Spoilers!
When Suzanne Collins used Edgar Allen’s Poe’s lyrical, gothic poem, “The Raven,” as a motif throughout her prequel book, 2025’s Sunrise on the Reaping, I should have known we were in for a grief-laden, evermore bleak book. Since we know the sun will indeed rise on another reaping (and many more) because of Katniss in the original Hunger Games trilogy, Sunrise on the Reaping is a prequel establishing just how dystopian a world the Capitol created, as led by President Snow, and the toll it took on Haymitch, who mentored Katniss 24 years later. Indeed, in many ways, Snow is the Raven, knocking, knocking at Haymitch’s door, mocking him with “nevermore” forevermore.
Haymitch, 16, is “reaped,” along with 47 other tributes of the 12 Districts the Capitol controls, a doubling of the usual numbers to “celebrate” the Quarter Quell, held every 25 years, this time for the 50th Hunger Games. He is in love with Lenore Dove, the other throughline of Collins’ use of “The Raven.” She’s rebellious at heart and in spirit, lighting Haymitch upon that all-fire path. What was cute about the reaping is the non-Career citizens from the Districts bonded together to form the “Newcomers” group to be a united force against the Careers, who are typically better trained, stronger, and more bloodthirsty — thus, the favorites to win. I particularly came to love Maysilee, a twin from Haymitch’s District 12, who was seen as coddled and uppity. Instead, she proved to be fierce and rebellious in her own right. She stood with her head held high and her palm ready to slap Capitol official Drusilla, if she had to!
I shouldn’t have been surprised, but even before the Hunger Games officially started, Collins was introducing death. Haymitch promised to take care of his “sweetheart” little girl from District 12, Louella. Instead, she’s killed in a chariot accident on the way to the Capitol. President Snow being the dastardly authoritarian he is, created a Louella lookalike to torture Haymitch (and that girl!). That moment shocked me when I thought Louella was actually still alive. Then it disturbed me realizing what Snow had done. Also, for the record, I made a note of this: Snow is said to be 58 years old during this 50th Hunger Games. Katniss is involved in the 74th Hunger Games. That means Snow would have been 82 when he was trying to break Katniss! The old bastard just wouldn’t die.
Instead of going along with The Newcomers, Haymitch has his own plan, thanks to the help of a form victor, Beetee, to blow up the water tank below the arena and flood the arena to stick it to the Capitol. That plan does work, at least initially, but like a casino, the house always wins. Or seems to. Every single person Haymitch promises to protect or least ally with — from Louella early on, to Ampert (his dad, Beetee, is the one who initiated the bombing plan), to Maysilee, to Wellie, the final Newcomer left alive, and ultimately, to Lenore — they end up dying. The Gamekeepers will sick “mutts,” abominations created to attack the tributes, on particular people allied with Haymitch. And Collins doesn’t hold back on the gore. I think it’s Louella who died by poison, with blood pouring out of every orifice; Ampert was prodded to death by birds (or maybe squirrels); and likewise, Maysilee was killed by mutts. Wellie was decapitated by the last remaining Career, Silka, who paraded her head in front of Haymitch and then coldly discarded it to fight him. Haymitch is able to kill Silka because of the force field around the arena’s generator he found that acts as a boomerang, which boomerang’s Silk’s own axe back into her head. He then uses the last of his explosives against the force field.
Naturally, the Capitol being the Capitol, they’ve reedited and propagandized everything seen on television from the Games for the Capitol audiences: they show nothing of Haymitch’s rebellion and instead, making it seem like he was a coward. When he returns to District 12, his Ma and brother Sid are killed in a fire, which the Capitol calls an “accident.” If that wasn’t bad enough, Lenore is released from prison where Haymitch feeds her her favorite candy, gumdrops, not realizing it’s poisoned by Snow. She dies. The Capitol calls it appendicitis. Everyone he loved, cared for, sought to protect, or allied with, died. Orchestrated deaths. Despite Lenore’s dying wish for Haymitch to not let allow another “sunrise on the reaping,” Haymitch turns inward, abandoning any relationships he previously had, and becomes a drunkard. In essence and in fact, he let Snow win. He truly become the subject of “The Raven,” besieged by grief and haunted by everything that had occurred. It’s sad and depressing! Yes, Plutarch, the rich Capitol guy who also seems secretly rebellious, would like the fight to continue, but Haymitch is defeated. His heart, to paraphrase another Poe story, is buried beneath the wooden floor, doomed to continue beating despite his protestations. Katniss and Peeta from the original series are what will give him hope to ensure another sunrise on the reaping does not occur … evermore.
Collins’ prequel to her Hunger Games trilogy is a disturbing, albeit lovely, homage to the gothic path created by Poe set within a dystopian world. Grief, or love rather, is the throughline between the world of Poe and that of Haymitch. Whether by man’s hand or whatever one wants to call that beyond it, the world can be a cruel and unfair place, taking our loved ones. Poe’s character experienced as much in “The Raven,” as did Haymitch in Sunrise on the Reaping.
Milam's Musings 