The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is not MY Hunger Games prequel
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- Опубликовано: 9 июл 2024
- How would you write this prequel?🤔 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
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📖 C H A P T E R S:
0:00 Intro
1:22 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (Spoilers)
11:55 What the Book Should've Been (Spoilers)
21:05 How would you have written this novel?
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I have downloaded the book and planning on reading it in the summer to see what's the fuss about bc I want to see the film. But I'm afraid it will read too much like YA and I read mostly thriller-horror books. I tried to read the 1st Hunger Games and didn't like it much. I think my mind has outgrown certain action/ fantasy tropes in ya, whereas I love watching fantasy films.😅
i’m sorry to hear you didn’t like the first hunger games. luckily i wasn’t exposed to the tropes often as a teen, so it’s all new to me. the prequel doesn’t read tooo YA but the story is very YA, so maybe you don’t have to read the book if you feel you won’t enjoy it? you can just enjoy the movie!
But everything that happens “by chance” is what changed him into the horrible person he was in Hunger Games! And in the end you learn that Dr.Gaul was molding him into the horrible man. I thought the book was great and shows how he started out not such a bad guy.
True, but I wish it were explored more! I feel that we missed out on that transformation, you know? It was only mentioned / vaguely stated / hinted at, but I wish we actually got to see him unravel, fully hear every good thought in his head go bad-watch him become the evil mind we know from THG. I feel the book was just the tip of the Snow iceberg. Haha all that to say, I think the book itself was decent, but in my opinion, it wasn’t the best prequel we could’ve gotten for The Hunger Games 🙂
I think this interpretation of him “going bad” isn’t quite correct. We learn that he’s a master manipulator and has learned from the age of 8 how to lie convincingly. His wealth was gone and to avoid his peers finding out, he became extremely cunning and calm under pressure. Sociopathic tendencies can be linked to trauma and some of it can be genetic, but it’s very clear from the beginning that he’s a narcissist and a sociopath. You can see he even takes pleasure in playing his figurative game of chess with everyone he comes into contact with and looks for the best way to make himself appear best in every situation whether it be feigning modesty, or appearing compassionate, both of which being false.
The difference by the end of the book is that he actually now has a pathway to the power and control he’s been craving the entire book. He very much internalised his status as a snow and his Grandmaam’s belief he would be president.
I think his relationship with Tigris and her as a character reflects the idea that Snow has always been what he is. Tigris had the exact same upbringing as him but she held on to goodness and made many sacrifices to make sure they could eat, it’s even alluded to that she’s had to sell her body to help them get by, and Snow can’t even accept the idea that a Snow would do that. Whilst Snow was living in poverty, it was Tigris who went to work and was up early preparing food, whilst Snow was going to the academy. You can argue that he was doing this for him and his family but it very much shows the different motivations of the two characters. Snow was eager to make his life better, whereas Tigris always thought of her family before herself.
The idea that everything happened “by chance” I also don’t agree with. Snows motivation was in the fact that if he didn’t shine as a mentor, everyone would find out he was poor, and he’d never have a pathway to power, which is why he was trying 10x as hard as the other mentors because they all had money, and didn’t need the prize. He took the initiative to meet Lucy Gray at the train station, earning her trust and capturing the capitols attention by entering the zoo enclosure with her, had he not been broke and desperate for the prize, he wouldn’t have done that, because the stakes of doing well in the games wouldn’t have mattered to him as much. You can clearly see that due to his lack of wealth, this instilled in him that to succeed in life, he’d have to work for it, and he is levels ahead of his classmates in terms of intelligence and work ethic.
Sejanus was very much an antithesis to Snow, and he is very much the face of morality in the book, as he comes from district 2 but is actually wealthier than Snow, which Snow greatly resents. Snow says himself he doesn’t really like Sejanus but he was smart enough to realise that putting Sejanus down wasn’t in his best interest as his family was very much “new money” and the new age of the capitol.
The romance with Lucy Gray Baird to me read very much like an infatuation, and an obsessive one. He was struck by her beauty and talent but wanted to own her. He says many times in the book that she “belongs to him” and talks about how he thought she needed to be hidden away for his eyes only like a rare bird in a cage. He only cared for her in as much as what she could do for him, and became angry in the book whenever she would express any kind of free will, or talk about her life in district 12.
You make good arguments, and I can’t necessarily disagree outright with the rebuttals you made.
@@melodiclaine we all have different interpretations when it comes to reading. I have read it a few times so maybe I’ve picked up on things that aren’t obvious the first time around, but again we’re all entitled to our opinion :) thank you for responding 😊
@@davidfairweather3301 thanks for sharing your interpretation!