by V. Arrow
Additionally, Mags’ name could be a shortened form or derivation of either Margarita or Magdalena, both common Spanish names (the root of which means “pearl,” which makes sense given District 4’s relationship with the ocean).
If indeed District 4 is located on the former site of Mexico, then that may have implications not only for the content of District 4’s culture but also for how much that culture differs from the other districts’. Due to their enforced separation, in particular since the First Rebellion, each district has developed its own specialty-specific culture. But most of the districts are in what is today the United States, and so (even without disregarding the importance of regional cultural variations), their origins would have been in US culture; District 4’s would not. Because of the potentially unique perspective of District 4’s citizens, as a result of the district’s non-US location, District 4’s tributes may be particularly suited to challenge Katniss’ isolated Seam worldview and help her consider the validity of other lifestyles than her own.
Because the surviving District 4 victors become such prominent characters in Catching Fire and Mockingjay, we learn more about their culture than we do about most of the other districts’, just from the ways they behave that are unfamiliar to Katniss’ District 12 sensibilities.
The infamous (and fangirl-favorite) scene when Finnick gives Peeta CPR in Catching Fire is perhaps the most significant instance of culture shock that Katniss experiences:
I’m stopped by the sight of Finnick kissing Peeta. And it’s so bizarre, even for Finnick, that I stay my hand. No, he’s not kissing him. He’s got Peeta’s nose blocked off but his mouth tilted open, and he’s blowing air into his lungs. I can see this, I can actually see Peeta’s chest rising and falling. Then Finnick unzips the top of Peeta’s jumpsuit and begins to pump the spot over his heart with the heels of his hands. Now that I’ve gotten through my shock, I understand what he’s trying to do.
Once in a blue moon, I’ve seen my mother try something similar, but not often. If your heart fails in District 12, it’s unlikely your family could get you to my mother in time, anyway . . . But Finnick’s world is different. Whatever he’s doing, he’s done it before.CF280-281
Katniss marvels that each district seems to have not only their own strengths for the Games but their own way of life, predicated on where they live and what they must do to survive at home as well as in the arena.
Although Katniss had a cultural awakening earlier in the novel, in District 11—where she becomes aware that the Capitol and its Peacekeepers treat the districts differently (District 11 has barbed wire guard fences, stricter Peacekeepers, and harsher penalties than anything Katniss has seen in District 12)—this moment during the Quell is poignant for its innocence . . . and for its illustration of the Capitol’s mistake in government. Rather than one unhappy populace, the Capitol has surrounded itself with “twelve” (thirteen) individual, insular—and angry—nation-states that, once they find a way to bridge the divisions the Capitol enforces, can only complement each other, their individual strengths compensating for the others’ weaknesses.
Katniss’ increasing confidence in Finnick and Mags over the course of the Quarter Quell shows her growing trust in and openness to alliance with a culture other than the Seam’s—something that, previously, as her rejection of potential allies from other districts (aside from Rue) and her initial refusal to ally with Peeta demonstrates, she had been at first totally unwilling and later, at best reluctant, to consider.
The CPR scene, and the expanded understanding it gives Katniss of the nuances and validity of other ethnicities and cultures, is a turning point in the series. It even happens almost exactly at the central apex of the trilogy’s structure: in the middle third of the middle third of Collins’ three-volume, three-act series. The fact that Katniss becomes able to see past their superficial differences and deeper cultural and ethnic differences—from District 4’s reputation as a Career district to even, potentially, a foreign language—to their similarities is a monumental step for Katniss, and an important element of the eventual defeat of the Capitol.
Finnick and Annie
District 4 is easily the most popular district in fandom. Though this may be in part because of the role its victors play in Katniss’, and our, dawning awareness of the greater world of Panem, it’s also due admittedly to the fact that Finnick is, according to Katniss, “an amazing physical specimen”CF275—and the tragic timelessness of Finnick and Annie’s romance.
Finnick and Annie’s love story is a massive influence on Hunger Games fandom, second only to the fanaticism that Katniss and Peeta’s relationship inspires. Yet Annie speaks only five lines in canon. She and Finnick are married (and alive) for less than a quarter of Mockingjay. What makes their story resonate so deeply?
One explanation is in the romanticism and, of course, tragedy of their tale. For the Quarter Quell, Katniss and Peeta’s reaping is understood as being planned by Snow. Given that Annie was initially the female victor chosen during the District 4 reaping, which would have pitted her and Finnick against each other in the arena had Mags not volunteered in her place (and ostensibly against Panem’s favorite love story, Katniss and Peeta), it is likely that her reaping was also planned. Their struggle against the Capitol, Annie’s capture, torture, and subsequent rescue, their marriage and pregnancy, and Finnick’s death during the rebellion give the Hunger Games novels—and their audience—the kind of star-crossed, sweeping romance that Katniss and Peeta fake for the Capitol audience.
But although fans are easily and understandably enamored with Finnick and Annie’s tale, there’s more to their story than the brave hero and his poor, mad girl waiting for him.
Many readers think of Annie only in terms of her impact on Finnick’s story. Unlike Katniss and Johanna, she closely resembles the typical Western definition of “feminine,” with outwardly passive behavior, the appearance of dependence on a male figure, and a personal narrative that includes both wedding/marriage and a pregnancy. But that doesn’t make Annie any less strong a female character. She won an impossible, deadly Hunger Games (one that may have been designed to leave Panem without a victor at all, since the earthquake that broke the dam was carefully calculated by the Gamemakers), withstood torture, and continues to uphold Finnick’s and her own beliefs, even after the Capitol takes Finnick from her.
Let’s take a look at what we know about this only slightly developed, very mysterious character:
Annie was raised in a Career district. This would have had a large impact on how she ended up in the arena, whether or not she was a Career herself: either she volunteered or, for some reason, no one volunteered for her. The former suggests that she was neurotypical before the Games; the latter may suggest that her “madness” (as Katniss calls it) is a long-standing neuroatypicality. The latter also suggests that her reaping may have been arranged as a warning to Finnick, either for straying or threatening to break away from his indentured servitude in the Capitol.
Annie saw her district partner/ally decapitated and watched all of the other tributes drown while treading water for days. Her fellow district tribute’s decapitation is the impetus to which Johanna and Peeta attribute her “going mad” when they relate the story to Katniss. (It is important for a fair and accurate analysis of Annie’s character to note that this is never confirmed or stated by Annie, Mags, or Finnick; the “madness” that Katniss saw in Annie would be relative to Katniss’ prior experience, which is more in the realm of depression and/or Down’s syndrome [in Greasy Sae’s granddaughter] than in seeing or understanding any other presentational disorders. Katniss may label Annie as “mad” only because she has no other words to describe Annie’s state of being—and neither, it seems, does Panem as a whole.) But watching all of the other tributes drown—seeing water turned against her as a weapon—had to have been especially traumatic for someone from District 4, where the ocean is the main source of life and livelihood even in its danger.4
Anni
e is aware of her significant other’s abuse as a trafficked slave.
Annie survived losing her natural family. Johanna tells Katniss that Annie, Finnick, and Mags are each other’s only family by the time of the events in Catching Fire. This would imply that either before or after Annie’s victory in the Games, her family died. If they died before her victory, it may have involved significant childhood trauma that could explain much of her “madness.” If they died after her victory, it could be further evidence that her reaping was planned in order to punish Finnick for some transgression, and that she was not intended to survive.
Annie is reaped a second time for the Quarter Quell. This, as noted previously, was likely no coincidence. If District 4 is indeed a Career district, then it would stand to reason that there were far more than three victors in their Quell reaping ball—and yet Finnick and Annie, a pair of lovers the Capitol doubtless knew about from their eavesdropping bugs and close monitoring of Finnick, were chosen. Had Mags not volunteered, this would have jeopardized the execution of the Quell plot, because given the choice between saving Annie and saving Peeta or Katniss, it’s difficult to believe Finnick wouldn’t choose Annie. Additionally, having a second set of lovers in the Quell would have split sponsor focus from Katniss and Peeta and made their survival more difficult.
Annie loses the only two people she has in the world to the Quell. She knows they will probably both die, and indeed watches Mags die on television.
Annie is kidnapped and tortured by the Capitol for rebel information. People forget that Annie was there, too, right alongside Peeta and Johanna and Enobaria. And that when she was delivered to District 13, she was naked. The others weren’t. She’s the significant other of Finnick Odair, and whoever was detaining them in the Capitol kept Annie naked. The implications of that, considering what we learn about Finnick’s abuse, are one of the most frightening aspects of Mockingjay.
Annie loses many of the people she knows, and her connections to Finnick’s life, to the purge of victors, and then loses Finnick, too.
Despite all this, and despite Katniss’ (wholly unprofessional and uneducated) assessment of “madness,” after the retrieval of the captured victors from the Capitol, Annie is the most stable refugee. Although the majority of the Hunger Games series characters seem to fall apart during Mockingjay (due to illness, trauma, death, or a combination of any of the three), Annie grows and flourishes. Johanna and Peeta are deeply traumatized—obviously—after their torture, but Annie is strong. She holds herself together, and, one could argue, does so because she knows that Finnick needs her to. She takes care of him there. And even after losing Finnick, Annie still upholds her moral ideals and votes against a Capitol Hunger Games, even though, arguably, she is the one there who has lost the most.
Annie Cresta is not just a poor, mad girl back home. She is not this little pitiable creature who exists to make Finnick more tragic. She has her own story. We are told less of it than we are of Finnick’s, but that doesn’t make it smaller. Annie is the war widow, but she’s also a prisoner of war, a child gladiator, a veteran. People forget that Annie is a victor. Whether she won with or without violence, she still survived, and survival is an impressive, impressive battle story unto itself.
People give Johanna, whose original Games were also glossed over, much more credit as a soldier than they do Annie. People remember Johanna’s toughness because “there’s no one left that she loved,”CF259 but in the end, Annie has no one, either. And Annie has to go forward alone to have and raise a baby in a totally broken, third-world country, in a district that used to train its children to be killers. That is the world Annie grew up in, and we know that, despite this, she understood that it was wrong, and still had the idealism and optimism to refuse to let it happen again.
When Finnick was in the Quarter Quell, being tortured by the Capitol, Annie was the poor, mad girl back home. But when Annie was naked in a cell in the Capitol, being tortured for information she didn’t have, Finnick was the poor, mad boy back “home” in District 13.
They’re equals. And that’s what makes their story one of the most compelling parts of the Hunger Games trilogy.
Trauma, Disability, and Cultural Context
Finnick and Annie both—along with Mags—are also amazing examples of strong characters with special needs.
Mags’ and Annie’s conditions are, in contrast, likely more physiological than psychological. The explanation for Mags’ slurred speech, limp, and sunken, slack face is most likely what Katniss suggests in the text—that she’s had a strokeCF232—but Annie’s are more complicated. Many fans ascribe Annie’s “mad” behavior solely to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but compared to Katniss and Johanna, who are more clear-cut cases of PTSD, Annie’s behavior more closely resembles the stims and echolalia of an autism spectrum disorder than PTSD alone.
I asked Dr. Elizabeth Soehngen to take a look at Annie’s display behaviors and character background (what little we know of it). She suggested the following possible explanations for Annie’s outward characteristics:
1 An autism spectrum disorder, pre-existing the Games, which most typifies her visible behaviors such as hand-flapping, rocking, and covering her ears.
2 Schizophrenia #1, manifesting around the time of her Games but not caused by them, since schizotypal disorders often manifest towards the end of puberty (around the age that Annie was likely reaped [likely seventeen or eighteen]). Schizophrenia would best account for Annie’s atypical speech and listening patterns and reliance on Finnick’s voice.
3 PTSD, caused by the Games.
4 Brain damage by drowning asphyxia, caused by the Games.
She goes on to explain that PTSD alone actually explains the fewest of her display behaviors:
PTSD is often considered an anxiety disorder like OCD. Both disorders feature intrusive thoughts or feelings of fear that seriously disrupt normal life, and both have been shown to respond well to desensitization treatments. Patients will usually report that they know their fears are excessive or unfounded, and the compulsions that characterize OCD are often recognized as disruptive or even absurd. Anxiety disorders are typically considered to be a disruption of the sympathetic nervous system (the “fight-or-flight” response) caused or exacerbated by certain illogical thoughts or beliefs, a position supported by their favorable response to cognitive therapy paired with relaxation techniques.lviii
Although Annie is sometimes triggered by mentions or visuals of traumatic events, her thoughts do not appear to manifest or dwell on memories of her own trauma, as they would if she were suffering from post-traumatic stress. (At one point, Katniss infers that Annie is “lost in a daze of happiness”M240 when she loses her concentration on conversations around her.)
PTSD and anxiety disorders are often treatable with time and therapy, but the other possible explanations for Annie’s condition are not.lix If Annie has a trauma disorder brought on by her experience in the Hunger Games, then not only is she no more “mad” than any other victor, but her condition could improve with as much success as anyone else’s. However, if her condition is genetic, something she was born with, then it is more difficult to measure the effect that the Hunger Games really had on her psyche. Given that her symptoms don’t clearly align with PTSD and anxiety disorders, it seems more likely that Annie’s condition predates the Hunger Games.
To demonstrate the breadth of potential explanations for Annie’s “madness” and the disparate natures of those explanations, Dr. Soehngen also made this helpful Venn diagram:
If we look at these characters’ disabilities in terms of District 4’s location in present-day Mexico, the potential cultural retention of Mexican attitudes vis-à-vis mental health suggests some interesting conclusions about how both Annie’s and Mags’ appear to others in District 4 and in Panem as a whole, as well as how others receive them. (Given her age, Mags in particular seems most likely to carry on traditions or values that we would recognize as Mexican.) According to research p
sychologists at the University of Buffalo:
In the Mexican culture, there is no clear separation of physical and mental illnesses. It is believed that there must be a balance between the individual and environment, otherwise one may get a disease. . . . Shame may be associated with genetic defects. Physical disability is usually more accepted than mental disabilities.
In general, disability in the Mexican culture is viewed as . . . punishment for something one has done. Physical disability is more accepted than a mental disability, probably because . . . in general, a physical disability is viewed as “normal.”lx
Given that Mags’ disability is most likely the result of a stroke, her situation may have been considered more acceptable within District 4 culture. She would have been able to retain her visibility as a Games mentor and her access to other victors because her status would have been understood as a natural aspect of aging. (Finnick’s insistence on carrying her as much as physically possible in the Quarter Quell may even be another example of the retention of Mexican cultural values regarding familial elders.lxi)
In contrast, Annie’s mental disability may have been treated much the same way in District 4 as Katniss privately regards it in her narrative: as “madness,” something strange and vaguely frightening . . . or, at the least, out of the ordinary and to be watched carefully. It is also possible that although Katniss cannot name or attribute Annie’s symptoms or display behaviors to a recognizable disorder or disability within her own District 12 culture, District 4’s culture, in contrast, may have retained a traditional Mexican cultural label like “the evil eye”lxii or “shock”lxiii for her state. Despite Annie’s condition being as natural as Mags’ and, of course, equally as affected by genetics as by her time in the Hunger Games, we can assume that Mags was more likely to be accepted in both District 4 and Panem as a whole because her afflictions were more familiar and more easily understood. (And the fact that Finnick was able to understand Annie’s temperament and nurture a relationship with her despite that extra hurdle may speak to a larger breadth of interpersonal experience. Because he had so much contact with people of other districts and cultures, he may have developed a higher cultural sensitivity than most of Panem’s citizens.)