Lessons from Catching Fire: Mama Mags (spoiler alert)

Mags is the epitome of both the strengths and the weaknesses of the revered Mother archetype.
She does not speak, but gestures and communicates with facial expressions and affection. She is elderly, matronly, and not interested in fighting. She is courageous and heroic nevertheless.

The fact that our culture devalues Mags' strongest traits is evident in how few youtube videos there are of her scenes, even though many of her scenes were very impactful. She ultimately gave her life for her country, but at first it appears she only does it to save Peeta. Her part was small, yes, but Kashmere and Gloss were too, and there were also bad. Those were the ones from districts 1 and 2 that trained from childhood to fight in the games, and saw them as chances to prove the superiority of their districts). Yet, there are numerous fan videos made in those character's honor. Mags was not a smaller part than theirs, if anything it might have been bigger role. Yet Mags is almost entirely ignored.

Some of the most character-revealing moments, like when Mags first meets Katniss, no one has cared to post or share. She and Katniss both volunteered to go in place of younger children who were randomly selected to fight in the Hunger Games. The two veterans mutually insist with sincerity, Katniss by words and Mags though delicate gestures, that the other was the bravest. They downplay their own acts of heroism. Mags brings out the gifts in Katniss that Katniss does not see that she has, the traits that could make her a good teacher, a good mother, a good friend. These same traits made Katniss a friend to Rue, and helped wake up a large portion of their country. These traits are not respected in our dominant (in more ways that one!) culture.

Mags agrees to teach Katniss to weave beautiful fishing lures, since she comes from a fishing district, in exchange for Katniss teaching her to hunt. Since I cannot share these marvelous clips, I will share an interview with Lynn Cohen, who played Mags, where she shows - albeit with words - the kind of personality Mags also had.





Mags only ever fought in the Hunger Games at all because she volunteered in the place of a child that had been randomly chosen. No explanation is given in the film of how she survived. Mags does not speak at all, presumably because of the trauma of her first time in the games or an injury sustained there. Mags basically raised Finnick O'Dare, a favorite of the Capitol, who was selected at 14 and was the youngest person ever to survive the Hunger Games. Mags is introduced, in Haymitch's informative video for the District 12 tributes, as Finnick O'Dare's only weakness. She is like a mother to him and he would do anything, even die, to protect her.

The Hunger Games fans have commemorated Mags only in her death scene, though her heroic nature and her gentleness are equally important. In fact, these attributes are different applications of the same traits. Mags' age and gentleness were at least as powerful of traits as any abilities Finninck or any of the other fighters had. Mags was successful in forging an amiable connection/alliance with Katniss, where Finnick had failed miserably. In addition to what this character contributed by gaining Katniss's respect and trust, she also raised Finnick. All the nutrition he had to get strong enough to win the Hunger games at such a tender age was prepared and chosen by her. Her skill in making fishing hooks suggests she may have had a part in providing it as well as preparing it. Whatever noble ideals Finnick had that made him support the Revolution despite being treated like a King in the Capitol would have been instilled by her. His strength, his skills in fishing, any decency he had, would have likely been there at least partly because of Mags. Everything she brought to the revolution was valuable, and she brought a lot.

In the special event designed to eliminate "The Mockingjay" Katniss Everdeen, in which only survivors of previous Hunger Games are chosen, Mags is clearly the least likely to succeed. During this event, when the small band of allies - Mags, Finnick, Peeta, and Katniss - have to cover distances, Finnick basically gives Mags a piggy-back ride.

Katniss did not know that half the tributes - including Finnick, and presumably Mags - were part of a plot to end the games and help overthrow the Capitol. Katniss, as the unwilling symbol of hope for the revolution, had to get out alive at all costs. Keeping her in the dark about the plan was equally important.



President Snow had threatened Katniss's family; she had to convince the districts that the dual-suicide bluff she and Peeta pulled to get out of the 74th Hunger Games without killing each other was an act of passion, not defiance (it was defiance). Katniss also had no intention of surviving twice. Whether she believed her family would be safer if she died keeping up the die-hard romance act, or cared more for Peeta than for herself, or just wanted out of the pain the post-traumatic stress was causing her is unclear (from the film at least).
Even if Katniss had wanted to leave Peeta behind when he fell in the poison fog, she would certainly not have done so; President Snow would have killed her family. Mags knew that Finnick had to carry Peeta, or both he and Katniss would die in the fog. Finnick would never, ever, leave Mags by choice, so she kissed her adopted son goodbye and hurried into the fog, where she very quickly died.

The Lesson: Strength is not measured in viciousness or in capability for violence. Neither is courage, or valor, or power or worth. As a society we need to think less like Panem, and get this reality through our heads. The epiphany is looong overdue.

Godspeed.

~M.S. 

Lessons From the Hunger Games - Part 5

If somebody put real Hunger Games on tv or a webcast, would you watch it? Would you feed the monster and help it grow?

Suzanne Collins put, in my opinion, an allegory to our time in a book and on a screen. Ironically, it may only be lost in the mix of media messages for most people.I offer some thoughts on how the world of The Hunger Games is really parallel to our own. There are a lot of questions here to ask yourself, I am not really looking for people to give me their answers, some of these are quite personal. Just answer them to your God and yourself.

I have said how the world of The Hunger Games resembles our world in how media redirects our attention from serious issues onto non-issues, hoe many of the effects are harmful, and how we need to genuinely stand up to the system and attack the problems at the root. In The Hunger Games the people of Panem need to recognize that the violence they and their countrymen, their children, are subjected to is senseless. 

That is often true in our lives today. Every day in America, young people die in gang violence. Every day in America and around the world, people consume media glamorizing this real-life bloodbath and get the same things out of it that Panem got from watching the Hunger Games: sense of identity, and excitement. Like The Hunger Games' characters, real people relish the "action," while refusing to face the hideous reality affecting people in our cities or at least our states. We focus on non-issues, like how this media puts minorities in the limelight, how they "represent" their socioeconomic class or their "race." Likewise, The Hunger Games' media personalities went on about how Peeta and Katniss raised their hands together "I am proud I come from District 12," putting a little band-aid on the compound fracture of District 12's problems. Some of those problems were right in front of them, in the form of two young people who were not really there by choice. The celebrity commentators made lots of emotional appeals that shifted focus and ignored the real issues. They went on and on about superficial things like clothes and mannerisms. They made very significant mountains out of some psychological molehills in order to justify celebrating such extreme tragedy - tragedy that can be equaled, if not exceeded, by the realities in some of our own communities.

The Lesson: Like the Capitol of Panem in The Hunger Games, middle-class Americans and Europeans get most of the resources the rest of the world breaks their back to produce, and enjoys the services of those who must slave at three jobs to make ends meet. There are numerous inequalities built into the system we have in our real world, too. Violence will not solve the problem. Being amused by a problem does not solve it, either. There are things that can be done, things that must be done. Step one is calling reality exactly what it is. Media that presents these problems in a way that does not inspire people to take serious action is probably not "calling attention" to it effectively.

Some info on what's really driving there unpleasant realities: I grew up in a minority neighborhood, a black neighborhood, though I am white. People finished school there without learning how to read. Teachers did not really teach them and did not really grade their work. I was homeschooled and learned to read "The Cat Sat on a Mat" the first day. One of my childhood friends who was a year older than me, Latoya, did not believe that I could read. I read her a story from my reader. She asked to borrow it, went into my house and asked my mom to teach her to read. There were, and I think are, laws on the books that might have gotten my mom in a lot of trouble if she had done so, so she refused. I have no idea if, or how well, Latoya ever learned because we moved away.
I had heat in my house during winter, usually. During middle school, some of my friends wore their heavy winter coats to some of the their classes at school because the heat did not work on the second floor. The teacher had a small heater under her desk that helped keep her warm but the students shivered while they tried to learn. THAT will bring your grades down very quickly! It went on like that for years.
Many students in poor and/or minority dominant schools, receive even decades-old, outdated textbooks that are basically destroyed. When I was in college, I attended a meeting with local organizations, high school students, and members of the local NAACP chapter. The problems in my old neighborhood are common across the nation, and are getting worse. There was no heat in Eisenhower High School (in Decatur, IL) at that time. I do not know if the heat was ever fixed, but I do know they now have to strip down and surrender their coats, sweaters, and jackets when they arrive at school so that they cannot hide drugs or weapons in them. They get their coats back at the end of the day. There were flat screen TVs (a luxury at the time) on the walls in every hallway but they were never turned on or used for education. The books they used remained tattered and outdated. The building has been renovated,and is almost made of windows now. If the pattern I have heard of in other cities persists here, they still will not have new books and the higher heat bills will be an excuse for even less effective education. A friend in social work found out at a conference the same thing was happening in our state's capitol.
In all of these communities, drugs and gangs are a serious problem. A SERIOUS problem. I said, a serious PROBLEM, not a serious charade or show. The forces driving these problem are largely in the majority's control. People can and should hold school boards accountable. People can and must and demand transparency about whether books in poorer school districts are up to date, whether the buildings have climate control, and etc. Few, if any, ever do. People in power are not inclined to pay attention to letters written in Ebonics or street slang, and that is how a lot of people, from my old neighborhood at least, would write. People with good enough education to be taken seriously need to write the letters and they don't. Often they have no idea what is going on, and rely on an entertainment oriented news media to tell them.
People showed up at the local community college needing remedials for material that should have been taught them in Kindergarten; this includes both math and English. I heard an English tutor say he was helping someone with a paper that said, "Ain't nobody gonna PMD" which, he was told meant "put me down." The student actually planned to hand that in to a (remedial) English teacher in their freshman year of college. Seriously. Imagine trying to get a job as a secretary with math and language skills like that. Imagine trying to write a resume with that education level. Forget it. 
The kids know that they do not have decent books and adequate facilities that other schools do have, and they deduce that no one believes in them. People of every race and class need to stand up and fight for them, and make education truly equal and right. Unlike people in The Hunger Games it will not cost you floggings, executions and war to make the needed changes. It only costs the time to write a strong letter to your local elected officials. It will probably save you a lot in taxes later too, honestly.

Many middle class whites from the U.S. and Europe plug in every day, getting their adrenaline fix off of glamorization of real people's real problems. Media commentators glorify how those "artists" are so rebellious and courageous, and how the violence and misogyny and references to drugs are understandable because of where they come from. "They are black people in the media representing their community. Don't expect them to act responsibly." Thus, "gangsta" media puts minorities in the limelight much like black-face did in the 1930's. Do the middle class knuckleheads who carry on about how those "artists" are "telling it like it is" ever do anything to change "how it is"? No. If ghettos ceased to exist, if people of every race and class got the same opportunities, if organized crime disappeared tomorrow, where would they get their entertainment? Who would smuggle in their drugs? Who would they pretend to be a part of, rather than facing their own "boring," relatively privileged lives? Do those who allegedly "call attention to" these issues explain why minority-dominant schools score so poorly and their students do not get jobs? Do they tell what specifically can be done about it? No. They exploit these problems, and the broken emotions of their genuinely poor-minority fans, for personal wealth. That is not admirable.

The Lesson: What is going on in your city, your country, and your world that you need to stop getting entertained by and start standing up to? Are you willing to raise the three-fingered sign, like Katniss and District 11 did, and start the revolution? If you had to bring the news to one of those boys' mothers that her son has become a statistic, or had to watch her get the news like District 11 watched Katniss weep over Rue, I bet you would be ready to stop enjoying and consuming, and start acting and resolving. Immediately.

Godspeed.
~ M.S.

Lessons from The Hunger Games pt 3

If somebody put real Hunger Games on tv or a webcast, would you watch it? Would you feed the monster and help it grow?

Suzanne Collins put, in my opinion, an allegory to our time in a book and on a screen. Ironically, it may only be lost in the mix of media messages for most people.I offer some thoughts on how the world of The Hunger Games is really parallel to our own. There are a lot of questions here to ask yourself, I am not really looking for people to give me their answers, some of these are quite personal. Just answer them to your God and yourself.

How many in our society can relate to Heymitch? What does he do with his life? To save his life, he sends kids like he once was to their death every year. All the money/winnings he has came from killing other kids, back when he was a kid. He does something that he doesn't believe in to survive. Within that system, he does his best to try to help, but more often than not they still die.

Before we go off on Heymitch for what he does, remember he grew up with it. When he was a kid he probably had some amount of expectations and hoped for how his life might go. Now, he hides in his alcohol and does his best to stay alive. He feels he has no control over the situation. Something that has not changed for him since he was sent to the hunger games, is he just tries to stay alive. He dares not bond with his charges, since they will probably die. Meanwhile, he is not really living, he lives to escape from his life with booze. There are many people who do that in our society, either through substances, or media, or other activities that takeover and become their consolation prize for perpetually surrendered hopes, dreams, or ideals.

The lesson: Sometimes people become - or believe they've become- trapped in circumstances that force them to participate in what they know is wrong. Pharmacists who do not believe in abortion go through this because the laws now force them to carry abortion drugs, at least in Illinois. Many trafficking victims may go through this as well. This is a terrible thing to experience and a terrible thing to do to other people. It is a sign that something is horribly wrong in the society, or with the laws thereof.

Sponsors – Create a demand that tributes kiss-butt and be someone else in order to please, so that they might be given some necessities for survival.

The corporate world – Expectations for how to dress, and how to talk and the impression you must give. Why? Essentially, in order to literally stay alive. How is “I will take your livelihood away from you, or not give it to you in the first place,” that much less severe than “I will beat you up, or shoot you”? The whole, “I will not allow you any of the wherewithal you need to survive, no matter how hard you work, or what you do, unless you impress me. Most grounds I expect to be impressed on do not relate to what anybody even needs from you, and I am also looking for reasons not to be impressed.” Sounds a lot like a job interview to me. “Pretend you are passionate about this company and everything we do and stand for, or else you have no reason to exist.” Why do employers do that? To survive. Just like the sponsors. They adapt to their environment without really changing it the ways that it needs. Perhaps they do not know how, or perhaps they also have surrendered.

The system becomes very complicated, very dishonest, and very self-serving and all the while, the idea is to look like you are not self-serving, complicated, or dishonest.

The lesson: life in a system that forces everybody to lie, or to refuse to face some truth, in order to get by is a system that requires change.

Godspeed.

~Mother Star

Lessons from The Hunger Games Part 1

If somebody put real Hunger Games on tv or a webcast, would you watch it? Would you feed the monster and help it grow?

Suzanne Collins put, in my opinion, an allegory to our time in a book and on a screen. Ironically, it may only be lost in the mix of media messages for most people.I offer some thoughts on how the world of The Hunger Games is really parallel to our own. There are a lot of questions here to ask yourself, I am not really looking for people to give me their answers, some of these are quite personal. Just answer them to your God and yourself.



In the beginning, the game master, who has presumably climbed the ladder to that position over years, expresses how he rationalizes what he does. "It knits us all together," So the Hunger Games knit the people on Panem together, At what cost?
Whatever psychological positives Panem experienced with the games, the negatives were by far worse. They were "knit together" by the loss of their children, They were bound together by the fear it could be them, or a sibling, or a friend next. time. "Knit together" by the nagging possibility that it could be one of their children next year, When theyhad achild, theylived with the possibility tht child could be ripped from them and sent to the Hunger Games to - more than likely - die in pain and terror on live TV. Yes, strong bonds can form through tragedy, but that is no reason to deliberately put people, or oneself through tragedy.
The Lesson: What are you part of that you shouldn't be? What do you have to justify and rationalize in order to be a part of, perhaps to keep your job, a relationship or an identity? In what areas do you need to revolt?

Ellie was much the same as the game master. She stood before a crowd of people, mostly children, two of whom were about to be basically sentenced to death, at random, when she pulled their name out of a bowl. She lied to herself, and to all who saw her, by putting on a grand show, smiling and speaking as if it was a drawing for a grand prize. She saw a little girl screaming for her sister and a tearful sacrificing of one life for another. She smiled, looked on, made up a way to save face, and continued on with her act.
The Lesson: Is there anything in your environment you are intentionally ignoring? Is there anyone whose pain you justify by not looking at it? What about your own?

"May the odds be ever in your favor," Catchphrase. A tradition, "Culture," Something familiar. A joke, but powerful because of the emotions attached. It binds people together in the worst way, It binds people together on denial, in oppression, and in a type of willful, active complacency. They know the odds are never in anyone's favor. They know this show is an atrocity, they know there are victims living in the very same town.
The Lesson: What traditions do you need to question? What cliches do you need to stop being attached to and begin to move on from?

"They just want a good show."
The Lesson: What are we complicit with, in the name of receiving a "good show?"
Anorexia, emotional abuse, ravages on our own and others self-esteem, Brainwashing, sucked into a world of material obsession, and shallow standards passed off to us as "what we really need," by advertisers. Are you waiting for pop culture to change,and complaining about it,while continuing to consume it? Are you looking in the mirror hating what you see, reading all the magazines,wishing you were rich so you could buy all the junk to"fix" your perceived flaws off the shelves? Are you sizing up people around you by those standards? If so, Panem's not as mythical as you think - you live there.
Another Lesson: Who knows what kind of undue pressure we help place on the of entertainers who are far to young to be able to process it? How many child stars need to have breakdowns, before we realize the price they pay for our amusement? I want to see the day we can get used to having the children in shows be played by animation, like a lot of animals are now. No more Miley, Cyruses or Jonathan Brandises (he committed suicide) please.

"Crystal Chandeliers" Ellie seems to shift her focus to the pampering the kids get while they are awaiting their nearly certain death. What's pampering you to death? An abusive boyfriend? A drug dealer? How about a boss who is never actually going to promote you for the sacrifices you make? A lifestyle you know is wrong but are not repenting of anyway? Maybe a job that gives you tons of money and "stuff" while keeping you from your children or your life purpose? A credit card you can't put down, and soon will not be able to payoff? Panem's deception comes in many forms in modern life. Be honest and check your own.

"I understand what you're saying, I just can't afford to think like that."
What are you complicit with? What do you need to reevaluate. Anything? How certain are you about that answer, if you thought of one? Turning from some of these things is not to be taken lightly, any more than facing down the juggernaut of Panem's ruling elite was for Katniss, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be done.


More to come.
Godspeed