By expanding on the world of Panem, Suzanne Collins wrote an excellent prequel, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” to accompany her wildly popular “Hunger Games” trilogy in 2020.
The first two parts of the book follow an 18-year-old, future President of Panem, Coriolanus Snow as he mentors the District 12 girl in the 10th annual Hunger Games.
At the start of the story, Snow lives with his grandmother and cousin in his family’s penthouse, despite the fact that they have almost no money due to losses in the war.
Snow is cunning, prideful and determined to make a name for himself in his last year of school before advancing to the “University” and his career.
His cousin, Tigris, is the first of many tie-ins to “The Hunger Games” that will delight every dedicated fan.
Other familiar names include Hilarious Heavensbee and Lucretius Flickerman, who hosts the Games, just as his relative Cesar Flickerman does down the road.
Simply by throwing in those names, Collins was able to keep “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” a separate story while also allowing readers to connect dots to “The Hunger Games.”
Throughout the process of running the Games, readers watch Snow’s self-serving attitude begin to take shape, along with the Games themselves, to hint as to what they become 64 years later when Katniss’ story begins.
Snow focuses a great deal of energy to improve the games for several reasons. He believes the better his tribute does, the better it will reflect on him, aiming to impress the highly influential Head Gamemaker, Dr. Volumnia Gaul whilst slowly falling in love with his tribute, Lucy Gray Baird.
Baird and Gaul both have astronomical impacts on Snow’s moral compass and the beliefs that have been instilled in him since birth.
Gaul stands for the Capitol. She encourages Snow to consider how much worse the world would look without order and laws being upheld by the Capitol. She believes that humans are all inherently violent and evil, and the world would dissolve into chaos in the absence of control.
Baird believes in the freedom of the thoughts, body and spirit. She bends the way that Snow sees all people from the Districts and even makes him question if the Capitol is always in the right.
After Baird wins the Hunger Games, and it is revealed that Snow cheated to help her win, he is expelled and enrolls in the Peacekeeper program, where he is transferred to none other than District 12.
In District 12 he continues to date Baird which leads him to continue to question both the Capitol and the world without it.
It soon becomes clear that Snow believes most in whatever will protect him and get him what he needs- the Capitol.
Snow betrays his friend, kills two innocent people and abandons Baird in the woods after promising to run away with her. He does it all to protect himself.
Throughout the entire story, Collins is able to masterfully humanize Snow.
Readers see him fall in love, grieve and fear. Almost everything Snow does is motivated by fear, of failure, of shame, of death.
But this doesn’t make him a victim, it makes him even more of a villain than before.
He is no longer some steely, manipulative President who is evil just because he can be.
Snow is a human.
Collins takes away Snow’s authority and his fancy suits, stripping him of the inhumane qualities he demonstrates in “The Hunger Games.” Snow feels and fears just like everyone else.
And if he can do every evil thing he does in “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” and as president, wasn’t Gaul’s principle on humans right all along?