Month: March 2024

If I could have any job in the world, it would be as an egg farmer. One reason why I would want to have this job is because it is easy to do. As an egg farmer, I would just have to go to each coop and grab a few eggs. The second reason is because I could work with chickens, and I love chickens. The third reason is because it isn’t dangerous. Lots of jobs involve getting hurt, but working with chickens doesn’t if you set up a farm in a safe place. Getting free eggs is nice too because the prices of eggs are very high. This concludes why I would love to be an egg farmer, it would be convenient, and keep me happy.

For the month of February, I read the book Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.

Catching Fire is a sequel to The Hunger Games, a dystopian where rich people force the poor to fight to the death once a year for their entertainment. It takes place in a place called Panem. There are twelve districts, which was thirteen before the thirteenth was destroyed for rebelling. The main character’s sister gets chosen to participate in the hunger games in an event called a “reaping.” She volunteers to go instead of her sister. Two people are chosen for the games, one male, and one female. The main character, who is named Katniss, goes with a boy named Peeta. Katniss arrives at the Capitol, and is greeted by her mentor, named Haymitch. Haymitch is the only person who has beat the hunger games in district twelve. In an interview, Peeta talks about how him and Katniss are lovers, which Katniss does not appreciate because she has a lover at district twelve, who isn’t Peeta. The crowd enjoys it and Haymitch says it will attract sponsors and to keep it go. Once the games begin, Katniss doesn’t stay safe for long. People from different districts form alliances, and chase Katniss. Katniss climbs into a tree, and the people decide to wait for her to come down. Rue; a girl from district eleven, points at a nest of tracker jackets, a deadly species of wasps created by the game makers. Katniss cuts down the nest while getting stung, and it lands on the people under the tree. They run away and two of them die. Katniss tries to take a bow from one of the dead girls, but starts hallucinating from the venom. Peeta saves Katniss, and she later forms an alliance with Rue. Katniss finds Rue trapped in a net, and a boy from district one throws a spear in her abdomen. Katniss shoots the boy with the bow, and sings a gentle lullaby to Rue as she passes. Later, a girl from district two taunts Katniss about Rue’s death, and hearing this, the boy from district eleven kills her. Katniss later meets up with Peeta, and the two survive until only three are left. Katniss kills the other boy, and her and Peeta are the only ones left. They both threaten to eat poisonous berries unless they can both win. The two winners go on to live a luxury life with their mentor.

The second book starts off with Katniss living in district twelve with her mom and sister. Katniss prepares for the tour that the victors have to do while winning. Later, President Snow, the president of Panem, interviews Katniss. President snow informs her that her win started an uprising, and to tell the districts that it was only out of love. When Katniss arrives at district eleven in the tour, she talked about how the boy from district eleven saved her, and how Rue became her ally. District eleven does a traditional district twelve hand gesture to show thanks. Seeing this, President snow signals that they were not successful in showing their love, and Peeta does a fake proposal. Later, Katniss sees her real lover, Gale, getting whipped upon a pole in public, and tries to intervene. The person doing the whipping then hit Katniss, and Haymitch tells the person that Katniss has a photo shoot coming up as an excuse. Later, an announcement is made by President Snow that for the seventy-fifth hunger games, the winning tributes will be chosen again. Instead of being worried about herself, Katniss worries that Peeta will come with her again. Because there are only two boys, Peeta would have to be chosen, and Haymitch would have to volunteer. Haymitch is chosen, and Peeta volunteers to be with Katniss. In the training sessions, Katniss meets the tributes from district three. The male, Beetee, and the female, Wiress. Beetee shows Katniss how to spot a flaw in a forcefield. In the interviews, Cinna designs a mockingjay outfit for Katniss to wear. A Mockingjay is a combination of a aMockingbird, and a genetically created bird called a Jabberjay, it symbolizes rebellion against the Capitol. When Katniss is in the launch rooms; the place where they are transported, three people walk through and beat Cinna while Katniss watches in horror, trapped behind the glass. Once the games begin, Katniss and Peeta ally up with the two from district four. Finnick, the male tribute, carries Mags, the female tribute because she is very old. Later, an acid fog is used to make the games more entertaining. Peeta and Katniss run from the fog, but Finnick is slow because he is carrying Mags. Mags makes a sacrifice and walks into the acid so Finnick can live. The three later meet up with Wiress and Beetee again, and the female tribute from district seven, Johanna. Beetee makes a plan to attach a wire to a tree struck by lighting, and put the wire in the water at the start of the games, to electrocute anything there. While executing the plan, Wiress is attacked by a tribute and dies, but the plan was successful. The six are attacked by the tributes from district two, and Katniss sees Johanna stabbing her in the arm, and thinks it is a betrayal. Katniss puts the wire on her bow. She shoots it into a flaw in the forcefield in the arena, at the perfect time that lightning strikes the tree, and the arena is destroyed.

My favorite character was Katniss, because of how smart she is, and how she started a rebellion against the Capitol. Here is a quote from her.

“It must be fragile if a handful of berries can bring it down.” -Katniss Everdeen, Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins. This quote shows her bravery, as she was saying this to President snow, and shows how she has the strength to rebel upon people who are powerful.

My favorite quote from the book was on chapter twenty-seven.

“The bird, the pin, the song, the berries, the watch, the cracker, the dress that burst into flames. I am the mockingjay. The one who survived despite the Capitol’s plans. The symbol of the rebellion.” -Katniss Everdeen, Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins.

This quote is meaningful to me because it shows what Katniss has developed into over the past two books, and it feels cool every time I read it.

What I liked about the book was the brutality of the games, and I like dystopians a lot. I even watched the first and second movie. I most definitely recommend it.