on Snow.
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| “Turn your weapons to Snow” |
She effectively talks down the man with a gun to her head by admitting that killing each other is both understandable (because they are enemies) and useless (because no one wins in that scenario). So far, we see Katniss’ inner conflict between vengeance and justice turning toward the side of justice, but she is still almost obsessively focused on killing Snow almost to the detriment of freeing Panem.
Throughout the movie, and most notably in the trailers, Peeta, Katniss and others constantly talk about the way that nothing is safe while Snow is alive, that Snow is the enemy, he is the source of all evil in the world, life and death “belong to him,” etc… This is a compelling idea and the movie keeps the viewers thinking like this until the very end when Snow himself, paradoxically, becomes the voice of Truth.
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| “I’ve been watching you, and you’ve been watching me.” |
In a rather dramatic way, this conversation points to the lie that the movie itself had sold to viewers all along: the lie that you can just kill the evil person to get rid of evil. Boggs & Snow end up opening Katniss’ eyes to the fact that President Coin is actually planning to simply replace Snow and is herself just as capable of evil as Snow. The bombing of the children and her idea for a “final” Hunger Games make that pretty clear. This opens us up to the fact that fighting cruelty with cruelty, that seeking vengeance over and above justice and freedom is ultimately futile. The source of evil is not a particular person, but it is present in every person – everyone has the potential to abuse their freedom and compromise the Truth. We can see that the movie means us to accept this idea, consciously or unconsciously, because Haymitch practically says that when he read Plutarch’s letter: “We are fickle, stupid beings with a great gift for self destruction.” And this brings me to the most important scene in the entire story: the scene of Snow’s execution.
Katniss has just fallen; she has failed in a massive way when she gives way to her vengeance actually votes inflict the exact same torture she faced upon a bunch of innocent children. This is pointless cruelty that will only create more suffering and greater evil. Finally, however, she has the opportunity to get what she always wanted: the chance to kill Snow himself. Yet, at that fateful moment, she hesitates. Snow’s words, Boggs’ warning, Prim’s death, and the face that Snow makes all cause her to realize that Coin is just another Snow.
It is in this moment that Katniss is staring my two “influences” in the face. First, there is Snow, whom she can kill to satisfy her vengeance. But then there is Coin, who represents the fact that Evil is bigger than Snow, and that freedom and justice do not always coincide with defeating your enemies. The very Crux of the issue boils down to a few seconds of hesitation and a single arrow. Katniss redeems her earlier mistake, opens Panem to a real chance at freedom, and saves herself from becoming what she hates most by choosing to kill Coin. In such a lawless state, she alone had the both the information and the means to recognize an terrible threat and, in the name of pursuing what is good, destroy it. This is good example of justified assassination. Even though Katniss was probably only focused on a utilitarian calculation of her own survival (kill the new threat, not the old one), her reliance on reason over the beastly instinct of vengeance enabled her to do something even better than she realized.
Immediately after she kills Coin, she reaches for the suicide pill. This is the last time nightlock is featured in the story. It had an important role to play. It was in all the books and movies and was a constant theme: kill yourself before Snow can destroy or torture you (false freedom). Yet, Katniss hesitates to kill Gale when he is captured despite his request for it. When she goes to kill herself with this pill, Peeta steps in and stops her. What does this scene tell us? What is the last analysis, final judgment of this story regarding suicide-as-freedom? I would argue that this scene suggests a certain maturation in the characters’ understanding of suicide and suffering. This, paired with the fact that no one in the movie ever benefits another character through their direct suicide, leaves a viewer with the subtle and general sense that suicide is not really a good option. This is good, because there is literally no circumstance that justifies directly taking one’s own life. Still, it’s unclear and today’s cultural climate may just miss the subtlety and subconsciously check of the “it’s okay in some cases” box in their brains… That’s why we have to expose it to the light!
Finally, the very last scene of the movie furnishes my last point of reflection. (Sorry, no pictures available for this scene yet) The movie takes us to a picturesque meadow, clear sunlight, Peeta and Katniss each with a child in their arms, and some hopeful music playing over the whole thing. What Katniss says to her little baby is crucial. Prompted by the child’s nightmare, she tells the baby that she has nightmares too and will one day tell the child about why they’re there and why they’ll never go away. She then relates to the child how she survives. She plays a game in her head. She makes a list in her head of all the good things she has seen someone do. Although it’s tedious “after all these years,” she says, “there are worse games to play.”
Touching, really. Her town destroyed, her sister and most of her friends dead, and both her and her husband are psychologically scarred by what they’ve faced, but she turns toward hope. This is the best response to such a dismal world. For many people, such misery is not as much fiction as they’d like. But, is making a list of good things people did really a good answer? Don’t get me wrong, it is certainly a beautiful and useful habit, but is that what hope looks like?
One author, K.G. Montgomery, reviewed the second movie with the title “Biblical Echoes In a Post-Christian Pagan World.” He notes the imagery of a flogging pillar and Katniss’ laying cruciform, which, intentionally or not, evokes biblical scenes of Christ’s life. His attitude is one which hopes that these stories will inject a few Christian values back into the public imagination. I do not doubt that there are Biblical “echoes” in these stories, but that’s really all they are echoes. While the Mockingjay tune is a haunting and beautiful one, it does not resound with the full chord of Christian Hope. Katniss resists evil, she loves Peeta enough to help him through his Hi-Jacking, and she recovers enough to start a family with Him, but, ultimately, her best answer to the “Hunger Games” is the only the “Game” of remembering the good things people have done in this world.
Quite frankly, that is a hope that will disappoint. In comparison with man’s evils, his good deeds are but a small ray of light. A Christian does not survive the evils of this world by simply “focusing on the good,” but by lifting his eyes above the world. Christ looked evil squarely in the face and had a pretty dismal view of a Christian’s life in this world. Yes, the good deeds of men are many and worthy of praise, but only inasmuch as they are reflections of the eternal light of God. This world is fallen, it is broken, and destined to “pass away.” Christian Hope is the virtue that looks forward to Christ’s second coming (when real justice will finally be met) and upward to Christ seated in Heaven. Drawing on this Hope, a Christian is able to inject love and light where there is none. Remembering good deeds of men is a good and necessary start, but there is only one man’s whose actions will never fail, only one man whose goodness is actually able to bring us through the wicked “games” of the enemy. Praise be to Him, to Jesus Christ, who will wipe the tears from every eyeand by whose light “all the nations shall walk.”