Catching Fire
Catching
Fire is a 2009 science fiction young
adult novel by the American novelist Suzanne
Collins, the second book in The
Hunger Games series.
As the sequel to the 2008 bestseller The Hunger Games, it continues the story of Katniss
Everdeen and the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem. Following the events of the previous novel, a rebellion
against the oppressive Capitol has begun, and Katniss and fellow tribute Peeta
Mellark are forced to return to the arena
in a special edition of the Hunger Games.
The
book was first published on September 1, 2009, by Scholastic,
in hardcover, and was later released in ebook and audiobook
format. Catching Fire received mostly positive reviews, with reviewers
praising Collins' prose, the book's ending, and the development of Katniss's
character. According to critics, major themes of the novel include survival,
authoritarianism, rebellion and interdependence versus independence. The book
has sold more than 19 million copies in the U.S. alone.
Plot
After
winning the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss
Everdeen and Peeta
Mellark return home to District 12, the poorest sector of Panem. Six months later, prior to Katniss and Peeta's
"Victory Tour" of the country, President
Snow visits and tells Katniss that her
televised acts of defiance in the previous Games have inspired rebellion among
the districts. Snow demands that Katniss convince the country that she was
acting out of love for Peeta, not against the Capitol, or her entire family and
best friend Gale Hawthorne will be executed. Katniss reveals this threat to her
mentor, Haymitch Abernathy, but not to Peeta.
The
tour’s first stop is District 11, home of Katniss' Hunger Games ally Rue. Peeta announces that he will give part of his winnings to
the families of Rue and fellow tribute Thresh, and Katniss delivers an impromptu, heartfelt speech
expressing her gratitude to the fallen tributes. An old man salutes Katniss,
joined by the crowd; to her horror, the old man is immediately executed.
Katniss tells Peeta of Snow’s threat, and they continue the tour as normal.
Hoping to placate Snow, Peeta proposes to Katniss during a televised interview
in the Capitol. Katniss accepts, but Snow is dissatisfied with her performance,
leaving her fearing for her loved ones.
Returning
to District 12, now overrun with harsher Peacekeepers to enforce the Capitol's
rule, Katniss discovers an uprising has broken out in District 8. Gale is caught poaching and
is whipped in the town square until Haymitch intervenes. While hunting in the
woods, Katniss meets Bonnie and Twill, refugees from District 8 whose uprising
has failed. They plan to reach District 13 – believed to be destroyed in the
first rebellion against the Capitol – in the hope that the residents are
actually underground. Katniss is injured climbing back over District 12’s now
live electric fence. Preparing for her upcoming wedding, Katniss learns that
Districts 3 and 4 have also risen up against the Capitol.
The
Capitol announces the 75th Hunger Games, with a twist – tributes will be
selected from the surviving victors of the previous Games. Katniss realizes she
must compete alongside either Haymitch or Peeta. Haymitch is chosen and is
unable to stop Peeta volunteering in his place. At the Capitol, Haymitch urges
Katniss to find allies but she bonds with the weakest tributes. In the
televised interview, Katniss' stylist Cinna transforms the white wedding gown
Snow insisted she wear into a black dress of feathers resembling a mockingjay,
a symbol of the rebellion. Before Katniss is sent into the arena, she watches
helplessly as Cinna is beaten unconscious by the peacekeepers.
Katniss
and Peeta ally themselves with Finnick Odair from District 4 and Mags, his 80-year-old mentor. Peeta is knocked out by the jungle
arena’s force field,
and the party later has to flee from a poisonous
fog. Mags sacrifices herself to allow
Finnick to save the weakened Peeta. They join up with Johanna Mason from District 7 and “exceptionally smart” Beetee and Wiress from District 3. Wiress reveals that the arena is arranged
like a clock, with each danger occurring at a fixed time and place for one hour.
However, Wiress is killed, and in retaliation Katniss and Johanna kill the
tributes of District 1. The remaining tributes work on Beetee's plan to harness
lightning to electrocute the District 2 tributes, who later interferes and
disrupts the plan. Katniss uses her bow and arrow to direct the lightning into
the force field, destroying it and knocking her unconscious.
Katniss
wakes up en route to District 13 with Finnick, Beetee, and Haymitch. She learns
from Haymitch and Plutarch Heavensbee, the Head Gamekeeper, that there has been
a plan to rescue Katniss, now the living symbol of the rebellion. Enraged that
Peeta, along with Johanna and tribute Enobaria, have been captured by the
Capitol, and for not being confined with the plan, Katniss attacks Haymitch.
She later learns from Gale that, though her family and some other residents
have escaped, District 12 has been destroyed.
Themes
The
main themes of Catching Fire include survival, sacrifice, and the
conflict between interdependence
and independence.
As reviewer Margo Dill noted, "In [Catching Fire], Katniss and
Peeta are definitely interdependent. They are both helping each other to
survive. As a matter of fact, they want the other one to survive more than they
do themselves." Dill goes on to explain how this likely increases the
chances of each character dying.[2]
Government
control is another important theme, both within the book and throughout the
entire trilogy. After suppressing the first rebellion, the Capitol establishes
rules in order to restrict and control the citizens' lives. examples noted by
Dill include that, "the 75th annual Hunger Games have 'new' rules that
cause Katniss and Peeta to be in danger once again. More 'Peacekeepers' are
placed in districts to diminish any hope that the citizens started to have after
the last Hunger Games."[2] Another major theme throughout the trilogy is the media and
the influence or power that popular culture has over the emotions, wishes and
views of society. Other themes in the book include morality, obedience,
sacrifice, redemption, love, and law.[3]
Publication history
Catching
Fire had a preliminary hardcover release
date of September 8, 2009, which was moved up to September 1 in response to
requests by retailers to move the release to before Labor
Day and the start of school for many
readers.[4] It was also published as an audiobook on the same day.[5] Advance reading copies were available at BookExpo
America in New York City,[6] and were sent out to some booksellers, and offered as
prizes in Scholastic's
"How Would You Survive" writing contest in May 2009. An eBook version
was also published on June 3, 2010.[5] Catching Fire had an initial print of 350,000
copies,[4]
a number which had grown to over 750,000 by February 2010.[7] The release of Mockingjay, the third novel of the series, followed on August 24,
2010.[8][9] As of March 2012, the book has sold over 10 million
copies.[10]
Critical reception
Catching
Fire received mainly positive reviews
from critics. Publishers Weekly wrote, "If this second installment spends too much
time recapping events from book one, it doesn't disappoint when it segues into
the pulse-pounding action readers have come to expect."[11] Booklist
commented on how the "unadorned prose provides an open window to perfect
pacing and electrifying world building".[3] The New York Times also gave a positive review, writing, "Collins has
done that rare thing. She has written a sequel that improves upon the first
book. As a reader, I felt excited and even hopeful: could it be that this
series and its characters were actually going somewhere?" The review also
praised Collins' development of the character of Katniss.[12] The Plain Dealer wrote, "The very last sentence
of Catching Fire will leave readers gasping. Not to mention primed for
part three."[13]
However,
not all reviews were positive. The same review from The Plain Dealer expressed
displeasure at how, "after 150 pages of romantic dithering, I was tapping
my foot to move on."[13] A review from Entertainment Weekly opined that the book was weaker than the first and wrote,
"Katniss pretends to be in love with her sweet-natured Games teammate
Peeta Mellark, but she secretly pines for brooding Gale, a childhood friend.
Except — why? There's little distinction between the two thinly imagined
guys, other than the fact that Peeta has a dopier name. Collins conjures none
of the erotic energy that makes Twilight, for instance, so creepily alluring."[14]
In
addition, Time
magazine placed Catching Fire at number four on its list of the top 100
fiction books of 2009,[15] while People
magazine rated it the eighth Best Book of 2009.[16] It also won the Publishers Weekly's 2009 award for
Best Book of the Year.[17]
Film adaptation
Main article: The Hunger Games:
Catching Fire
Lionsgate announced that The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was
to be released on November 22, 2013,[18]
as a sequel to the film adaptation
of The Hunger Games. In April 2012, it was announced that Gary
Ross, director of The Hunger Games,
would not return due to a "tight" and "fitted" schedule.[19] Francis
Lawrence was officially announced as the
director for Catching Fire on May 3, 2012.[20] The film's cast includes Jena
Malone as Johanna Mason,[21] Philip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch Heavensbee,[22] Lynn Cohen
as Mags,[23] Alan Ritchson
as Gloss,[24] Sam Claflin
as Finnick,[25] and Jeffrey Wright
as Beetee.[26] Production officially began on September 10, 2012 and
concluded on December 21, 2012.[27] Shooting first took place in and around metropolitan Atlanta. Several District 11 scenes were also filmed in the rural
areas of Macon County, Georgia, and the rest of production took place in Hawaii. Some of
the wooded scenes were filmed in Oakland, New Jersey.[28]
The
film was successful, grossing more than $800 million to become the fifth
highest-grossing film at the box office in 2013[29] and receiving positive reviews from critics.
References
· "Mockingjay
proves the Hunger Games is must-read literature". io9. August
26, 2010. Retrieved February 12, 2013.
· · Dill, Margo (July
15, 1234). "Novel
Study Guides: Themes in Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins". Retrieved July 22, 2010.
· · "The
On-Sale Calendar: September 2009 Children's Books". Publishers
Weekly. July 1, 2009. Retrieved April 3,
2011.
· · Roback, Diane
(January 22, 2009). "'Hunger
Games 2': A First Look".
Publishers Weekly. Archived from the
original on January 25, 2009. Retrieved
January 26, 2009.
· · Roback, Diane
(February 11, 2010). "'Mockingjay'
to Conclude the Hunger Games Trilogy". Publishers
Weekly. Retrieved July 16, 2010.
·
Staskiewicz, Keith (February 11, 2010). "Final 'Hunger Games' novel has been given a title
and a cover".
Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved February 11, 2010.
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