The Daily Tribute to Panem January 2012 Connor Newman
Featuring An Interiew with Katniss Everdeen
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Prologue
The Hunger games are survival and free-for-all death match of 24 kids. Each year the coarse leader of the country, which everyone has hostile feeling towards, selects a boy and a girl from each of the 12 districts to compete in the games on a belligerent terrain. The kids in the hunger games are called tributes and all tributes must fight each other to the death. The last tribute standing wins grain, oil and there life for their own districts.
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Table Of Contents Pg 4: Girl On Fire Pg 6: Hold Onto This Lullaby Pg 8: Depression to Hope
Pg 9: The Hunger Games Should Grade 8’s Read it or Not Pg 12: Ad
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The Girl On Fire! By Connor Newman
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1Q) hen Haymitch- Your mentor at the hunger games- agreed to help train you and The other tribute (member) from your district-Peeta –- did you believe Haymitch would come through and be a good teacher? A)No, when Peeta and I confronted Haymitch about actually training us and not just drinking all day I had my doubts at first. Once I gave him a chance by following his orders on not disagreeing with anything the stylists do I realized that there was a chance he would pull through. 2Q)When Peeta asked Haymitch to be sepa rately trained for the hunger games-death match between 24 tributes-, what was going through your head at this time? A) Well to start with I was feeling betrayed
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and hurt, because I thought that Peeta and I agreed to still train together. To be honest I started to develop some feelings for Peeta but when he did this it all went away. Albeit after a while of thinking about this I realized that I was a bit relieved. If Peeta and I continued training together my feelings would had grown stronger and would have been harder to verse in the games. 3Q) During Peeta’s interview he was asked if he had a girlfriend or a crush, he replied that the crush he has was on you. What was your very first thought when you watched Peeta say in front of all 12 districts and the Capitol that he had a crush on you? A) The first thought that I had been after my shock was probably guilt.
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When Peeta said that he had a crush on me I felt bad that we would verse each other in the hunger games, I felt bad that we fought a lot, and I felt bad that we aren’t really friends right now. 4Q) When Peeta told you the reason you got such good trades at home was because they felt bad for you. Did this affect your relationship with Peeta and if you survive the hunger games that it would affect who you trade with? A)Yes. When I heard this statement from Peeta it was attended as an insult, which of course would have affect on any relationship I have with Peeta because I am disenchanting. But if I survive this hunger games I doubt that it will affect who I trade with. I need to supply for my family and without making a trade no matter how good or bad supplying for my family comes first. 5Q) Every year 2 tributes from each district -town/city- are chosen at a reaping- assembly like meeting were 2 names will be drawn out of a bowl- to be in the hunger games.
What are your feelings toward this and how each tribute are forced to take part in this lottery system? A) I highly disagree with the process of choosing tributes at the reaping because the tributes that are chose are all under the age of 18 meaning that the hunger games is a deathmatch for the minors. I think that this is just the way of the Capitol-head of the world- to show everyone that they have the power.
“Katniss you look great, now go out there and be the girl on fire!� -Cinna-
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Hold Onto This Lullaby Safe Sound
By Taylor Swift ft The Civil War I remember tears streaming down Just close your eyes your face When I said, I’ll never let you go When all those shadows almost killed your light I remember you said, Don’t leave me here alone But all that’s dead and gone and passed tonight Just close your eyes The sun is going down You’ll be alright No one can hurt you now Come morning light You and I’ll be safe and sound
The sun is going down You’ll be alright No one can hurt you now Come morning light You and I’ll be safe and sound Just close your eyes You’ll be alright Come morning light, You and I’ll be safe and sound
Don’t you dare look out your window darling Everything’s on fire The war outside our door keeps raging on Hold onto this lullaby Even when the music’s gone 6 6
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Hold Onto This Lullaby
Writers: Taylor Swift, Joy Williams, John Paul White, T Bone Burnett Song Name: “Safe and Sound” Album: The Hunger Games Sound track Singers: Taylor Swift ft The cival Wars Recording Company: Big Machine Country: London Producer: T-Bone Burnett Released December 23 2011
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hat would you do to protect your loved ones? I think the theme of the song Safe and Sound is the human condition of love, sorrow, and protection. In the song it seems that the singer (Taylor Swift) is trying to protect somebody that is close to her and that she loves. The line in the song, “When I said, I’ll never let you go when all those shadows almost killed your light,” is a perfect example of this. Here, the singer is trying to protect your loved ones from the shadows that almost killed their light. Similarly, “You’ll be alright no one can hurt you now” is another line that shows the protection part of the theme and how the singer is trying to protect a loved one. Throughout the song not only the lyrics, but also the instruments, gives a dreary and sorrow feel to it. For example, “Don’t you dare look out your window darling everything’s on fire the war outside our door keeps raging on” is a way of making the listener even feel there own sorrow. Can Taylor Swift really sing another hit song? Yes. 22 year old country star Taylor Swift sings the outstanding song Safe and for the Hunger Games soundtrack.
I chose this song for many reasons, one of the reasons that I noticed the song was because of the fact that it was on the Hunger Games soundtrack but that certainly wasn’t why I picked the song over the others. If you listen to the song it is constantly singing about protecting somebody and keeping them safe from harm. This made me think of the Hunger Games over and over in the many different situations where somebody is protecting one another. The line, “Just close your eyes, the sun is going down you’ll be alright no one can hurt you now come morning light you and I’ll be safe and sound,” made me think of the part during the Hunger Games when Peeta and Karniss are in the cave and Katniss is nursing Peeta back to health. An example of this is “Why don’t we give it some air, Katniss said.” And then you’ll patch it up Peeta replied,” this statement shows that in the book that Katniss is nursing Peeta back to health.
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Depression to Hope By Katniss Everdeen
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I’m nervous, scared because the one that had glittering skin that turned to coal, because I’m the girl on fire, I’m from pesky pebbles that wedge themselves in tattered shoes, I’m from dreary moist ground confined by behemoth trees protected by bark I thrive on anger towards the shoes, for they have ruined my life, I will prove they don’t own me, My family is the soldier that’s been wounded and forgot about, just scraping by on food, shelter, and money, I’m the mother bear with the responsibility to supply and protect for her baby cubs, Dismay that horrid things may happen to my family again like the coalmine explosion that killed my father, I feel everyday, It was devastating, apprehension to witness my little sitters name called at the reaping, Forced I was to take Prim’s spot and save her from the dreadful Hunger Games, The sacrifice may just end my life but I love my sister to much to let her get slaughtered in front of the whole nation, My memories are filled with gloom but from that gloom emerges light, My father’s foe was fate, but his demise was my destiny, You can find me where the secrets of the town lie, I live like a toddler begging for food to supply my family for one more day, The Capitol’s like a venus fly trap, it is sinister and will snatch you up and kill you if you make one wrong move, Death scratching at me like a thistle stuck to a leg, Only thing keeping me from death are my memories with Gale, Prim, and my mother, if I die in this stupid Hunger Game after the devastation my family would they would have no way to gather food and survive, I will not let a plant control me, the only way to stop this sinister system is to show them they can’t control me, I am the mockingjay.
By Connor Newman
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ave you ever had a full out action movie play in your head that you just don’t want to stop watching? If not, it’s obvious that you haven’t read The Hunger Games. The sentence, “Adrenaline shoots through me and I sling the pack over my shoulder and run full speed for the woods,” is the perfect example of how The Hunger Games plays a movie in your head. This is only one sentence among the many. Rich descriptive language, suspense and action and, realism showing the darkness and good in people is exactly how The Hunger Games plays a movie for you in your head. The Hunger Games is such a breathtaking book that it’s been sold in 38 countries. I believe that The Hunger Games should be in the curriculum for grade 8’s because of the descriptive language, suspense and action, and realism that it contains. Each of these qualities combined together is what makes The Hunger Games such a incredible book that will contribute to a students learning experience. 9 9
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he number one reason why The Hunger Games should become part of the grade 8 curriculum is the descriptive language that it has. “Peeta rolls his eyes at Haymitch”, “She has no idea. The effect she can have,” “He runs his fingernail along the wood grain in the table, refusing to look at me.” These are only a few of the examples that shows the vivid descriptive language the book contains. Those sentences alone play a movie in your head and you haven’t even read the book. Another example of this would be, “I spot Gale looking back at me with a ghost of a smile.” You can picture that Gale is sad, dreary or worried. A good book paints a picture in your head and you can tell what is going on, albeit an amazing book plays a movie and you can see what is going on. This is what The Hunger Games does.
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he second reason why The Hunger Games should be included in the Grade 8 curriculum is that The Hunger Games is full of suspense and action and will hook students on reading. The students could improve their writing and reading skills the more they read. “I reach her just as she is about to mount the steps. With one sweep of my arm I push her behind me. I Volunteer! I gasp. I volunteer as tribute!” These sentences describe a suspenseful scene that re-
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ally gets the readers attention. When I read this in The Hunger Games I was hooked. I am a student that hates to read and hasn’t read a book in a while, but when I read this I could not put the book down. In modern day school most kids are like me and dislike reading, however if you find the right kind of book for someone they may enjoy reading more books. One way to get a teenage boy to want to read and enjoy it would be to find a book that includes something he is interested in. Teenage boys usually like action movies or violent movies to entertain them and that’s what The Hunger Games does. An example of this is the sentence, “There will be twenty-four of us. Odds are someone else will kill him before I do”. If that doesn’t hook the reader in then they are in for a surprise when they keep reading and they just keep getting more suspenseful moments thrown at them.
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he final reason I believe that this book The Hunger Games should become part of the grade 8 curriculum is the realism in the book. You may not know what the term realism means, it is the darkness and good in humanity. I think like the suspense students will be able to relate to things they have witnessed or heard about. A way that they use realism to show the poverty and war is this sentence, “Taking the kids from our districts,
forcing them to kill one another while we watch this is the Capitol’s way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy.” But not everyone can relate to poverty because of how lucky and fortunate we are. One thing that everybody should be able to relate to is wanting to be yourself and also confusion which both can be showed here, “I don’t know how to say it exactly. Only…I want to die as myself. Does that make any sense?” he asks. I shake my head. How could he die as anyone but himself? “I don’t want them to change me in there. Turn me into some kind of monster that I’m not.” If that doesn’t hook people into reading, another way The Hunger Games captures the reader’s attention by having the main character stand up for themself. Being able to stand up for yourself in junior high and high school is something that many people wish they could do. They can be taught about how to do it through reading The Hunger Games. Evidence of the main character doing this is, “I want to do something, right here, right now, to shame them, to make them accountable, to show the Capitol that whatever they do or force us to do that there is a part of every tribute they can’t own”.
become a novel that is included in the grade 8 curriculum. Without including The Hunger Games in the curriculum I know that many students could miss an opportunity to read a book they may find really enjoyable. Maybe they might even want to read more books. Once I read The Hunger Games (my first full book in over 4 years) I could not stop and I eventually went on to read the whole series in the same month!
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I always channel my emotion into my work. That way I don’t hurt anyone but myself -Cinna-
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ased on description, suspense and action, and realism I believe that The Hunger Game’s should
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