Mockingjay

Article written by Neesha Thunga K

B.A. in English Literature, and M.A. in English Language and Literature.

The book was a resounding success, selling 450,000 copies in the first week alone. It has been released in audiobook and ebook formats as well. A highly successful film adaptation of Mockingjay was released in two parts in 2014 and 2015 respectively. Mockingjay was named as a New York Times Editors’ Choice in 2011 and the Booklist Editors’ Choice in 2010.

Key Facts about Mockingjay

• Title: Mockingjay
• Published: August 24, 2010
• Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian fiction, Science fiction
• Point-of-View: First-person limited
• Setting: The post-apocalyptic nation of Panem in North America
• Climax: Katniss plans to assassinate President Snow when a bomb goes off near her and her sister.
• Antagonist: President Coriolanus Snow

Suzanne Collins and Mockingjay

Suzanne Collins got the idea for The Hunger Games from the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. She has mentioned how she was a geek of Greek and Roman mythology when she was a child and watched and read everything related to it. As such, Collins took the myth of Theseus and combined it with the Roman gladiatorial games to create The Hunger Games.

Collins was also highly influenced by her father’s military career. As a young girl, she was exposed to the harsh realities of war, poverty, and starvation – all of which made it explicitly into the Hunger Games trilogy.

Mockingjay, a story about rebellion and political war, is a testament to Collins’ knowledge of politics and war. Collins’ father was determined to teach his children as much as he could about war and military history, which is why writing the politics and military endeavors in Mockingjay came naturally to Suzanne Collins. Her father’s career as an Air Force officer, military historian as well as a doctor of political science helped her flesh out the details of Mockingjay in a realistic manner.

Collins’ father also features in the novel in other ways. Collins has mentioned how she missed and longed for her father when he served in the Vietnam war. This is reflected in Katniss’s relationship with her father. Katniss loved spending time with him, which is why she misses his company ever since he was crushed to death in a mining accident.

Collins first thought of writing a trilogy called The Hunger Games when she was casually flipping between channels one night. She was exhausted and was unable to focus very well on what she was watching. As a result, a reality show on one channel blurred together with footage from the war in Afghanistan in an “unsettling” manner – which gave her the idea for a televised battle royale.

Collins has elaborated on the origins of the name, Panem – which comes from the Latin phrase “Panem et Circenses.” This phrase literally translates to “Bread and Circuses,” which is a strategy used in the Roman empire to appease the masses with food and entertainment. The nation of Panem does the same with the Hunger Games.

Collins always knew that the Hunger Games books would be a trilogy. She thus followed a three-part structure to the story, resulting in the three novels, The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay. Each book is further divided into 3 parts with 9 chapters each. Thus, Mockingjay has 27 chapters in total.

Suzanne Collins played an active role in marketing for the novel. An official event was held in New York City for the launch of the novel, where Collins read the first chapter of the novel with an accent – to mimic the Appalachian accent that Katniss has. She also held a blog tour for the thirteen districts, providing a free copy of Mockingjay to 13 winners upon the book’s release.

Books Related to Mockingjay

Mockingjay is the third and final novel in the Hunger Games trilogy written by Suzanne Collins. It is preceded by the first and second novels in the trilogy, namely The Hunger Games, released in 2008, and Catching Fire, published in 2009. The other books in the trilogy have been well-received by both critics and readers, with both of them becoming New York Times bestsellers, and Catching Fire snagging the Best Book of the Year award by Publisher’s Weekly in 2009.

The Hunger Games, the first novel in the trilogy focuses on the young protagonist, Katniss Everdeen as she is picked as a tribute for the barbaric Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is a battle royale to the death, with the participants being children of the districts in the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem.

Catching Fire continues the story, as Katniss and her fellow tribute from District 12 are forced into the Hunger Games once again. Mockingjay, the final novel of the trilogy follows Katniss as the face of the rebellion that has been formed against the oppressive Capitol.

Suzanne Collins has also released a prequel and spin-off to The Hunger Games trilogy, called The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Published on May 19, 2019, the prequel takes us back by more than 60 years, when a young Coriolanus Snow (the main antagonist of the trilogy) acted as a mentor to the District 12 tribute, Lucy Gray in the 10th Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games trilogy has several parallels with Koushun Takami’s novel Battle Royale. Published in 1999, Battle Royale follows a similar plot and structure to The Hunger Games, leading people to accuse Suzanne Collins of plagiarizing the idea from Takami. However, Suzanne Collins has denied these accusations and claims that she neither read nor heard of Takami’s Battle Royale until she heard the accusations.

The Hunger Games trilogy has several parallels with Stephen King’s novels, The Long Walk and The Running Man. Critics have also compared the trilogy by Collins to a 1953 short story written by Robert Scheckley called “The Seventh Victim.”

As a part of Young Adult literature, The Hunger Games trilogy gave birth to a slew of young adult dystopian novels. As such, those who are interested in Mockingjay may also be interested to read other young adult dystopian novels such as The Maze Runner by James Dashner, the Divergent series by Veronica Roth, Delirium by Lauren Oliver, The Giver by Lois Lowry, and so on.

The Lasting Impact of Mockingjay