The 1920s, also known as the "Roaring 20s" or the Jazz Age, was an age of social and political change. For the first time, more Americans lived in cities than on farms. The nations wealth doubled between 1920-29. People from different places bought goods that was advertised and listened to music. Though the 1920s seemed like a a great time, it brought more conflict than celebration. The entire decade of the 1920s was a time of poverty and crushing indebtedness, leading to many family losing farms. More than 90% of American farms lacked electricity, food was scarce, and money was low.
1 Comment
On July 1st, 2015, my mother, brother, and I boarded a train at Union Station in Washington, D.C. at around 8:30 AM. In about 4 hours we were at Penn Station in New York City. It was a short walk from there to Discovery Times Square, a museum near Broadway. I was wearing my black Mockingjay Part 1 tee shirt and my mockingjay pin below my left shoulder. I had arrived at the opening day of the Hunger Games Exhibition, a 14,000-square-foot interactive exhibit with costumes and props from the movies, beiind-the-scenes information, and interactive displays.
It was the best place I have ever been. I was completely surrounded by The Hunger Games and people like me, who took no shame in their over-the-top obsession with the incredible book trilogy. I had read the Hunger Games trilogy six times at that point, and therefore knew just about everything about the books, but going to the exhibition was still enlightening. First were props from the Hob, the black market Katniss is shown visiting in The Hunger Games, and Katniss's home, including her mockingjay pin and the picture of her deceased father; then followed mannequins adorned in costumes from the movies, including Effie in front of the Justice Building, where she called Primrose's name for the 74th Hunger Games, and Katniss and Primrose in their Reaping Day attire. Among other costumes and props were various highly informative captions (all of which I read) and a Suzanne Collins-approved map of Panem and where all the districts lie. This was an interactive map, in which I could click on the districts, see what their industry was, and read biographies of their tributes in the 74th and 75th Hunger Games. Eventually I walked into a room which had a replica of the back of the train Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch ride in on the Victory Tour in Catching Fire. At this location in the movie, Katniss and Peeta have a conversation in which they tell each other their favorite colors, which I absolutely adore, especially because it returns in a very emotional part in Mockingjay (Part 2). I have memorized this passage in the book, so I sat on that couch and recited it, and I was overwhelmed. I then saw more costumes and read more captions until I arrived in a room filled with Katniss and Peeta's chariot outfits, interview outfits, and presidential palace-visit outfit. The costumes were incredible. The room also had Cinna's sketchbook, which Plutarch gives to Katniss in Mockingjay (Part 1), with all its drawings and words inside. That was the actual sketchbook used in the filming of Mockingjay Part 1, so I felt especially close to the movies and the cast when I looked at it. The room included the white suit Peeta wears while he is a prisoner in the Capitol in Mockingjay Part 1, which made me incredibly emotional, because it is during this time in the Capitol that he is tortured and hijacked until he is almost completely lost. I cried at the sight of it. In the next room was every prop/weapon from the 74th and 75th arenas, and every costume from the 75th arena. This was easily the coolest room. Not only did they have the promotional pictures of the tributes in their 75th-arena outfits that were released before Catching Fire in a massive scale on the walls, they had Katniss's bow, Finnick's trident, Beetee's wire, a parachute, Katniss's orange backpack, and Katniss's arrows hanging on the walls. Standing side-by-side were a mannequin of Peeta Mellark in his 75th-arena outfit and a mannequin of Finnick Odair in his 75th Games interview outfit. I cried at the side of this, because Peeta Mellark and Finnick Odair are my favorite fictional characters of all time, and they were right next to each other, and on a caption post next to the mannequins was a picture of the two of them on the beach in Catching Fire, which is a picture I absolutely adore. This room was hard to leave, but after there were costumes from Mockingjay Part 1 and Mockingjay Part 2, including some District 13 uniforms and Boggs's military uniform. At this point, Mockingjay Part 2 had not been released; it would not be released until November 19th, over three months from then. However, there was an entire wall of the weapons used in the filming of the Capitol battle in Mockingjay Part 2, including Finnick's trident, which had not yet been shown in any other movie. Something terrible happens to Finnick with this trident in that movie, and seeing it so close and knowing what would happen with it made me cry. Slightly farther down was a recreation of the bunker the District 13 residents have to go to in Mockingjay Part 1. Included in this recreation were the locket and the pearl Peeta gave to Katniss in Catching Fire, which she holds onto desperately in Mockingjay (Part 1) when he is gone. I could not believe that I was in the presence of these two items. It was overwhelming. The most overwhelming part of the exhibition, however, was the last room. In it were just four costumes and one accessory: Katniss's hunting outfit, her wedding dress, the mockingjay dress that her wedding dress turns into, her war outfit in Mockingjay, and a pure gold mockingjay pin. This represented the arc of the story, Katniss's character development, and the message of the story almost perfectly: Katniss starts out as a normal, yet tragic, girl, and after an experience that changes her life and gives her horrible PTSD she unknowingly becomes the symbol of the revolution. The government tries to control this, trying to make her their pawn, but to no avail; the mockingjay is released and Katniss fights with everything in her to bring down the government that ruined her life and the lives of so many people. She succeeds, but not without enough emotional scarring for more than one lifetime. She returns to who she was in the beginning: just a girl, a hunter, wearing her father's hunting jacket and using her bow and arrow for sustenance. What she needs now is different than what she used to need, but the District 12 girl from the Seam is who she will always be. And nothing can take that away from her. Overall, this was a fantastic experience in my life. I am sorry I said so much about it, but once I get going on this topic I cannot stop. Also happening at this time: Cuba and the U.S. reached an agreement to open embassies in Washington D.C. and Havana, the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for terror attacks in Tunisia, Greece has slipped deeper into debt, Barack Obama is president. |
|