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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Propaganda, Spectacle, and Morality
Children
Government and Power
Human Nature
Trust and Loyalty
Summary
Analysis
Though the cabbage soup Coriolanus is making disgusts him, he knows he must eat it—it won’t do if his stomach rumbles during the reaping. Nobody can know that his family, once one of the most powerful in the Capitol, is now “as poor as district scum.” As he cooks, Coriolanus worries about his shirt. His cousin Tigris found the old shirt in the back of Coriolanus’s deceased father’s wardrobe to fix up, but she and the shirt are gone now. She doesn’t have anything to trade for something better except her body, the thought of which makes Coriolanus sick.
Introducing Coriolanus like this—worrying about his shirt, and insisting that no one can know how poor his family is—makes it clear that his chief concern is keeping up appearances. He also reveals how little he thinks of the poor people who live in the districts (describing them as “scum”). Though he insists there should be a lot of difference between the wealthy Snows and poor district folk, in reality, his description of his family situation suggests there isn’t much difference these days.
Themes
Coriolanus’s grandmother begins her morning routine of playing the recording of the Capitol Anthem, “Gem of Panem,” and singing along. She’s been doing this daily for a decade—and she’s a terrible singer. Coriolanus wonders whether more furniture would muffle the sound, but there’s no way for his family to afford more furniture. Like most apartments in the Capitol, the Snows’ was damaged during rebel attacks, and the family had to burn many books and wood carvings during the siege. Other families have begun to recover, but not the Snows. Coriolanus wonders how long he can keep up this charade.
While Coriolanus explains that his grandmother has been singing the anthem daily for a decade, he makes it seem like he barely notices the words of the song anymore. This is just an annoying morning routine; the meaning of the anthem isn’t important to him. And as Coriolanus describes the attacks and sieges, he implies that the war hurt everyone in the Capitol. But the Snows just haven’t been lucky, unlike some of their neighbors.
Themes
Coriolanus wonders whether he can call in sick if Tigris doesn’t return with the shirt. He digs through the fridge to find more ingredients for his soup and discovers a pot of terrible-looking shredded potatoes. Sighing, Coriolanus remembers how Avoxes, tongueless workers, used to collect trash—before people stopped throwing things away out of necessity. These days, waste—and prosperity—are starting to come back, though.
It seems to grate on Coriolanus that life used to be more comfortable—and arguably is getting better—but that his family is getting left behind these days. In his mind, since his family is still doing poorly, it’s just making things more difficult that he now has to somehow pretend that his family is doing better, too.
Themes
As Coriolanus’s grandmother hits the final notes of the anthem, Coriolanus sighs. She keeps talking about how Coriolanus is going to be president one day, but she hasn’t been mentally with it for years now. Coriolanus pokes at his soup and realizes he can’t skip the reaping. His communications professor, Satyria Click, has arranged for him to get one of the 24 Hunger Games mentorships—and if he doesn’t go, he might lose out on the mentorship and the cash prizes that will pay for his university education.
To Coriolanus, his grandmother is living in an era long gone. This seems especially true as she sings the anthem, which talks about a Panem that sounds way more prosperous than it actually is in the present. In this current Panem, becoming president no longer seems attainable, though Coriolanus recognizes he has a chance to better himself by doing well as a mentor in the Hunger Games.
Themes
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Tigris comes in through the front door, interrupting Coriolanus’s thoughts. She excitedly offers him a garment bag. Inside is a classy, cream-colored shirt with black velvet cuffs and collar and gold and ebony cubes for buttons. Coriolanus happily says, “Snow lands on top,” the saying that emotionally got them through the war. Tigris explains how she spent the entirety of the last 24 hours updating the shirt and then dumps the potatoes from the fridge (her source for ironing starch) into the soup.
Like Coriolanus, Tigris seems to believe that members of the Snow family must look the part of wealthy, upper-crust Capitol folk, even if the family’s reality is something entirely different. It’s a sign of how much Tigris cares that her cousin looks good that she used potatoes—a coveted source of food, it seems—for ironing starch rather than eating.
Themes
Noticing the time, Coriolanus gulps down some soup and changes into his school uniform pants, almost too-small boots, and the dress shirt. He isn’t very tall, but most of his peers aren’t tall—growing up during wartime stunted everyone’s growth. Then, Coriolanus parades into the living room to show Tigris how he looks. Tigris squeals and calls in their grandmother, whom they call Grandma’am. Grandma’am appears with a fresh red rose from her rooftop garden and offers it to Coriolanus to pin to his shirt. A thorn punctures his finger, causing him to bleed, but Tigris quickly trims up the rose and pins it to Coriolanus’s shirt. Then, Coriolanus heads down the apartment building’s stairs and out into the city.
Again, Coriolanus makes it clear that while his family is perhaps unusual in that they haven’t begun to recover after the war, in every other way, they experienced almost the exact same thing as everyone else. But still, Coriolanus cleans up well. The rose symbolizes how hard the Snow family is trying to look wealthy and prestigious. Coriolanus’s bleeding finger hints that this may be an unsuccessful and dangerous endeavor, though, even if it looks convincingly beautiful for the time being.
Themes
The apartment building is on the Corso, which was once a grand avenue. Coriolanus remembers when it was grand, but though the streets are clear these days, there’s still rubble from the bombings on the sidewalk. Sometimes, Coriolanus wonders if the debris on the street is there to remind people of how horrible the war was. It’s essential that nobody forget the war, which is why the Hunger Games exists. “Forgetting could lead to complacency.”
It doesn’t seem here like Coriolanus is sharing his own words or thoughts with readers; insisting that no one should forget because it would breed complacency sounds more like propaganda, not the thoughts of an 18-year-old. But it’s a mark of how successful that propaganda is that Coriolanus presents these thoughts as his own.
Themes
Coriolanus slows as he reaches Scholars Road so he’s not too sweaty—but it’s also July Fourth and scorching hot, so that’s a bit of a lost cause. He approaches the Academy, the finest secondary school in the Capitol. Fortunately, it’s tuition-free and provides lunch, supplies, and uniforms. Coriolanus tries to look dignified as he climbs the grand staircase. If he does well as a mentor to one of the Hunger Games tributes, he’ll win a prize that should cover tuition at the University. Mentors are new this year. Pairing bright Academy seniors with tributes is supposed to pique interest and get people to watch the Games, which most people avoid—all the Games consist of is dumping tributes into an old amphitheater with weapons so they can murder each other.
The date, July fourth, stands out—it suggests that Panem has now taken the place of the United States, and now Independence Day is celebrated very differently. Noting that the Academy provides so much for its students suggests that Coriolanus might not be the only one who needs to win a prize to attend the University; it seems like many people probably need the help from the school. And Coriolanus’s way of describing the Hunger Games suggests that viewers these days see it as something terrible and almost shameful.
Themes
Coriolanus heads for Heavensbee Hall and accepts a goblet of posca (watery wine), but only drinks enough to cover his cabbage breath. Knowing he has to be charming since he doesn’t have any money, Coriolanus greets friends and teachers as he moves toward Satyria. Coriolanus is annoyed when the gym teacher, Agrippa Sickle, heads his way, followed by her aide Sejanus Plinth. Sejanus is dressed beautifully; his father was a District Two munitions manufacturer who bought the Plinth family’s life in the Capitol, mostly by funding the Academy’s reconstruction after the war. Coriolanus hates “climbers” like the Plinths, and he especially hates the Plinths since the Snow family was in the munitions business too. But their business was in District 13, which was nuked and is no longer habitable. Coriolanus has ignored Sejanus since Sejanus first appeared on the playground.
Coriolanus’s classism shines through here. He believes he must preserve his own family’s fortune and reputation as much as possible, and he doesn’t feel that anyone else—like the Plinths—should be able to buy their way into the Capitol’s high society circle. But hating the Plinths is also personal, as they’re profiting in the same line of business as the Snow family once did. This also drives home how devastating the war was for everyone, including the wealthy. By ignoring Sejanus (rather than, say, bullying him), Coriolanus can show Sejanus he’s unwelcome—while also making himself look good, since he’s not overtly being mean to Sejanus.
Themes
Professor Sickle greets Satyria and compliments Coriolanus’s shirt, which she recognizes as being Coriolanus’s father’s. As the professors chat, Sejanus sighs to Coriolanus that his family is moving closer to the school—the Capitol is going to start taxing properties in the city, and many people won’t be able to afford their homes. Privately, Coriolanus panics: his family won’t be able to afford the apartment on Tigris’s meager salary. But a bell rings, signaling that the reaping is about to begin.
Sejanus doesn’t seem thrilled with the prospect of moving closer to the school, which suggests he might not be comfortable with being so wealthy. This would put him in opposition to Coriolanus, as he resents the same things Coriolanus wants. Coriolanus has bigger things to worry about, though, since his family isn’t wealthy right now. He might find himself homeless if it’s true the city is instituting new taxes.
Themes
Dean Casca Highbottom, the man who created the Hunger Games, will oversee the mentor program. As usual, he’s clearly on a drug called morphling, so he slurs as he reads the assignments. As Dean Highbottom goes down the list, Coriolanus begins to worry: he hoped for a tribute from Districts One, Two, Four, or 11, as tributes from those districts tend to win. Coriolanus gets the final assignment: the girl from District 12.
The way Coriolanus talks about Dean Highbottom suggests that the dean is something of a joke amongst the students because of his drug use. Coriolanus, however, never shows any curiosity as to why a man in such a powerful position—the creator of the Hunger Games—has turned to drugs. This is something the novel will revisit later, but here, it reflects Coriolanus’s self-centeredness.
Themes
