![]() The jabberjays were left alone in the wild where they mated with female mockingbirds. Once the Capitol figured this all out, the birds became useless to them. This was all fine and dandy, of course, until the rebels caught on and started feeding the jabberjays false info. The little guys were meant to overhear subversive conversations, and bring that information to the Capitol, and repeat what they heard. Jabberjays were birds that had been genetically engineered by the Capitol as spies during the rebellion of the 13 districts. Their lineage can be traced to a species known as the jabberjay. What is a mockingjay, you ask? Well, as we are informed in Chapter 3, a mockingjay is a bird, of course, but a hybrid one. While the thought of a tiny little pin being used as a weapon might seem silly to us, the image of the mockingjay, as we will find out, is indeed an incredibly powerful and important weapon. He tells her that the little pin "barely cleared the review board" since the authorities thought Katniss might be able to use the pin as a weapon (10.94). ![]() Though Katniss forgets about the pin during her training sessions, Cinna, her stylist, is sure to place the mockingjay prominently on Katniss's outfit for the arena. The mockingjay pin was originally given to Katniss by Madge, the mayor's daughter, before Katniss's departure to the Capitol to participate in the Hunger Games (3.24). Each tribute is allowed one item to remind them of their friends and family in their home district the small pin bearing the image of a bird in flight is Katniss's. The mockingjay pin is the circular gold token Katniss wears during the Games to represent District 12. Will the districts of the Hunger Games also ask for their independence from the Capitol? It looks to us like a revolution might just be on the horizon. Unlike the original colonies, whose story we can read about in American history books, we don't yet know the fate of the 13 districts of Panem. ![]() Both have fallen under the rule of a tyrannical system of government. In sum, the thirteen districts of Panem are in a very similar position as the original North American colonies. Figures such as George Washington and Betsy Ross came onto the national stage to fight the Red Coats (British soldiers) that began invading the shores. (Remember the battle cry "No taxation without representation"?) Though the Brits definitely were making the American colonist fight to the death for entertainment, the colonists eventually decided that it was time for either liberty or death, and thus the Revolutionary War began. Just as in the Hunger Games, colonists in North America supplied folks back in England with goods such as cotton and tobacco and much like the Capitol, the British government often imposed rules, laws, and restrictions on the colonies that the people living there felt to be pretty unfair. (That was a mouthful.) As colonies, these regions reported to the fancy-pants British, as that region of North America was then considered part of the domain of the British Empire. During the colonial period, a huge chunk of North America was also split into thirteen colonies: Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia. The American history buffs amongst us might find this set-up – thirteen districts ruled by a harsh and distant power – all too familiar. The thirteenth district is a rebel region that the Capitol obliterated during the Dark Days as a reminder that everyone in Panem must obey the power and might of the Capitol. District 13, of course, is the one exception. The districts supply the Capitol with goods (like coal or grain), yet they often have sanctions, punishments, or unfair restrictions placed upon them by the tyrannical powers that be. The districts all have distinct personalities (District 12, for example, is a coal-mining community District 11 is primarily agricultural), yet they are all ruled from afar by the cruel and powerful government of the Capitol. Surrounding the Capitol are thirteen districts, regions which fall under the control of the Capitol. In the middle sits the Capitol, a center of wealth and affluence which organizes the yearly Hunger Games. As we learn from the novel's first chapter, the country of Panem is located in what once was North America.
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