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Clemensia is one of Coriolanus’s close friends and a mentor in the Hunger Games. Her tribute is Reaper. She dislikes the tributes and refuses to see them as real people; she finds Reaper’s name “creepy” and horribly ironic, given that his name is called in his district’s reaping. She’s supposed to work with Coriolanus and Arachne on a Hunger Games proposal for Dr. Gaul, but Clemensia is too distraught to work on the proposal after Arachne’s death. The following day, when Clemensia and Coriolanus meet with Dr. Gaul about the proposal that Coriolanus wrote and submitted, they lie that Clemensia helped. However, her lie comes out when she reaches into Dr. Gaul’s tank of neon snakes to retrieve the pages of the proposal, as the snakes will bite anyone whose scent they’re unfamiliar with. The venomous snakebites cause Clemensia to be hospitalized for about a week. They also cause the whites of her eyes to turn yellow and colorful snakeskin to appear across her chest. But even more disturbingly, Coriolanus believes that the snake venom changes Clemensia’s personality—she comes out of her time in the hospital unusually touchy, and she treats Reaper cruelly. Though she has food and water stocked up for him, she refuses to send him any until he does something to show her he deserves the gifts. When she finally does send him food and water, Reaper refuses to consume any of it—he doesn’t trust her.
Clemensia Dovecote Quotes in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
The The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes quotes below are all either spoken by Clemensia Dovecote or refer to Clemensia Dovecote. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 8
Quotes
It was like the Hunger Games. Only they weren’t district kids. The Capitol was supposed to protect them. He thought of Sejanus telling Dr. Gaul it was the government’s job to protect everybody, even the people in the districts, but he still wasn’t sure how to square that with the fact that they’d been such recent enemies. But certainly the child of a Snow should be a top priority. He could be dead if Clemensia had written the proposal instead of him. He buried his head in his hands, confused, angry, and most of all afraid. Afraid of Dr. Gaul. Afraid of the Capitol. Afraid of everything. If the people who were supposed to protect you played so fast and loose with your life…then how did you survive? Not by trusting them, that’s for sure.
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Chapter 15
Quotes
Another student, or even the Coriolanus of a couple of weeks ago, would have protested this situation. Insisted on calling a parent or guardian. Pleaded. But after the snake attack on Clemensia, the aftermath of the bombing, and Marcus’s torture, he knew it would be pointless. If Dr. Gaul decided he was to go into the Capitol Arena, that’s where he would go, even if his prize was not at stake. He was just like the subjects of her other experiments, students or tributes, of no more consequence than the Avoxes in the cages. Powerless to object.
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Clemensia Dovecote Quotes in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
The The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes quotes below are all either spoken by Clemensia Dovecote or refer to Clemensia Dovecote. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 8
Quotes
It was like the Hunger Games. Only they weren’t district kids. The Capitol was supposed to protect them. He thought of Sejanus telling Dr. Gaul it was the government’s job to protect everybody, even the people in the districts, but he still wasn’t sure how to square that with the fact that they’d been such recent enemies. But certainly the child of a Snow should be a top priority. He could be dead if Clemensia had written the proposal instead of him. He buried his head in his hands, confused, angry, and most of all afraid. Afraid of Dr. Gaul. Afraid of the Capitol. Afraid of everything. If the people who were supposed to protect you played so fast and loose with your life…then how did you survive? Not by trusting them, that’s for sure.
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Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15
Quotes
Another student, or even the Coriolanus of a couple of weeks ago, would have protested this situation. Insisted on calling a parent or guardian. Pleaded. But after the snake attack on Clemensia, the aftermath of the bombing, and Marcus’s torture, he knew it would be pointless. If Dr. Gaul decided he was to go into the Capitol Arena, that’s where he would go, even if his prize was not at stake. He was just like the subjects of her other experiments, students or tributes, of no more consequence than the Avoxes in the cages. Powerless to object.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
