Caged Bird - Not. An. Islander - Hunger Games Trilogy. Chapter Text. Epilogue: Janie’s Story. People are always asking her what it was like being raised by Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, which she thinks is so interesting. What was it like being raised by your parents?” she often replies. To Janie, Katniss and Peeta are just that. They are the two people in this world she knows she can count on forever. She still has memories of when she first met this “Mockingjay” and how disappointed she was that this bird didn’t have any wings. It took her some time to reconcile herself to the fact that not all mockingjays have wings. However, as she grew older she realized that sometimes mockingjay do grow them. And that is exactly what Katniss, and Janie, grew over the years - wings. They are at the bakery, in the kitchen, and Peeta is showing Janie how to make flowers on the cookies that have cooled. Would you be alright with that?” Peeta asks the girl, because he knows how important it is that Janie feel safe, and that Katniss know that he is dedicated to both of them.“Really!” the girl squeals. She doesn’t really know what this . Especially if it means she gets to have both Katniss and Peeta all of the time.
Ever since Peeta has been spending most of his spare time at their house, she hasn’t heard Katniss scream in the middle of the night as much. And Katniss’ bad days aren’t nearly as bad as they were before. You’d always live with us? Forever?” she says as she throws her arms around his waist. Who will live there?”“Well, I heard Sae and her granddaughter might be looking for a new place to live. I thought I’d offer it to her.”“Oh I like that! Sae makes the best soups! And it’s fun to play with her granddaughter too!”When they leave the bakery later that evening, Peeta has a loaf of a hearty bread tucked under his arms, and a small box marked with the distinctive Mellarks Bakery logo. It was only Katniss, Peeta, and Janie in front of the fire, and Katniss was happy. Haymitch came for supper, but left soon after that. She remembers the crackle of the fire, the smell of the bread toasting. Janie thought Katniss was the happiest she’d ever been. And Peeta made Janie a special cupcake, a chocolate one with white icing and violets on top, so of course she remembers that!“And this is for you!” Peeta tells her after it is all over. He hands her the small box he carried home from the bakery earlier.“For me? The box is for me?” She says excitedly. Peeta made it just for you!”Life went on fairly normally for the family. Holidays spent with Haymitch, Sae, and her granddaughter. They still had their monthly dinners with friends, though that circle has grown and changed over the years. Thom and Delly married and soon had a son of their own. Leevy met a young girl, Mari, who was new to 1. They now run another Home in the District. Haymitch’s geese continue to prosper, much to the chagrin of Katniss, and the enthusiasm of Janie. But nothing compares to the day Rhea’s long lost boyfriend turned up in the district unannounced. The man looks nervous, holding a hat in his weathered hands. He looks as if he's been travelling a long time, with no place left to go. His brown hair is sun streaked, and his face looks reddened from the sun. But his brown eyes, while tense, are still soft, still show hope.“Yes?” Peeta replies pleasantly. Most people in 1. Panem is literally being controlled by hunger and famine.Peeta tries to be pleasant, and tries to instil that in Janie. He usually jokes that he's trying to counteract Katniss’ scowl.“I'm looking for someone. Someone I knew a long time ago,” the stranger says earnestly. Because Peeta knows everyone here!” Janie tells the man excitedly. She likes this idea of a mystery. She's ten now, and everything seems to be so dramatic. Last I'd heard she moved here to run the Group Home?”“Rhea!” Janie squeals. You're Matz!” and she jumps up and down, clapping her hands. At this, the man visibly relaxes. She's here?” He sounds as if he holding back years of tears.“Yes, she is,” Peeta says holding on to Janie before she can say much more. And by the time Matz was able to find his way back to 5, Rhea had disappeared. With the state of Panem’s infrastructure and communications, he's been travelling from district to district, town to town searching for her. But when he sees her running up the stairs to the bakery, tears streaming down her face, when she jumps into his arms, burying her face in his neck, those years melt away. They remained that way, in the front of the bakery, afraid to let the other go for so long, Peeta had to finally tap them on the shoulder to remind them where they were. Matzstayed in 1. 2, married Rhea, and they continued to run the Group Home, even after they had their own children. By that time, the government decided to add another Home in the district and asked Leevy and her partner, Mari, to be in charge. Visits from Johanna and phone calls from Annie occur on a regular basis throughout the years. Everdeen would try to call once a week. John schnabel heart attack death. Feb 12 hunger games gale whipped youtube. Annie would often tell Katniss and Peeta that Janie was all Mrs. Everdeen ever spoke about. Katniss wasn’t sure what to think about her mother, and Janie overheard her talking to Peeta on more than one occasion about it. On the one hand, she always seemed so distant and disinterested, but on the other hand, Janie did enjoy the conversations. Annie would claim that Mrs. Everdeen told everyone how proud she was of Katniss and her recovery, and of her little family, though Mrs. Everdeen never seemed to tell the Mellarks this. When Janie was twelve, Peeta decided it was time to visit some of the other districts, although Katniss took some convincing. I think it’s time we went. It’s time we see the rest of the country.”“I don’t know Peeta. Why can’t we just stay here, thankful that there are no more reapings? Why can’t we just enjoy the fact that life is good again? At least here and for now?”“Because, Katniss,” he says earnestly, holding her hands. I want Janie to see this country, see what the world is like. And I want you to realize it’s better now. I want to visit our friends, I want to see for myself how everything has changed.”“Fine,” she huffs. And we’re going to 1. If I “need” to see how Panem has changed, you need to see where I was.”“I think that’s actually a great idea, Katniss. Janie and I will be there with you the whole way.”“But I’m still not going to the Capitol,” she holds her ground firmly.“What about Effie?”“She’s more than welcome to visit us here. Or she can meet us at a spot along the way. But I refuse to step one foot in that city.”“What if we just agree to leave that thought on hold?”“Fine. But I won’t change my mind.”In the end, that decision was made for the three of them. Thom received word of the places they would be allowed to travel “for the protection of Katniss Everdeen” it said. They were allowed to visit 7, 1. No deviating from the schedule. A security team was assigned to them. They would be in the background, would not hinder their travelling. Again, “all for the protection of Katniss Everdeen.” Later on, Janie would come to believe it was because they didn’t want Katniss traveling wherever she chose. The new government would always have control over Katniss Everdeen. Janie was beside herself listening to them talk. She’d been learning about the new Panem in school. Her friends had all made trips to 4 to the beaches, to the home districts of their parents, or even to the Capitol. Ever since they started studying The Hunger Games in school, and learning about the war, Janie understood that Katniss has her fears. She knows how very real they are. She heard the screams in the middle of the night. She saw Peeta grabbing on to the backs of chairs as he waited for a flashback to pass. So when she found out they were going to spend the school break travelling around, she couldn’t believe her luck. It took a few weeks, but finally Katniss consented. Peeta left the bakery in the capable hands of his staff, contacted Thom to arrange the proper travel and security arrangements. He arranged for Haymitch and Sae to keep watch over things at their house. Since there was nothing else Katniss could think of to delay them, she packed up their bags, and off they went for a month of travel. Katniss had decided that if they were going to go, they needed to visit a friendly face first, in a place where there wouldn’t be too much attention drawn to them. As the train rounds the bend, and the District 7 train station comes into view, Janie strains to look out the window. There on the platform was a slight woman with a pixie hair- cut holding out a sign that said, “Over here Janie Bear!”“Johanna!” Janie yells, as she runs down the steps. Katniss and Peeta take up the rear. Janie jumps into Johanna’s arms, giving her a tight bear hug. Johanna has visited the Mellarks in District 1. Janie has been outside of the District. I’m so glad to see you live and in person! It’s about time those caregivers of yours let you out of the district!” “Very funny Johanna,” Janie replies as Katniss and Peeta lean in for a hug.“Come on you three, let’s get back to my place,” Johanna says as she leads them to her car.“So, nice sign for Janie there,” Katniss says on the drive to the house. Tall, Dark, and in charge of Panem’s National Security threatened to have me locked up on my own prison ranch in 1. I did anything to bring attention to either of you two, that just left me with Janie.”“Gale said that?” Peeta asks curiously.“Yes. And I feel personally violated by him and his regulations.” Johanna replies, acting offended, but the smirk on her face gives her away. Katniss, however, looks a bit upset. I’m brash and I’m irreverent, but I’m not mean and I’m not stupid. I’d never do anything to give you two away, you know that.”“Yes I do, Johanna. Thank you” Katniss replies, reaching out to grip her hand. I’m so glad to be here.”“Well, I’m glad you’re here too. And you’re just in time! We’re having our Lumberjack Games this weekend. Review: Hunger Games - Blog. This review was originally published in my column at Towleroad. Congratulations to Towleroad for winning Outstanding Blog at the GLAAD Awards. The totalitarian regime of Panem (in what remains of the former United States) maintains total control over the outlying districts. Each of the 1. 2 districts is required to send forth two . They are shipped to the Capital where they are paraded about and then shipped off to die for the amusement of the masses. Everyone in the nation watches. There are no alternatives in this dystopia. Only one adolescent will live bringing supposed honor (and maybe food?) to their starving district.. What honor there is in forcing teenagers to kill each other is not a question the Capitol asks itself. Any similarities that The Hunger Games has to the Japanese classic Battle Royale (2. The Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins, entirely coincidental. Another film in this subgenre, the little seen Series 7: The Contenders (2. In short, the ideas are nothing new, just the treatment; these are topics we're obviously grappling with in popular culture in this era of televised . The gap between the haves and have nots grows and this dystopia gives it steroids. When 1. 2 year old Primrose Everdeen (Willow Shields) is named as tribute in . The district also sends Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) a sweet strong baker's son who Katniss knows a little. Will they kill or be killed? The first hour plus of Hunger Games is touching and quite visually intriguing, . The last hour, the actual games, paradoxically thrills less. I have not read the novels so the world building was fascinating and even semi- plausible. For the most part director Gary Ross (Seabiscuit) delivers an artful scifi drama. Particularly impressive are the sound and scoring, both less bombastic than this type of film usually receives and more affecting for it. When a contestant dies there is a low . Consider it an artistic reminder that less can be more since the offscreen deaths are just as unsettling as those we witness. Once the tributes reach the arena, basically a forest with clearings, the slaughter begins. The initial bloodbath is filmed mostly in blurry handheld camera and incoherent quick edits (as are most subsequent action sequences), either because Ross has little feel for action, because coherent editing is out of style or because the R rated material wanted a PG- 1. I'm guessing all three. He's also overly fond of foreshadowing and controlling where you're looking on the screen even when several people are in frame. Even if you haven't read the books it's easy to sense who will live longest based merely on who the camera asks you to look at. And one thing above all else becomes clear - this movie belongs solely to Jennifer Lawrence and cares possibly more about how wonderful Jennifer Lawrence is to look at than the sorry plight of teenage tributes as cruel pawns in a snuff film. Here's a basic shot list during the games: clearing, blurry slaughter, Katniss, Katniss, Katniss thinking, confused running, Katniss, tree, a report on who has died, Katniss thinking, Katniss sleeping, trees, Katniss waking, closeup of weapon, Katniss, nature, Katniss sleeping, Katniss, control room, Katniss thinking, Katniss, other contestants, Katniss, control room, Katniss walking, fireballs!, Katniss running, Katniss falling, Katniss running, Katniss, Katniss, Ohmygod it's Peeta, Cato and his gang, Katniss running, Katniss hiding, Katniss climbing, disgruntled teenage assassins, Katniss, Katniss sleeping, everyone sleeping, Katniss waking up, Katniss & Rue, something deadly, Katniss thinking, weapon, a particularly gross death, Katniss, Peeta, Katniss hallucinating, people watching the games, Katniss, Katniss walking, Katniss, Katniss, control room, Katniss & Peeta, Katniss sleeping, fire, Katniss running, Katniss, Katniss singing, Katniss making a friend, Katniss, Katniss crying, Katniss looking at the camera, nature, Katniss, Katniss, control room, Katnis suddenly thinking of Peeta, Peeta, a parachute, Katniss pretending to sleep, Katniss, Katniss strategizing, Katniss, grass, something threatening, another contestant, blurry fighting, Katniss running, Katniss hurting, Katniss, and so on.. Like many pop culture phenomenons, what you bring in to the theater is half of the experience. The Hunger Games will surely spark a lot of conversation as the angles are endless: man's inhumanity to man as entertainment - - with us since the days of the Gladiators; Television as the opiate of the masses; The politics of wealth distribution; Our complicity in the perpetuation of our own misery; Etcetera. The Hunger Games flexibility with metaphor even extends to mass market entertainment and actors as celebrities. Katniss and Peeta are styled and primped before public apperances preceeding the games and they're repeatedly encouraged to be . The movie hedges its bets this way too, employing the reliable trustworthy Disney tactic of not really making the heroes kill people unless its indirectly. Katniss's mentor Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) even encourages her to amp up the drama during the games and she complies. The best thing about Jennifer Lawrence's work here might be the occasional beats of ambiguity - - you're not entirely sure how much her feelings for Peeta are real or amplified for survival, and when she acknowledges the audience on occassion, how much is she really feeling? The Hunger Games will surely make Jennifer Lawrence, who came to fame with an Oscar nominated turn in the poverty- stricken drama Winter's Bone, a huge star. Curiously in both films she plays a destitute but resourceful Appalachian girl who kills squirrels and who happens to be her sister's proxy mother since the real one is terrible at the job. It may be the tiniest niche an actress has ever inhabited but Lawrence is a very big deal. Grade: BOscar Hopeful? Box office sensations, including genre franchises, win Oscar attention when they're impossible to deny in the tech categories.. It's flexibility for Op Ed pieces will keep people talking and given that it has an aura of serious real world issues (unlike say vampires and sorcerers) it could win traction. Will the odds be in its favor for actress?
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