The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Not only is “Hunger” part of the moniker for the series’ sinister Games, but it is constantly on Coriolanus’s mind and serves a significant problem for the tributes, in more ways than one. They are starved by the Capitol—weakened before their sacrifice—and then compelled to perform for an audience in order to obtain the sustenance they need to survive. During the Games, when thinking about the fate of one of the tributes, Coriolanus wonders, “[w]as it natural if hunger had been used as a weapon?” (314).

For his part, Coriolanus remembers the war: Because the districts controlled food production, “they’d tried to starve the Capitol into submission using food—or the lack thereof—as a weapon” (31). The Hunger Games are a fitting retribution now that the Capitol controls said means of production, “twisting the knife into the districts’ hearts” (31). Hunger is an oft-used weapon of war—Coriolanus’s question highlighting the inhumane nature of the tactic—and is employed again in the arena. Lucy Gray manages to poison at least one tribute by using an apple as bait, which resonates with allusions to the biblical fall from Eden and the fairy tale of Snow White.

Coriolanus also remembers that some Capitol families even resorted to cannibalism—such was their desperation. He himself acknowledges that “[t]he endless dance with hunger had defined his life” (31). When he is forced to join the Peacekeepers, the one bright spot is that “as a Peacekeeper, he was unlikely to starve” (333). It is not difficult to surmise that much of his desire for control comes down to his hatred of cabbage, as revealed in the book’s opening line. When he is in power, he never has to suffer the humiliation of hunger and poverty again.

Besides the iconic mockingjay that serves as a symbol of rebellion in the original trilogy, there are the Covey. “Covey” is a term used to describe a flock of birds, and this, along with Lucy Gray’s captivating voice, mark her as the book’s primary songbird. Dean Highbottom even asks Coriolanus, after he returns to the Capitol from District 12, “[y]our little songbird […] Was she sad to see you go?” (515).

Coriolanus’s revulsion for songbirds is mentioned many times throughout the book. He feels that mockingjays are “unnatural” (416) and need to be destroyed; he also grows “weary of the infusion of music into his life. Invasion might be a better word. It seemed to be everywhere these days: birdsong, Covey song, bird-and-Covey song” (445). This hatred foreshadows his final confrontation with Lucy Gray; he won’t have her, much less the mockingjays, invade his beloved Capitol. When the Peacekeepers are finally given permission to kill the remaining birds, Coriolanus “felt giddy as he blasted the mockingjays off the branches, managing to kill three. Not so clever now, are you!” (477). In the original trilogy, an older Coriolanus hates and hunts Katniss Everdeen, the “Mockingjay” of the rebellion.

He associates the birds with death, first hearing their mimicry after a rebel’s hanging in District 12. Later, they repeat Sejanus’s last word after he’s executed. By the end of the book, Lucy Gray uses them as cover when Coriolanus stalks her through the woods: She sings about a “hanging tree,” prompting the birds to echo her song and signifying to Coriolanus that she knows about his betrayal of Sejanus. After emptying his gun of bullets, “[h]e collapsed on the ground, dizzy and nauseous, as the woods exploded, every bird of every kind screaming its head off while the mockingjays continued their rendition of ‘The Hanging Tree.’ Nature gone mad. Genes gone bad. Chaos” (504). With Lucy Gray’s “death,” Coriolanus gained temporary control over the chaos of his “songbirds.”