The Unsung Heroes of The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games was just released on DVD, and after purchasing it and watching it with a few friends (one who had read the books but never seen the movie), I thought a little bit more about some of the tributes than I had previously. There are a couple of tributes who, in the games, are glossed over and not really talked about. However, they each played a very vital role in the outcome of the games. The Tributes I’m talking about are so overlooked, one of them never is even given a name, only a nickname: Foxface, from District 5, and Thresh, the male tribute from District 11.

Before I get into any further details: I am warning you now. THIS POST WILL CONTAIN PLOT SPOILERS FOR THE HUNGER GAMES MOVIE AS WELL AS BOOK. 

There. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way. I’m going to assume that if you’re still reading you either are familiar enough with the series to not have pesky spoilers bother you, or you just don’t care how the plot falls out. 

We first get a description of the female tribute from District 5 in the books as a “fox-faced girl.”Right from the beginning she is set up as a sly, elusive and tricky tribute. We see this as well throughout the games, whenever Katniss encounters her. She’s smart, clever, and difficult to catch, preferring to stay out of combat, winning by surviving the longest, rather than by killing everyone else. She’s fast too, and has excellent timing-getting in and out of the cornucopia at the feast before anyone else shows up to try and challenge her. Her death is completely accidental, and actually served, in a way, to help keep Peeta alive. If she hadn’t stolen and eaten those berries, he would have had no way of knowing that they were poisonous, and he would have died from them as well.

In the end, had she lived, I still don’t think she would have won (assuming this was a universe that wasn’t set up for Katniss to win), because she would have eventually been forced into a direct confrontation. We don’t necessarily know anything about her fighting skills, but the descriptions given of her seem to indicate that she would not have done as well as many of the other tributes in close fighting. And certainly Katniss probably could have taken her down with an arrow. 

Thresh, on the other hand, probably could have stood a decent chance of winning. And I would have wanted him to win, if Katniss and Peeta hadn’t. He’s a very large guy, very imposing, scored a 10 from the Gamemakers, and, most importantly, he refused to join the Careers group during the training. So, he’s a big threat, and prefers to be solitary. Other than that, we don’t know all that much about him. We only see him at one point during the games-at the feast, when he saves Katniss from Clove, killing her in the process, and sparing Katniss’ life because of what she did for Rue. If you ask me, that moment right there sealed Katniss’ victory in the games. We don’t know if Thresh fell to Cato’s hands or to the hands of the muttations at the end, but he made it to the top 4, and he probably could have won, if things had fallen out a little differently.

The reason I call Thresh and Foxface the ‘Unsung Heroes’ of the Hunger Games, though, is not because of the respective roles they played in keeping Katniss and Peeta alive, but rather the fact that, to me, they represent the small bits of humanity still left in the arena. Thresh, rather than kill someone he knows will have to die anyway in order for him to win, chooses instead to give Katniss a one-time pass, essentially to even a score. She took care of Rue, the little 12 year old girl from his district, so he took care of her, the only way he could-by leaving her alive, for just a little longer. Foxface is the prime example of survival instincts in action. She plays to her strengths: she’s sneaky, so she skirts around edges, picking at leftovers, stealing, never directly facing anyone. She’s playing the games her way, not the brutal, bloodthirsty way the Capitol wants.

Thoughts? Comments? I’d love to hear them.

Until next time,
Angel out!