Mockingjay; Defeatist Finale: Workers Rebel, Win, But Nothing Changes

As Mockingjay, the third book of the Hunger Games trilogy, begins, Katniss sees the destruction of her home district and is taken to the underground District 13. The rulers of Panem had long treated the complete destruction of District 13 as an example of what would happen to any who rebelled. 

District 13 had long ago been part of Panem rulers’ nuclear weapons program. District 13’s survivors had trained the weapons on the Capitol and agreed to “play dead in exchange for being left alone.” Katniss learns that the offspring of survivors of that fight 75 years ago were now organizing and leading the rebellion against Panem’s fascist rulers. 

District 13 has some aspects of communist egalitarian life. All, including leaders, share the limited resources available and all share in work and production. This collective life and the nuclear standoff hint at a parallel to the former socialist Soviet Union — maybe suggesting that it is communists who can be relied on to lead the struggle.

The author paints an extremely negative picture of life in District 13 which mirrors the portrayal of the Soviet Union and socialist China in capitalist media. Everyone in District 13 wears a uniform, waits in line for tasteless meals and follows strict schedules. District 13 is joyless and regimented. Leaders may share food and clothing, but decision-making and power is only for the elite. Even a small deviation from the mechanical sharing is met by violent punishment instead of collective and comradely struggle. 

While Katniss often thinks only about the needs of her own family and friends, she also sees the strength of district 13’s discipline in a fight against the Capitol and agrees to be the “mockingjay” symbol of the revolt. Most of Mockingjay is the story of the rebellion. Unfortunately it more often than not is a story that emphasizes Katniss’s propaganda triumphs and bravery rather than the masses of workers who are really the only force that could (and do) defeat the Panem rulers’ fascist forces. 

In the end Katniss is matched against Panem’s President Snow in an individual fight that undercuts earlier descriptions of a united workers’ revolution. At the same time, the leader of District 13 is increasingly portrayed as selfish and obsessed with power. In the end even Katniss is often portrayed as cold and heartless.

This pushes the same cynical ideas the capitalist media offer workers all the time: even if workers rebel and win, nothing will really ever change. At the end of the book, children are massacred and Katniss comes to believe that the rebellion leaders (including her friends) are responsible for tactics as brutal and immoral as those of the Capitol rulers.

Then the new rulers propose a Hunger Games fight to the death for the children of the old rulers. To gain revenge for the death of her sister in the rebellion, Katniss gives her approval. Finally, Katniss takes individual action to assassinate the leader of the rebellion instead of relying on the collective of former tributes who might have prevented the new Hunger Games. The epilogue of the story proposes that a new, milder leader has taken over and the system has been reformed. However, the actions required to create this new happy ending are not portrayed. 

The author’s analysis of the horrors of fascism is strong and compelling, but she cannot really picture or describe what the solution would be. The anti-communism most workers are taught in school shows clearly in the last book, where the communist-like society of District 13 is eventually revealed as just as bad as fascism. Her portrayal of strong female characters reveals an anti-sexist attitude, but individualism rather than collectivity is the defining trait of the “heroic” Katniss.

Without a communist perspective, Hunger Games has no real alternative and just leaves the reader with the defeatist idea that nothing will ever change. As communists we do have a vision where workers can rule society in a new way that smashes the capitalist state of racism, sexism, exploitation and endless wars for profit. These are the ideas we have to present to readers of the Hunger Games: join with us, we have a world to win.