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7:58 a.m. - 2012-01-29 I particularly enjoyed the contrast between the poor districts like 12, the more affluent districts like District one, and of course the Capitol. District 12, the location of The Seam, is principally a mining district, and its people are hardworking but impoverished. When someone asks Katniss if her people have plenty of coal, she replies that they get to keep whatever they track in on their shoes. Her father died in a mining accident, and her mother descended into what we would call clinical depression, leaving Katniss to fend for the family. The people in 12 have names that suggest either the forest (Katniss and Primrose Everdeen, Glen Hawthorne) or rustics (Greasy Sae, Haymitch Abernathy). Peeta Mellak, the sone of the village baker, has a name that is homophonic for a type of bread. District 12 is no stranger to hunger; growing old and starving to death go hand in hand for many. District one is, if memory serves me, a manufacturing district. Its people are better off financially and in material goods. They can afford to train teens called Careers to compete in the Games. The powerful Cato and the knife expert Glimmer are examples of this. They are also wealthy enough to send Cato some advanced body armor to help him survive the Games, though this "advantage" in the end only makes his death more lengthy and horrible. Here again we have the observation that wealth can be disadvantageous in a game of survival and hardship, echoing Katniss's observation that "They don't know how to be hungry." Even the names Cato and Glimmer, suggesting ancient Rome and false glamour, place District One somewhere above 12 but below the Capitol in pretentious arrogance. The Capitol, home of the elites who use the Games to reinforce their superiority over the districts, is a place of affectation and self-indulgence. Its characteristic include an affected form of speech, ludicrous and expensive clothing, rich and abundant food, and extensive cosmetic surgery. Its people have names like Effie Trinket, Caesar Flickerman, and Claudius Templesmith. Even people known to Katniss only by single names (Flavius, Cinna, Venia and Octavia) are high-sounding and reference a bygone classical era.
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