"As the Peacekeepers fell, weapons were appropriated for the rebels. There was hope that this had not been an act of madness, that in some way, if they could get the word out to other districts, an actual overthrow of the government in the Capitol might be possible" (Collins 145).
In this particularly action packed scene in Catching Fire, this was the part where rebellion officially began, and it started with taking out some Peacekeepers. Peacekeepers are essentially the police in Panem, they are the ones that maintain order in each district. This attack on the Peacekeepers is the equivalent to attacking a police in today's society, and the consequences could be fatal for attacking one. But in previous chapters, President Snow had mentioned that he knew that war was coming upon Panem. If it were me, I would be too afraid to attack these type of people... if you can only imagine how trained they are in combat and in "Peacekeeping" I would not want to mess with one of them. They are probably armed and dangerous if they are put in the situation to be. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be Katniss in this situation either because of the fact that President Snow thinks that she is the head of this rebellion-- so the blame may potentially be all on her.
It seems as though the purpose of the passage is to show that a real rebellion is beginning in Panem. One would think that is a good thing right? It does begin to explore a different realm of the book and begin to talk more about war-- a war between the government and the citizens of Panem. Although this is on a smaller scale, this act is the start of what could be a huge war. Though, this means that if they want to go through fully with this rebellion, then there must be a change in the way that each district views each other, and that they must band together with one common enemy in mind. It explores the fact that the government may be able to be overthrown. The second purpose is also to show that suspicions of Katniss starting the rebellion are coming more to life, even though she doesn't even know it. But since the Capitol is already under the impression that she is the start of the rebellion, she fears that the credit is all going to her, but she didn't know it. Collins achieves this purpose by showing that action is being taken in order to remain hopeful that the government will one day not reign over them.
This connects to the idea of what it means to be human. We as humans live life with freedom with regulations. I wouldn't say that these regulations restrict us from doing anything that won't harm us. But it seems as though in Panem, that their restrictions are far too limiting and that it severely lessens the quality of life that should be a given right to a person. This quote shows that to be human means to have freedom, and if that freedom is not a given, that it should be fought for. Almost like the state motto of New Hampshire, "Live Free or Die."
Although, the particular focus is on government, this quote reminds me of my post about Halo Wars and how the game is reaching into the future where humans may have to fight mysterious creatures for land / resources / life / etc. Except in the case of Catching Fire, they are fighting a government instead.
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