what we know about haymitch's hunger games (before sunrise on the reaping!)

hi guys! happy sunrise on the reaping release week! my copy of the book should be arriving today so i thought it would be very fitting to recap what we already know about his hunger games and look back and compare after we've finished the book. the hunger games franchise has always been so interesting to me, the plot is always super engaging and the world building is literally so insane. so let's recap a few things this week!

haymitch abernathy is present in the first three books of the hunger games series as a mentor to both katniss and peeta before they compete in the hunger games. haymitch's character in the first book presents as being an extremely drunk and relatively grumpy man who keeps an emotional distance from the pair because he felt like they weren't going to survive. when they ask him for a strategy in the games, he just mysteriously tells them to "stay alive" and this upsets both peeta and katniss. as he gets to know them throughout the book, it is evident he starts to believe that maybe one of them can survive. he and katniss often butt heads on several topics, having small spats because they are similarly stubborn. but haymitch appears to be more optimistic about their odds as the book continues. during the games, haymitch takes a more hands-on approach and actually seeks out sponsors for the pair to help katniss receive gifts as she compete to keep her alive. it becomes obvious at this point that he has started to care for the two of them but sees that katniss has better odds of winning. after the games he hugs katniss and becomes more protective of her, as the capitol is angered by her and peeta's display at the end of the games. 

as the series continues, he takes a very prominent role as a mentor to both of them in the third quarter quell and within the rebellion. it does appear like he makes katniss a priority over peeta, as she becomes the mockingjay symbol to the public, and therefore making her more important. it does appear that he and peeta have a close relationship throughout the books as well. however, he seems to relate and understand katniss a lot more (potentially indicating shared experiences?). at the end of the series, he returns to the victor village, still drinks, but seems to be slightly more settled once snow is dead. 

now lets rewind to his hunger games. you will notice there are a lot of parallels between him and katniss. haymitch competed in the second quarter quell at sixteen years old. he lived in district twelve his whole life with his mom and brother (similar to katniss, who lived with her mother and sister). his father died in a coal mine fire (similar to katniss). during the time of the reaping, he was dating a young woman named lenora dove. in the second quarter quell, double the amount of tributes were reaped, meaning there were a whopping forty-eight individuals competing. 

there is not much known about the time between the reaping to the games. 

during the games, haymitch ran into a group of three careers. he killed two of them but the third disarmed him. as the career attempted to kill him, he was shot with a poison dart and haymitch was spared. the poison dart was shot by maysilee donner, another district twelve tribute, and they formed an alliance. the pair continued to move to the edge of the arena. with only five tributes left, they reached the edge of the arena and only found a cliff, maysilee wanted to leave but haymitch refused. she broke off the alliance and left. after she left, haymitch discovered there was a force field at the bottom of the cliff. he then heard maysilee screaming and saw her being attacked by mutts. he held her hand until she died. 

haymitch and a district one female tribute eventually made it to the final two. he sliced her eye out and she sliced him in the abdomen with an axe. he retreated deeper into the woods. then he discovered the cliff he had just seen and collapsed. the district one woman threw the axe, missing his head, and it flew over the edge of the cliff. as she stood over haymitch, the axe flew back toward her, rebounding off the force field, and hit her. haymitch was crowned the victor and the most recent district 12 victor in four decades. 

after the games, haymitch's girlfriend and family are killed by president snow. snow had perceived the force field usage as an act of rebellion to display the stupidity of the capitol. due to guilt and depression, haymitch turned to alcohol abuse and closed himself off from people. 

here's a youtube recreation of everything we know about haymitch's games! (trigger warning: fake blood)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mUjssn86h4

there is quite a bit of information we know about haymitch despite his mysterious character. is is also possible a lot of the content i described is mostly fan-created as there isn't much confirmation of this in the books. i'm unsure if suzanne collins ever confirmed any of this to be true. 

however, it will be super interesting to read, in detail, the confirmed (by the author) events of what happened. haymitch is a very interesting character and i know lots of people were surprised when she announced this book release. i am particularly interested in seeing if there any differences between this book and the content i described above. suzanne collins always has a lot of tricks up her sleeve and i love when she has big plot twists in her books. i'm sure there will be lots of surprises in this!

haymitch is also relatively closed off and hardened in his adult life, so it will be fascinating to read what he was like when he was young, before all of these events took place. i believe there will be so many more parallels to katniss because he seemed to find her very relatable in the first three books. i remember a specific quote where he said "you could live a thousand lifetimes and never deserve that boy" in reference to her relationship with peeta, and i can't help but wonder if that will be his dynamic with lenora. perhaps she will parallel many character traits of peeta. 

it will also be interesting to learn more about maysilee, as she seems to play a key role in haymitch's games. will she be like peeta? or maybe more like rue? or will she be something entirely different? it seems like we will spend a lot of time with her in the book if the theories are correct. 

another interesting aspect is the state of district twelve at this time. many of the adult characters from the hunger games might appear in this books, such as katniss's parents and potentially peeta's. did haymitch know them? the district could also be a bit different from what we know it as, as this book takes place several decades prior. will it be better or worse than the district twelve we know? 

i've seen some fans speculate that the information about haymitch's games may be entirely incorrect as well. maybe it's possible that the capitol potentially changed the narrative and produced a different story than what actually happened. we've seen president snow do this quite often. 

there is a ton of information we still don't know yet and it will be very interesting to read what happens. this is a highly anticipated book, with a movie coming out soon as well, so it will definitely be the talk of the book community for a long time. i'm going to be desperately avoiding spoilers for the next few days as i finish the book! 

talk to you next week!