The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

“Coriolanus released the fistful of cabbage into the pot of boiling water and swore that one day it would never pass his lips again.”

Coriolanus hates cabbage—it being a symbol of poverty, of the Snow family's fall since the war. This desire—to rise above poverty, to restore the Snow dynasty to its former glory—drives Coriolanus in every decision he makes, both ethical and unscrupulous.

“Without such a prize, he had no way to afford to go to university, which meant no career, which meant no future, not for him, and who knew what would happen to the family, and—”

The pressures on Coriolanus are also part of what drives him to make certain decisions. This aids the reader in garnering some sympathy for his character, knowing the struggles he faced in the past and the difficulties that continue to influence his present.

“Where she’d gotten the makeup he had no idea, for it was only just becoming accessible again in the Capitol, but her eyes were shadowed blue and lined with black, her cheeks rouged, and her lips stained a somewhat greasy red. Here in the Capitol, it would have been bold. In District 12, it felt immoderate.”

Coriolanus’s first impression of Lucy Gray reveals both astonishment and awe: He admires the bravado with which she presents herself at the reaping, while also feeling somewhat uncomfortable with her penchant for displaying herself. He is both attracted and repulsed by her in equal measure; most importantly, she remains mysterious to him—where did she get that makeup?—and thus outside of his control.