The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games)
by Suzanne Collins
Year
2025
Pages
744
Contents
3
Summary
- Coriolanus waits for his tribute’s train with a gift of a white rose on a hot, empty platform, a strategy for making a good first impression.
- His cousin Tigris and he believe his tribute, Lucy Gray Baird, has star quality and hope this will help him succeed in mentoring her in the Hunger Games.
- Coriolanus considers his difficult family situation, including his grandmother's prized roses and the approaching tax on their apartment.
- The trains are delayed, making Coriolanus anxious, questioning his decision to meet Lucy Gray early.
- Upon the train's arrival, tributes are escorted out of cargo cars, restrained, in poor condition, and treated harshly by the Peacekeepers.
- Coriolanus reflects on tragic memories associated with the train station and his father’s death.
- The sight of the tributes, especially Lucy Gray, affects Coriolanus deeply, mixing pity and revulsion.
- Coriolanus gives Lucy the rose, initiating a conversation that suggests she finds him amusing but relatively unimportant.
- Coriolanus tries to establish trust and show courage by accompanying Lucy and the other tributes in a cage-like truck to their quarters.
- When threatened by the tributes inside the truck, Coriolanus must defend himself; Lucy Gray intervenes, hinting at a possible alliance.
- The truck takes Coriolanus and the tributes to the monkey house at the zoo, a mistake that leaves Coriolanus humiliated and horrified.