The Surprising Death of Mockingjay

Warning: MAJOR Spoiler Below

The Hunger Games is a wonderful trilogy of books. It follows the adventures of Katniss Everdeen as she's unwillingly made into the symbol of a rebellion. The third book in the trilogy is my favorite and has one of the saddest events of the entire trilogy. Hell, Collins took a huge chance doing it and I really hope the movie adaptation keeps it or else I'll be as mad as I was at the end of the Cujo movie adaptation.

The event that caused me so much pain, but I love it anyways, is Prim's death.

I enjoy her death for a few reasons:

1.) You didn't see it coming.

My favorite type of deaths are the ones you don't see coming. This makes it so that the death is so much more painful. If you see a death coming you are able to prepare yourself. You're able to put on armor so that the death doesn't hurt you as much as it could've.

Prim wasn't someone you expected to die. She was Katniss' sister and she was on the safe list. ESPECIALLY since this is a Young Adult book.

2.) Her death meant something.

A death can hurt you and be wonderful, but what really makes a death special is when it means something. When all your tears aren't in vain.

Prim dying caused Katniss to make her first real decision in the entire trilogy (not counting her decision to volunteer in the first place). In that I mean it wasn't organized by one side or the other in order to use her. Katniss is unique as she's a hero that doesn't mean to be a hero but keeps getting pushed into the role while all she cares about is her family (but that's a story for another post). So when Prim dies that leads her to killing President Coin.

3.) It was beyond heartbreaking.

With any death, to really effect me, it needs to touch me. It needs to touch me and pull my heart out. Then I have to like the extreme pain for some unknown reason. Maybe since I read depressing stuff a lot and love it when I finally feel something.

Prim was someone I didn't want to die. I wanted her to live so when the war was over Katniss could find peace in her sister. Katniss started her whole journey because she wanted to keep Prim safe. So Prim dying is ironic in that the whole reason Katniss did everything was lost to her by the end.

So I really REALLY hope that Prim's death is kept in the movie adaptation. Prim's death IS important. She helps push Katniss' story forward in that if Prim didn't die President Coin could still be alive to make President Snow's reign seem like Christmas. Prim's death also shows that not everyone gets out of war alive.