Sunrise on the Reaping

 How to win in the face of a world that is conspiring against you....

When I began my journey into the world of The Hunger Games, I didn't know what to expect and honestly in a world like the one we live in now, I would say that the lessons that Suzanne Collins attempts to impart with a current worldview that sounds more and more like a highly dangerous reality is of high importance.

I have waited so long to read Hymitch Abernathy's story that I came to believe it would never happen. During the original trilogy Hymitch is presented in such a unoblivious way and so detached from the reality of the moment that you wonder how exactly the Capitol found a way to tear apart a person who presents himself as both untouchable and broken at the same time. 

The story in Sunrise on the Reaping, introduces us to a young Hymitch who expects nothing from life beyond what his reality in the twelfth district offers him, his main motivation is his unwavering love for his family, his friends and especially Lenore Dove, all of that comes crashing down the moment he is due to show up at Reaping Day. It is from this point that the fragile reality of living to some extent protected from the Capitol system falls apart, because who is really safe in a world without mercy like Panem? 

                                        “They will not use my tears for their entertainment.”

But who can be protected from being used the way tributes are used? When everyone is. It is in this book that it becomes clear that the power of propaganda is everything when the political system can apply it without the population realizing what is going on. The Capitol knows it, the people who live in the districts know it and yet, this implicit submission continues through the pages of the book because even though the rebels are many, the power is in the few and those few are highly trained to wipe out the fewest, that asking a single soul to sacrifice is too much to ask, especially when you have everything to lose. Hymitch carries a huge weight on his shoulders and yet he tries to ignite the spark of what could be something more, and that is where the biggest problem lies, we can plan down to the smallest detail but sometimes the person and the time are not right. Starting a whole movement also requires strength and  luck but sadly sometimes both are not on our side.

So what is left is to survive like Hymitch who despite all the pain of the games and his lost friends and family, he keeps on going in spite of having given up. Because sometimes you only need to lose a battle to win a war and even though in winning he lost what he loved, in the end he found a way to rebuild a family and sometimes you need to lose to find a new value that maybe wasn't there. In the end we find something or someone that makes us say:

"I love you like fire"