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They were twenty feet high, joined by a crossbeam of similar length. At the center of the structure, Marcus hung from manacled wrists, so battered and bloody that at first Coriolanus thought they were displaying his corpse. Then Marcus’s swollen lips began to move, showing his broken teeth and leaving little doubt he was still alive.
This quotation comes at the end of Chapter 13 as the bell for the beginning of the Hunger Games sounds. Instead of focusing on the tributes, the cameras zoom upward to focus on Marcus. Having escaped after the Arena’s explosions during the tour, he has been captured, brutally tortured, and is now on display for everyone to see. The vivid description Collins gives here of Marcus’s condition makes the reader feel some of the shock and guilt that Coriolanus does when he sees him. Marcus has been crucified above the Arena to act as a horrifying example to those who oppose or deviate from the Capitol's rules. This display of violence is not only a punishment for Marcus but also a message to all of the other tributes and the people of the Districts: here are the consequences of disobedience. The public nature of his punishment turns his death by torture into a spectacle. It’s meant to terrorize the population into submission.
The fact that Marcus is still alive is a particularly disturbing part of this punishment. It’s a direct reflection of both the Capitol's ruthlessness and its use of physical violence to maintain order and inspire fear. The focus on his swollen lips and broken teeth as he struggles to move is particularly haunting because of its symbolic resonance. Panem has no free press and most Districts are starving. The Capitol also deliberately starves the tributes before they enter the arena, hence the name “Hunger Games.” In this passage, Marcus’s abilities to speak freely and eat (the two things the Capitol exerts absolute control over) have been visibly removed.
“I think that’s how she thinks we all are. Natural-born killers. Inherently violent,” Coriolanus said. “The Hunger Games are a reminder of what monsters we are and how we need the Capitol to keep us from chaos.”
This quotation in Chapter 22 comes from a conversation Coriolanus and Sejanus have about Dr. Gaul soon after Sejanus arrives at the Peacekeeper barracks. Coriolanus is criticizing Dr. Gaul’s enjoyment of torturing her lab creatures and manipulating people. His words here refer to her repeated mantra that humans are inherently self-interested and violent, and that they need structure and control to prevent a descent into chaos.
Dr. Gaul sees the Games as more than a tool for social control; she thinks that they reveal a larger truth about people’s characters. She believes that the Capitol is justified in its reign of terror because of the way it maintains order over people, who are fundamentally chaotic beings. Watching children kill each other live on television is a strong reminder of the depths of depravity that she believes humanity is capable of.
Enforcing order at any cost is central to the Capitol's identity and to its justification for the physical and psychological subjugation of the Districts. It points to the way that society can be manipulated into accepting and even supporting horrific acts if those acts are seen as necessary steps toward the greater good.
“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.”
In this passage from Chapter 13, Dean Highbottom and Lucky speak on the Hunger Games broadcast about the mentor-tribute program. Lucky is surprised that Highbottom talks positively about relationships between mentors and tributes, which challenges Lucky’s own views. Highbottom is wary of the superficial judgments that equate well-being with superiority. His point here is that the apparent differences between the children of District and Capitol are not innate. Instead, they are the result of material conditions like food, clothing, and healthcare.
Lucky's comment on the children of the Capitol being an inherently "superior breed" reflects a common fallacy: that privilege and wealth are aligned with moral and intellectual superiority. In the Capitol this belief is taught to children from birth. They’re educated to believe that the people of the Districts are subhuman compared to them. It’s part of the reason the Games are allowed to continue: most people in the Capitol don’t think of their children in the same terms as they do the tributes. Dean Highbottom's rebuttal here is critical of such a mindset. He goes so far as to suggest that these ignorant assumptions were partly responsible for the catastrophic civil war that preceded the events of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
