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Dr. Volumnia Gaul
Dean Highbottom is the dean of students at the Academy. He’s also credited with inventing the Hunger Games. But while he holds these prestigious roles and distinctions, Highbottom is also a known morphling addict, which students—namely Coriolanus—make fun of him for behind his back. Perplexingly for Coriolanus, Dean Highbottom seems to hate him for seemingly no reason. Highbottom also expresses sentiments throughout the Hunger Games that suggest he doesn’t see children from the districts as lesser than their Capitol counterparts—for instance, he suggests that what sets Capitol and district kids apart is their access to dental care; and when Lucy Gray wins, he surreptitiously gives her a handful of cash and apologizes—and he perhaps doesn’t support the Games at all. Coriolanus also suspects that Dr. Gaul is somehow controlling Highbottom, since Highbottom never seems happy to be sitting in on her sessions with the mentors. Dean Highbottom is all too happy, in Coriolanus’s opinion, to accuse him of cheating in the Games and send him to join the Peacekeepers. Throughout the novel, Coriolanus hears from Pluribus Bell that Dean Highbottom and his father were friends when they were students, an assertion that makes no sense to Coriolanus given how much Dean Highbottom hates him. But upon Coriolanus’s return to the Capitol, he learns the truth: Highbottom and Crassus Snow were best friends, but Highbottom never forgave Crassus for writing down his drunken ideas that eventually became the Hunger Games and submitting the proposal to their professor, Dr. Gaul. He hated Crassus because Crassus cared more about his grades than about people’s lives, an accusation that Highbottom also throws at Coriolanus. Coriolanus, however, isn’t perturbed, as he poisons a bottle of morphling that he throws away in Highbottom’s office trash can.
Dean Casca Highbottom Quotes in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
The The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes quotes below are all either spoken by Dean Casca Highbottom or refer to Dean Casca Highbottom. 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 9
Quotes
“My condolences on the loss of your friend,” the dean said.
“And on your student. It’s a difficult day for all of us. But the procession was very moving,” Coriolanus replied.
“Did you think so? I found it excessive and in poor taste,” said Dean Highbottom. Taken by surprise, Coriolanus let out a short laugh before he recovered and tried to look shocked. The dean dropped his gaze to Coriolanus’s blue rosebud. “It’s amazing, how little things change. After all the killing. After all the agonized promises to remember the cost. After all of that, I can’t distinguish the bud from the blossom.”
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Chapter 13
Quotes
“But surely, you’re not comparing our children to theirs?” asked Lucky. “One look tells you ours are a superior breed.”
“One look tells you ours have had more food, nicer clothing, and better dental care,” said Dean Highbottom. “Assuming anything more, a physical, mental, or especially a moral superiority, would be a mistake. That sort of hubris almost finished us off in the war.”
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Epilogue
Quotes
“Because we credit them with innocence. And if even the most innocent among us turn to killers in the Hunger Games, what does that say? That our essential nature is violent,” Snow explained.
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Dean Casca Highbottom Quotes in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
The The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes quotes below are all either spoken by Dean Casca Highbottom or refer to Dean Casca Highbottom. 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 9
Quotes
“My condolences on the loss of your friend,” the dean said.
“And on your student. It’s a difficult day for all of us. But the procession was very moving,” Coriolanus replied.
“Did you think so? I found it excessive and in poor taste,” said Dean Highbottom. Taken by surprise, Coriolanus let out a short laugh before he recovered and tried to look shocked. The dean dropped his gaze to Coriolanus’s blue rosebud. “It’s amazing, how little things change. After all the killing. After all the agonized promises to remember the cost. After all of that, I can’t distinguish the bud from the blossom.”
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13
Quotes
“But surely, you’re not comparing our children to theirs?” asked Lucky. “One look tells you ours are a superior breed.”
“One look tells you ours have had more food, nicer clothing, and better dental care,” said Dean Highbottom. “Assuming anything more, a physical, mental, or especially a moral superiority, would be a mistake. That sort of hubris almost finished us off in the war.”
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Epilogue
Quotes
“Because we credit them with innocence. And if even the most innocent among us turn to killers in the Hunger Games, what does that say? That our essential nature is violent,” Snow explained.
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Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
