Sunrise on the Reaping

Maysilee Donner is a 15-year-old girl from District 12. She and her twin sister Merrilee are daughters of one of the district’s richest families. Maysilee is known for being conceited and unkind. She loves fashion and wears layers upon layers of necklaces, a habit that frustrates Haymitch because he perceives it as a gloating display of wealth.

Though Haymitch initially dislikes Maysilee, she proves to be outspoken in defiance of the Capitol, turning her sharp tongue against Drusilla and other Capitol citizens. Haymitch begins to understand her meanness as an outlet for her frustration at being born into a life over which she has little control. From the train to the arena, Maysilee uses her fiery nature to ensure that the District 12 tributes are treated with respect, arguing that allowing the Capitol to treat them like animals contributes to their dehumanization. Through Maysilee, Collins shows that drastic acts are not the only valid form of resistance. Maysilee’s efforts to preserve dignity, compassion, and self-concept are just as important as Beetee’s bomb.

Maysilee displays a softer side during training for the Games. A talented jewelry maker, she weaves her allies’ keepsakes into tokens, which prove invaluable in the arena. During the Games, she holds fast to her values, displaying bravery in conflict and protecting her friends whenever she can. Maysilee and Haymitch reunite late in the games and agree to work together. Their close friendship illustrates young Haymitch’s capacity to form connections, a quality that adult Haymitch lacks. Maysilee’s eventual transformation into Haymitch’s friend and ally also highlights the importance of solidarity across class lines in the fight against oppression. Though Maysilee’s family is much wealthier than Haymitch’s, they are equally disposable in the eyes of the Capitol.

Late in the Games, Maysilee kills a Gamemaker in an act of anger and defiance against the Capitol. Her willingness to act contrasts with Haymitch’s helpless indecision. Shortly afterward, Maysilee is killed in a targeted attack by mutts. Maysilee’s death is an example of how the Capitol controls district residents—swift and brutal retaliation against sedition. Despite her untimely death, her legacy of bravery and dignity echoes throughout the series, evincing the novel’s conceit that all sacrifices made in the name of liberation are worthy.

Lenore Dove is Haymitch’s girlfriend and Burdock Everdeen’s cousin. She is a descendant of the nomadic Covey. She loves animals, raising a flock of geese at her home. Lenore is deeply connected to the music performed by her ancestors and often defies the Capitol’s censorship by singing forbidden songs. Lenore is raised by her two uncles after her mother’s death in childbirth.

Lenore is a bold girl with a rebellious streak, prone to rebellious acts. She yearns for freedom, believing that a world without the Hunger Games is not only possible but necessary. At the start of the novel, Lenore is a foil to Haymitch, with her hopeful attitude contrasting with Haymitch’s resignation to the status quo. Unlike Haymitch, Lenore does not experience implicit submission. She is keenly aware of the importance of even smaller-scale acts of rebellion, like the anti-Capitol graffiti she scrawls on alleyways. Lenore urges Haymitch not to let the past define the future, and the novel takes its name from her plea not to let the sun rise on another reaping.

During the reaping at the 50th Hunger Games, Lenore tries to prevent the removal of Woodbine Chance’s body, triggering a chain of events that leads to Haymitch’s reaping. While Haymitch prepares for the Hunger Games, Lenore is arrested for singing rebellious songs in the public square. She is imprisoned on a Peacekeeper base, and she and Haymitch exchange scant contact before the Games.

After Haymitch’s return to District 12 and the murder of his family, Lenore is released from prison. The couple reunites briefly and joyfully, but Lenore dies after Haymitch mistakenly feeds her poisoned gumdrops planted by Snow. With her dying words, she again urges Haymitch to bring a stop to the Hunger Games. Lenore is treated as a disposable pawn in Snow’s power game, reinforcing the Capitol’s control over all aspects of Haymitch’s life.

Lenore’s death traumatizes Haymitch profoundly. Along with the loss of his mother and brother, his guilt over her death causes him to shut himself off completely from the world, choosing alcohol and isolation over human connection. Like the speaker of “The Raven”, Haymitch is haunted by Lenore’s memory. She becomes a symbol for everything the Capitol has taken from him.

It is only in the Epilogue, after forming relationships with Katniss and Peeta, that memories of Lenore stop torturing Haymitch. Instead, he thinks fondly of them growing old together and raises geese in her honor. The realization that the Capitol cannot sever the bonds of love, even through death, finally frees Haymitch from their control.

Louella McCoy is a 13-year-old girl from District 12, and the second female tribute reaped into the 50th Hunger Games. Haymitch is protective of Louella, taking on an older brother role as they prepare for the Games. Caring for Louella gives him a sense of purpose and a reason to keep living. During the opening parade at the Capitol, Louella is killed in a chariot crash. After her death, she becomes a symbol of the atrocities committed by the Capitol, with Haymitch holding her body up under Snow’s balcony.

Footage of Louella’s death is edited out of the parade broadcast, and she is replaced by a body double nicknamed “Lou Lou.” Her death and replacement underscore the dehumanization of district residents and the importance of propaganda, as she is grotesquely remade into a puppet to obscure the Capitol’s incompetence. Despite the constant flow of drugs and instructions fed to her by Gamemakers, Lou Lou remains uncontrollable, often lashing out at Capitol handlers and shouting, “[Y]ou’re murdering us!” (71). Her resistance is a microcosm of the persistent determination to fight against the Capitol’s methods of control.

Familiar to readers of the original trilogy as the head Gamemaker of the 75th Hunger Games, Plutarch is a Capitol videographer in Sunrise on the Reaping. Despite appearing to uphold the Capitol agenda, he is secretly involved in the arena sabotage plot. Plutarch has a keen understanding of the Capitol propaganda machine and warns Haymitch against letting the Capitol use him as a pawn. He is the first character to call out implicit submission by name, encouraging Haymitch to grow out of his learned helplessness.

After the arena plot fails, Plutarch reassures Haymitch that all hope is not lost. Having been alive and involved in the rebellion for much longer than Haymitch, Plutarch knows that what they are working toward is a long-term change that may take generations to arrive. He correctly predicts that someday, someone like Haymitch will go on to lead the districts to liberation. Plutarch goes on to become a key figure in the Second Rebellion, using his expert knowledge of propaganda to inspire the districts to unite against the Capitol.