Recently, Suzanne Collins released The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, a prequel story to her hit book series The Hunger Games. The prequel focuses on a high school senior Coriolanus Snow as he prepares to be a mentor in the 10th Hunger Games. The book gives us a lot of insight into how fragile the relationship is between the Capitol and the Districts is right after the war, and also gives us an idea of how the idea of the Games struggled to endure initially.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes also gives us some insight into how Snow thinks, what has influenced him, and possible causes of what led him to become the man we know him to be in The Hunger Games. After reading the book, I thought that it would be interesting to revisit the movies and see how his character compares to what I read, or how it might have evolved since then.
I took notes and kept a journal of my thoughts as I re-watched the movies. Now that I’m a bit older and have read a lot more, it was interesting to go back and revisit something that used to keep me awake in middle school. If you want to know how I feel like they compared, you can keep reading here. BEWARE: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.
In The Hunger Games
- In Snow’s interactions with Seneca Crane, I can see hints of Dr. Gaul when he’s talking about hope.
- I can see and understand why Snow doesn’t like an underdog. I don’t agree, but I understand based on what I know.
- Snow doesn’t seem to disdain Katniss when he’s crowning her victor, but it does look like Katniss might remind him of Lucy Gray Baird.
In Catching Fire
- Overtime, it seems like Coriolanus has become more calculated. Showing up at Katniss’s house is such a power move. Katniss is strong and quick in her responses though, which is something to admire. In the way the two of them interact, I somehow can maybe see an ounce of respect even as their voices seem to just tolerate each other.
- It was interesting to me to see him have breakfast with his granddaughter. I couldn’t help but wonder about the extent that he cares about her. At the end of the book, there was a point where Snow was saying that he would marry someone he could barely tolerate so that he wouldn’t have to deal with the emotional turmoil of love. It makes me wonder if that extends to his granddaughter.
- Snow coughed up blood. Apparently, the stress of his desired position in life is getting to him.
- He doesn’t seem to realize the leader that he is accidentally shaping. Each action and choice he makes causes Katniss to react in a certain way that inspires others.
- “Fear does not work so long as they have hope.” For some reason, I find this line to fall flat a little. This might be because hope drove him in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and I feel like he manipulated hope in order to keep the Games alive.
- Snow seems to genuinely be threatened by Katniss, and his actions seem to be entirely spurred by her actions as well.
In Mockingjay Part 1
- It’s obvious that the part about social contracts is a lesson he learned from Dr. Gaul. He obviously thinks that life is the ultimate thing, but what is life without choice and free will?
- Killing the wounded sends a dark message.
- “It’s the things we love most that destroy us.” This makes me think that he definitely has not let himself love his granddaughter.
In Mockingjay Part 2
- Damn, Snow’s hate for the Districts in the killing of Antonius.
- Snow is trying to contain these things the best that he can, but he’s shown his hand and what he really thinks about people in the Districts when he differentiates between “plucked” and “picked.”
- His suffering seems to be his karma based off of his actions and his choices his entire life.
- I wonder what happened between Snow and Tigris, because they were close in the book. It doesn’t make sense for him to not let her work in the games because she suddenly wasn’t pretty enough.
- “Sophistication” is an interesting way of saying oppression. Of course the people in the districts don’t understand your level of luxury, you never let them until they came to participate in the Games.
- I wonder how they moved a whole rooftop mansion to the backyard of the President’s mansion.
- At the hands of a million rallying civilians sounds like a long, brutal way to go.
What are you reading right now? Are there any movies you’ve seen that you want to recommend? Is there something you loved as a child that makes you feel nostalgic? Tell me in the comments below!
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Love Always,
Kristi My
Kristi My Dao 