Wednesday 8 February 2012

Journal Posts –Six Journal responses


1.       Pg. 6 – Hunting in the Seam



Quote -Even here in the middle of nowhere, you worry someone might overhear you.



In this part of the book Katniss is with her friend Gale in the woods. They are hunting for meat for their families. Hunting is illegal and she and Gale quietly hunt without being caught. If they were caught they would probably be killed by the Capital because it is illegal. They hunt so that their families will not starve to death. She keeps her illegal bow and arrow hidden in the woods. Everyone in her district has rules that they have to follow. They have to always worry about and watch what they say to each other because they could be heard even in the woods. The Capitol has a lot of control over all the people in the district so they have to be careful not to get caught. Even though she sells her meat to the Peacekeepers they don’t tell on them because they want the meat too and don’t know how to hunt. I learned that she is a hunter and her father taught her how to use her bow and arrow. She learns to be quiet, to mask her face from others so that they can’t read her mind. This is important because later on in the arena she has to be aware of what she says and what she does because she is on camera and everyone is watching from all the districts and the Capitol.



2.      Pg. 41 The Setting



Quote: In school, they tell us the Capitol was built in a place once called the Rockies. District 12 was in a region known as Appalachia. Even hundreds of years ago, they mined coal here. Which is why our miners have to dig so deep.

Katniss tells about where the setting of the story takes place. It is in North America, in the future, after disasters, droughts, storms, fires and war took place. What was left was this country where they live called Panem. Panem has 13 districts around it but one was killed off after the rebellion. Now there are only 12 districts and Katniss and her family live in District 12. It is a place where coal miners live and work. Her father died in a coal mining accident when she was 11. She lives in a place they call the Seam that is surrounded by an electric fence. The fence is to keep the woodland animals away from the people. It is where Katniss hunts illegally. She tells about how in school they learn a lot to do with coalmining. Each district has a different industry. This section is important because we learn about where the story is happening. It is in Canada and in the future. It is interesting to read about what the author thinks could happen in the future (in her story).

3.      Katniss makes the Gamemakers mad pg. 102

Quote: Suddenly I am furious, that with my life on the line, they don't even have the decency to pay attention to me. That I'm being upstaged by a dead pig. My heart starts to pound, I can feel my face burning. Without thinking, I pull an arrow from my quiver and send it straight at the Gamemakers' table. I hear shouts of alarm as people stumble back. The arrow skewers the apple in the pig's mouth and pins it to the wall behind it. Everyone stares at me in disbelief.

Katniss is at the training session for the Hunger Games. The Gamemakers are all watching the tributes practice using different weapons. Katniss didn’t go to the bow and arrow first because others would know this is the weapon she is really good at using because of her experience as a hunter for her family. She is feeling frustrated that the Gamemakers are just eating and drinking and not really paying attention to giving out scores for the tributes. Without thinking much about it she sends an arrow at them and hits the pig on the table where they are sitting. They are all shocked at this. Katniss is so mad that she doesn’t stay to be dismissed from the training area and she storms off. After she is really worried that her choice to do that may be a major problem for her and her family because the Gamemakers may be so mad that they will send her home or even kill her and her family. This shows that Katniss sometimes makes decisions without really thinking about what may happen after. She realizes she is so impulsive but she also doesn’t really care about what they do unless it means her family is hurt. This shows one of Katniss’ personality traits.



4.      Katniss and her relationships with Gale and Peeta. Pg. 112

Quote: I can’t help comparing what I have with Gale to what I’m pretending to have with Peeta. How I never question Gale’s motives while I do nothing but doubt the latter’s. It’s not a fair comparison really. Gale and I were thrown together by a mutual need to survive. Peeta and I know the other’s survival means our own death. How do you sidestep that?

Throughout the whole story Katniss is back and forth with her feelings towards Peeta. She never says it but I think she is in love with Gale. He makes her feel secure and safe when they are in the woods just like her father did when she was growing up. She trusts and believes in Gale and she calls him her “confidant” because she can talk to him about anything anytime without fear of getting into trouble. With Peeta, she is confused. She knows he loves her but she is not really sure that it is true love because he may be acting. She thinks Haymitch may have told Peeta to act like he loves her just for the games. She also knows that she will have to kill him in the arena so she doesn’t want to be close to him. She puts on a show in front of the cameras to show that she is playing along with the romance story that Haymitch wants them to play. This is important in the novel because Katniss is always confused and her feelings for both of these boys are mixed up or intertwined all the time. At the end of the novel she is sure that Peeta is true with his love but she is not feeling the same for him.





5.    Muttations pg. 331

Quote: Muttations. No question about it. I’ve never seen these mutts, but they’re no natural-born animals. They resemble huge wolves, but what wolf lands and then balances easily on its hind legs? What wolf waves the rest of the pack forward with its front paw as though it had a wrist? These things I can see at a distance. Up close, I’m sure their more menacing attributes will be revealed.

This section of the book describes creatures that remind me of the chimpanzees in the new movie called Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The apes in the movie are smart. Caesar, the leader of the apes, tells the other apes what to with sign language and hand gestures just like the muttations. They had colourful eyes that Katniss recognized as the eyes from the other dead tributes. The apes all have bright green eyes from the drug they had that Caesar gave to them. They run through the streets on their 4 legs and sometimes on their 2 feet just like the muttations did. The muttations are there to kill Katniss and Peeta but are not able to get to them. The apes are just trying to get back to their forest where they can live peacefully. On the way they do attack people on the Golden Gate Bridge. The bad people were killed by the apes. Caesar told them not to harm others. I would like to be Caesar because he is so smart and he is a leader. The other chimpanzees treated him like a king.



6.      Entertainment in the Hunger Games pg. 339



Quote: Why don’t they just kill him?” I ask Peeta.

“You know why,” he says, and pulls me closer to him. And I do. No viewer could turn away from the show now. From the Gamemakers’ point of view, this is the final word in entertainment.

In this part of the story Cato is being mauled by the muttations but the Capitol can see that he is not dying. He has body armour on so he is protected from the claws of the monsters. The people watching including all the people from the 12 districts as well as the politicians and Gamemakers are enjoying watching him suffer but not die. This is entertaining for the people. Katniss and Peeta can’t understand how this could be something people actually like to watch by because the Capitol is not doing anything about it it means that it is the best part of the Hunger Games for others to see. The whole Hunger Games has been televised for everyone to see every minute of the day. It is probably like watching CNN News all day. People love this entertainment and can’t take themselves away from it. The Gamemakers know this and are keeping Cato alive because of it.

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