like the island

I want to start by saying that I like Katniss. Some people don’t like her, and by some people, I mean my good friend Jacob Swanson. What’s most important here to note is that Jacob has proven to be wrong about women in the past. His first opinion of me was that I was “probably a domesticated woman who’s loud.”

Loud? Yes.

Domesticated? Please.

This has been my mildly relevant segway into talking about the dialogue in The Hunger Games. Most of what’s being said in this book is okay, and I’ll talk about its strengths first.

Because of the setting, it makes sense that most of the characters, even the younger ones, speak on a more adult level than what we probably see today. They’ve been exposed to some pretty severe hardships and the way they say things should be laden with that “I’ve been burdened with knowledge, gone are the days of my innocence” tone. Someone once referred to it as a “doctor says I’m sick” voice, which I thought was an appropriate and also hilarious descriptor.

So, when Katniss nonchalantly tells us about the HORRIBLE that happens in her community and the AWFUL that is an annual celebration in Panem, I’m not surprised. That was rather good character voice, I thought.

I have heard people comment on how little Haymitch actually talks like he’s drunk but I think those people have probably never known a functioning alcoholic in their lifetime.

Effie Trinket—also well done as far as matching dialogue to character.

While I am glad to have Cinna (aka Lenny Kravitz) as a character in this novel, I do think that he seems like someone who would never ever end up working on the set of what is basically a reality TV show. Never in my life have I met a cosmetologist with such compassion and wisdom. He seems overqualified. Did he sneak onto the set?

Now, onto some more things that were pushing it in terms of believability. I know I said Katniss is all mature and whatnot, but that doesn’t mean she’s not a teenager. At times, I felt like her dialogue was great and captured something true about how teens communicate—for instance, when she’s arguing with Haymitch throughout her training, she does a lot of what my parents would refer to as “back-mouthin’.” I called it clever word play and sarcasm.

But other times, Collins just totally lost it. At one point, Katniss says this exact phrase to Peeta: “Suppose we tie some knots,” and Peeta responds, “Right you are.” Because this is nineteenth-century England, and Katniss is a woman without a dowry who must display her aptitude for wifedom in order to gain Peeta’s affections. WHAT?

They’re from Appalachia!! Have you ever been there? People don’t talk like that!

I mean, Suzanne, come on. A simple “whatever” or an “I don’t care” would cover 50 percent of most teenage dialogue.  Also, Peeta is way too confident for his own good. Teen boys are awkward. There are NO exceptions. Teen boys care about cars and who can burp the loudest. Doesn’t she remember junior high dances??

And when the actual dialogue trails off in Part Two, we switch to Katniss’ inner dialogue, which is weirdly insightful for teenager—particularly a teenager who’s trying to not get killed. I mean, I don’t typically think of survival mode as a state of being that requires a lot of self-reflection, but I suppose that if someone knows they’re about to die, they’re probably thinking about what they’ve actually done while they were alive. I’ll allow it.

That being said, there is a scene in particular that bothers the ever-loving hell out of me. Throughout, Katniss has the ability to think through an obstacle quickly (save the tracker jacker scene) and interpret danger where most people wouldn’t see it. I get it, she’s woodsy. She’s smart and a survivor. However, when she kisses Peeta in the cave and is rewarded with a pot of soup, she has some sort of brilliant, complex conclusion about what Haymitch is trying to tell her via soup.

“Haymitch couldn’t be sending me a clearer message. One kiss equals one pot of broth. I can almost hear his snarl. ‘You’re supposed to be in love, sweetheart. The boy’s dying. Give me something I can work with!”

In fact, Haymitch could have sent you a clearer message, Katniss. He could have said, “Please kiss Peeta more because you’re coming off really cold and unfeeling. Confess your love for him and I will send bread.” But he didn’t. He sent you soup, and unless it was alphabet soup, I don’t think you would have inferred that message at all had it not been spelled out for you. You and your fake boyfriend are starving; you’re happy to have the soup. Furthermore, you admit to having no experience with kissing so how can you immediately recognize that you suck at it? I’ve known lots and lots of men who are super experienced kissers and have gone their entire lives not realizing how horrible they are at it—couldn’t you have possessed a similar naivety?

I’m just saying.