Previous
Chapter 26
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
Coriolanus has no idea when Sejanus slipped off. Is he out “conspiring with the rebels” right now? Just then, though, Sejanus comes back inside, insisting the liquor makes him have to pee. Coriolanus says nothing—but white liquor doesn’t make people pee like that. Sejanus is lying. The next morning, Sejanus is the only one able to eat breakfast, more proof he didn’t drink at all last night. But Coriolanus invites him to the lake with the Covey anyway. On their walk to the Seam, Coriolanus wonders what Sejanus is up to, and what Sejanus plans to do with that money.
Again, Sejanus possibly “conspiring with rebels” is so much of an issue for Coriolanus partly because people believe they’re friends—and will suspect Coriolanus as well. Coriolanus cares about his reputation first and foremost, and Sejanus is jeopardizing everything Coriolanus has been working for by possibly getting involved with the rebel cause.
Themes
Lucy Gray greets Coriolanus warmly, despite their tiff last night, and the Covey—aside from Barb Azure—lead the way into the woods. Coriolanus still hates the woods, especially without a weapon. He makes himself a walking stick, but no one else seems concerned. After a while, Maude Ivory complains that her shoes are hurting her feet. Sejanus offers to carry her. Maude Ivory sings—and the mockingjays pick up the song. Coriolanus hates it.
Coriolanus hates the woods because he can’t control them or the animals in them—and he craves power and control most of all. He hates the mockingjays for the same reason. Though he could choose a different song that he’d rather hear them sing, he doesn’t want them to have the agency to choose what they sing.
Themes
A bit later, Coriolanus takes over carrying Maude Ivory. She wants to know what he thought of Lucy Gray’s song—and where he thinks the girl went. Relieved that there isn’t one interpretation of the song that he just didn’t get, Coriolanus engages in debate with the Covey about that Lucy Gray’s whereabouts. The debate ends when they reach the lake. Everyone strips to their underwear and dives in. From the middle of the lake, Coriolanus can see small houses, one of which is concrete. A bit later, to prepare for a lunch of fresh fish, Maude Ivory and Sejanus go to pick berries. Lucy Gray warns her away from the rocks, where the snakes live; Maude Ivory explains that Lucy Gray loves snakes and will hold them.
Getting to engage in a debate about Wordsworth’s Lucy Gray makes Coriolanus feel better about his lacking critical thinking skills. It also allows him to feel closer to the Covey by engaging in a spirited debate about the poem. Swimming in the lake, which Coriolanus enjoys, also brings them all closer together, as does sharing a meal as though they’re equals. Coriolanus isn’t acting like a Peacekeeper while he’s hanging out with the Covey. Rather, he’s their friend.
Themes
Coriolanus helps Lucy Gray start a fire. As it flickers to life, Lucy Gray apologizes for last night. Coriolanus apologizes too, but he says that he agrees with the Capitol. People are forgetting the war too fast, and the Capitol exists to keep things under control. Without it, people would be animals killing each other, like in the Hunger Games. The Capitol keeps people safe. Lucy Gray says that in exchange for her supposed safety, she and the Covey have had to give up traveling, singing what they want, and they’re always at risk of being killed. She suggests freedom is more important than the Capitol’s protection. Then, she says that Coriolanus is like her—he wants to make choices for himself. Coriolanus insists they would be dead if it weren’t for the Capitol. Lucy Gray insists that people would be—and have been—just fine without it.
Here, Coriolanus starts to articulate some of Dr. Gaul’s ideas for Lucy Gray. He believes that the Capitol keeps things safe and stops people from killing each other because, as a wealthy Capitol kid, Coriolanus isn’t really at risk in Panem. It doesn’t occur to him that the Capitol facilitates the Hunger Games and in doing so, it actively puts some of its citizens in danger. Lucy Gray sees the hypocrisy here, since she’s been the Capitol’s target before. She remembers how things were before the war, and she sees those times as preferable. In her mind, no government (specifically, no Capitol) is better than a government that subjugates her like the Capitol does.
Themes
Get the entire The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes LitChart as a printable PDF.
Clerk Carmine interrupts Coriolanus and Lucy Gray’s discussion by bringing her a katniss plant, which Lucy Gray explains is a wild potato. Tam Amber guts a few fish and Lucy Gray cooks them. The group also feasts on blackberries and Ma’s sugar cookies, which Sejanus brought. After lunch, Maude Ivory explains that each member of the Covey’s first name comes from a ballad, and their second name is a color. It seems strange to Coriolanus, but Maude Ivory suggests that Coriolanus’s full name—Coriolanus Snow—sounds like a Covey name too.
Maude Ivory’s comment about Coriolanus’s name being like a Covey name suggests again that Coriolanus does have the capacity to be good. If he so chose, he could live like the Covey and give up his life in the Capitol, an environment which seems to be steering him toward evil. Clerk Carmine’s katniss plant is a nod to Katniss, the protagonist of The Hunger Games.
Themes
Lucy Gray convinces Maude Ivory to lie down and take a nap in exchange for a song. The lullaby helps Coriolanus to appreciate nature for the first time. He wonders if love conquers everything, and what life might be like living off the land with Lucy Gray. But his happiness disappears when the mockingjays pick up the song—and the Covey expresses approval for the birds. Coriolanus hates the birds, and he’s disturbed that Capitol technology is being co-opted and running wild out here.
In this passage, Coriolanus shows that he’s in a transitional state. He’s going to have to make a choice soon about the kind of person he wants to be—whether he wants to be someone Lucy Gray would love, or whether he wants to look out for himself. Though appreciating nature suggests he might choose the first path, his hatred of the mockingjays seems stronger—and points to him ultimately choosing himself and the Capitol.
Themes
Later, while the others swim again, Lucy Gray brings up Billy Taupe. She tells Coriolanus she doesn’t miss him and explains that somehow, her name was called in the reaping after she and Mayfair found out that Billy Taupe was trying to see them both. However, Lucy Gray suggests she feels bad for Mayfair and understands why Billy Taupe chose her. She admits Billy Taupe is trying to woo her again—he wants to meet at the hanging tree (where they used to spend time together) and run north, to where there might be free people. But Lucy Gray says she can’t trust him. Coriolanus is jealous, but he just responds with, “trust is important.” Lucy Gray says she doesn’t trust a lot of things she loves, like snakes. But she does trust Coriolanus.
Lucy Gray implies that Billy Taupe and Mayfair somehow conspired to have her name drawn in the reaping. Sejanus suggested as much earlier in the novel. If this is true, it would mean that corruption runs rampant in Panem, even at the local level. Once again, Coriolanus hides what he actually thinks in favor of telling Lucy Gray what he believes she wants to hear. It’s interesting that she says she trusts him, especially since the novel has drawn connections between Coriolanus and untrustworthy snakes in the past.
Themes
As Maude Ivory wakes up, Coriolanus stews. He’s jealous as he thinks of the song Lucy Gray was writing when he met her in the meadow; it was about the hanging tree. Why is she writing about a place she used to go with Billy Taupe? Later, on the hike back, Maude Ivory tells Coriolanus they don’t see Billy Taupe anymore. This is concerning, as it means Lucy Gray is keeping secrets from the Covey. Maude Ivory also says to keep Sejanus away from Billy Taupe.
Though Lucy Gray insists she trusts Coriolanus, Coriolanus doesn’t trust her. He believes she’s lying to him and is perhaps cheating on him with Billy Taupe. Coriolanus may feel this way because his dream would be to have total control over Lucy Gray. It’s hard for him to accept that she has agency and can make her own choices. It means he has to trust her.
Themes
Sejanus, Maude Ivory, and Tam Amber head into town while the rest of the group collects apples. When Coriolanus, Lucy Gray, and Clerk Carmine get back to the house, Barb Azure says the first group is at the Hob. Coriolanus leaves immediately to fetch Sejanus—they can’t be alone, as Peacekeepers. At the Hob, Coriolanus sees Sejanus at a woman’s weapons counter. He insists he’s buying a pocketknife later, when he gets paid, but Coriolanus stalks out of the Hob. They walk back to the base in silence until they’re close, and then Coriolanus tells Sejanus that he's like a brother, and he’s here to help. Sejanus tears up, says he trusts Coriolanus, and they hug.
Sejanus’s behavior in this passage is more proof for Coriolanus that Sejanus has no intention of changing his ways and falling into line. Sejanus is, perhaps, working with a weapons dealer—and is doing so behind Coriolanus’s back. It’s duplicitous of Coriolanus to say that Sejanus is like a brother and that he wants to help. Coriolanus wants to look out for himself, and for now, that means keeping Sejanus in line—but he doesn’t appear particularly interested in helping Sejanus for Sejanus’s sake.
Themes
Fortunately, the next few days are busy, so Sejanus is constantly supervised. When Coriolanus joins the group catching mockingjays again, Dr. Kay says it’s time to pull out the mist nets. They erect the nearly invisible nets on Tuesday and, when the nets catch birds, remove them immediately. Coriolanus’s bird screams and bites him, so he carries cages instead. But Coriolanus has come to enjoy the jabberjays and the scientists allow him to play with the birds. Coriolanus enjoys making them sing the anthem—but though it’s satisfying to hear the mockingjays pick up the tune, he hates when they sing. In general, he hates how musical his life has become between the birds and the Covey. Maybe he’s not like his mother.
The novel aligns Lucy Gray and the Covey with birds; recall Coriolanus’s observation that Lucy Gray regularly uses bird imagery. When the mockingjay bites Coriolanus, it suggests that Coriolanus won’t get on as well with the Covey and Lucy Gray as he’d like to. Coriolanus as much as confirms this when he wonders if he’s not like his mother. His mother seems like a person Lucy Gray would’ve liked—and by deciding he doesn’t want to be like his mother, it reads like Coriolanus saying he’s no longer as interested in impressing Lucy Gray.
Themes
By Wednesday, Dr. Kay has enough birds to be happy. Coriolanus and Bug prepare the birds for their trip to the Capitol. Coriolanus gets through the mockingjays and has just started on the jabberjays when Sejanus leaps into the hangar with news that Ma sent another package of sweets. Then, Sejanus’s mood shifts, and he says he needs to tell Coriolanus something Coriolanus won’t approve of. Instead of trying to stop Sejanus from talking, Coriolanus casually puts the cover on a jabberjay’s cage and presses the “record” button on a jabberjay remote.
Coriolanus obviously intends to record whatever Sejanus tells him—and Sejanus believes they’re speaking in confidence. This shows that Coriolanus’s loyalty is to the Capitol and to himself, not to his friends or the rebel cause. Ratting out Sejanus for whatever Sejanus is going to say might help Coriolanus get ahead, and that seems to be a bigger draw than helping Sejanus ever was.
Themes
