Monday, November 16, 2009

Catching Fire: Lord of the Flies revisited

Catching Fire is a great series to get into after you are done with the Twilight saga, or if you are just out to enjoy a great couple of books. Catching Fire is the second book in this intense saga. The first one being The Hunger Games. In this series we are right where we ended the first book. In district 12 where the two winners should be enjoying their winnings. Not everything though is as calm as it should be. There are rumors of rebellion among all the districts, and Katniss and Peeta(the winners), are the faces of that rebellion. After winning the Hunger Games in the previous novel, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark are living at home in District 12, a poor sector in their country of Panem. On the day that Katniss and Peeta are to start a victory tour of the country, she is visited by President Snow; he explains that he is angry at her for threatening to commit suicide with Peeta at the end of the Hunger Games, which permitted them both to win. Because of this, she started a chain reaction and has created talk of rebellion in the districts. He threatens to kill her best friend, Gale, if she cannot prove to everyone in Panem that her act was not one of defiance, but that she was instead driven by an intense love for Peeta. The first stop on the victory tour is District 11, the home of Katniss's friend and ally, Rue, before she died. During the ceremony, Katniss says a quick speech to the people of District 11, thanking them for their tributes. When she is done, an old man whistles a tune that Rue used in the arena to tell Katniss that she was safe. The song acts as a signal, and everyone salutes Katniss using the same gesture that she used to say farewell to Rue. Katniss is taken away, but not before she sees Peacekeepers shoot the man in the head. Katniss and Peeta then proceed to travel to all of the twelve districts and the Capitol. During an interview, Peeta proposes to Katniss publicly, doing whatever he can to keep them safe. However, after they return home to District 12 it is announced that in honor of the 75th Hunger Games, twenty-four of the remaining victors will be forced back into the arena to fight to the death, once again. Knowing that she and Peeta will both likely be competing in the Games a second time, Katniss decides that she will devote herself to protecting Peeta.During the Games, Katniss and Peeta join up with two other victors, Finnick and Mags from District 4. After Mags's death, Katniss, Peeta, and Finnick join forces with Johanna, Beetee and Wiress, an older couple who are said to be "exceptionally smart". Wiress soon proves her genius by revealing to Katniss that the arena is arranged like a clock, with all of the arena's disasters occurring on a timed chart. In the final chapters, Katniss fires an electrified arrow at one of the force fields that destroys the arena and resulting in her temporary paralysis. When she wakes up she is being transported to District 13, a place she was told no longer existed, but Peeta and Johanna have been captured by the Capitol. Katniss is informed that there had been a plan between most of the contestants to break out of the arena. The book ends with Katniss's friend Gale informing her that though he got her mother and sister out in time, District 12 has been bombed and demolished. This suspenseful end makes waiting for the third book to come out quite painful, because the reader is left with a bunch of what ifs, and if everyone is ok. This book revisits the idea of Lord of the Flies, but Collins adds her own twist on it to make it more enjoyable for her readers of this time. Because of the Lord of the Flies feel this book has, it makes for a good read for children in middle school and beyond. Adults that have also read Lord of the Flies, will enjoy this book and see how technology can make a game more interesting for the tribes and children involved in it.

4 comments:

hutting said...

Totally agree with you on the ending! You finish the book wishing you could pick up the third book and keep reading. I feel this book was actually better than Hunger Games. The whole twist of all the victors being forced to fight again really made you hate the Capitol!

T. Arnold said...

This trilogy seems interesting and I think many students love to read sequels. I know I like to know what happens to the characters after a book is completed. How do you think teachers would introduce this book? Or what connections could teachers make to tempt their students to want to read this book? Also, what controversial issues do you see, if any, in teaching this book?

Danielle Bartman said...

I think that if teachers were doing a survival type lesson plan this would be a good book to help with that, also you could talk about Hatchet and Lord of the Flies which many people have read. Also i like how unlike the Twilight saga, this makes an enjoyable read for boys and girls. It still has the romance but it also has the fighting type stuff for the boys to connect. I really think the only controversial issue would be how lower class society is treated. Other than that I do not see any issues that are that controversial in teaching this book, it is just an enjoyable read for all

T. Arnold said...

Thanks for your feedback!