Haunted by Twins
Sunrise on the Reaping's use of the Double
The Capitol in The Hunger Games lusts to be the first on the trend, the one to originate sparkles: the one, the only, the exclusive. Each citizen is unique and special. There is no similarity, no identicality. That, of course, is saved for the poor districts of Panem.
They simply ask that you ignore the dozen people you passed on the streets with mirrored gem embeds. Pretend the shade of the season is not brushed on every eyelid. They are unique. Special. Do not tell them otherwise.
The poor districts disagree. They are the same. They breathe the same coal-coated air, burn their fingers on the metal they craft Capitol weapons from. To be District is an identity, an aspect of sameness. In Sunrise on the Reaping, Wyatt Callow, a tribute, sees this identity as he asks, “Aren’t we all on the same side?”1 The districts embrace their sameness, yet this sameness haunts Haymitch throughout the games.
Sunrise uses this sameness, this double, to tug Haymitch between his games and his home in three major ways: Persons, propaganda, and posters. This back-and-forth tortures Haymitch and motivates him to keep going, eventually protecting and supporting Katniss and Peeta through their games.
The Double Person
“For a moment the Donner twins become one, arms locked around each other’s necks, foreheads, noses pressed together. A mirror image that the Peacekeepers tear in two.”2
Haymitch experiences double-persons throughout the book. The Donner twins are one of those sets—A set, though, that continues to halfway exist past his games.
In a 2020 study on genetic aspects of choice in a marketing context, researchers found that “individuals’ decision-making styles are in part shaped by their genes.”3 While the Donner twins may not be identical in personality, (Maysilee seems to be the more dominant twin),4 if the book spent more time with Merrilee, similarities would likely be more apparent.
As Haymitch returns from the games and attempts to reintegrate into District 12’s society, he must deal with both the visual and emotional elements of consistently confronting Maysilee’s visage in the streets.
There’s a bad moment when I look up and see my ally, wearing her District 12 black, and start for her. “Maysilee!”5
Maysilee has her place now, buried and rotting in the earth. Merrilee is the cursed twin, forced to roam District 12 wearing the face of her dead sister, haunting Haymitch each time he sees her.
The Double Propaganda
But this isn’t Louella. In the same way you instinctively know the waxed pears on the table lack juice, this girl lacks Louella’s essence.
As much as Capitol citizens hate duplication, the Capitol loves the art of doubling. It melds perfectly with its propaganda—Similarities that would be rude to point out in their culture. They play with it, teasing the similarities so much that Haymitch is tempted to question if he had seen it wrong the whole time.
Nowhere is this more evident than with what seaglassdinosaur on Tumblr refers to as the “Artificial Twins.” Lou Lou shares only part of Louella’s name, doubled. They are the same and yet different, and Haymitch has to pretend there is no difference. This is Snow’s attempt to evoke behavioral conformation: The idea that acting like something is true can trick the brain into believing it.
While the ruse doesn’t work in the short term, as Haymitch ages and the memories of Louella’s essence fade, he dreams about the two of them.
The strangest visit involves Louella and Lou Lou, dressed in identical outfits, sitting across the table from me while I peel and eat a bowl of hard-boiled eggs. “Which of us is which?” they ask me. But the Capitol has won. I can’t tell them apart.6
Louella and Lou Lou don’t haunt Haymitch because of their literal deaths. Rather, Lou Lou died when her name and identity were stripped from her, and Louella wasn’t allowed to die in the chariot. Their non-deaths haunt him. Snow’s manipulation and propaganda tear at Haymitch’s mind long after both girls are gone.
The Double Poster
Don’t let them paint their posters with your blood.7
The third haunting double is the only pair still alive: Katniss and Haymitch. Yet, in a sense, Haymitch’s double-ness has died at the beginning of the Hunger Games trilogy, leaving Katniss to be a twin without him. She, with the guiding hand of his shell of a person, paints the poster he could not.
Katniss and Haymitch are twin mockingjays, both symbols for a rebellion that brewed long before either joined. Haymitch failed as the Mockingjay, and in a sense, died, and let the Capitol paint his poster. Katniss, though, had the leverage of having her rebellion aired. The game makers could cut Haymitch’s rebellion and construct a cohesive storyline. He broke the rules, but in a way the citizens could never know. Katniss got lucky. When she and Peeta broke the rules, it became the cohesive storyline. For the first time, the Capitol had to air its failure. Haymitch and his poster haunted her as much as her success haunted him.
Yet, they remain twins.
Her sister and his brother, both dead.
Their relationships were manipulated by the Capitol, destroying the innocence they held.
Figureheads to the rebellion, to be moved and used like pawns. Both stepped into shoes they never wanted to fill, and both bore the consequences.
Haymitch Abernathy suffers through the Hunger Games, then continues struggling with the doubles that live at home. Through the Donner twins, the Lous, and Katniss being a blurry combination of everything he loved and broke over, twins not only haunt the narrative throughout Sunrise on the Reaping, but Haymitch himself.
Sunrise, Chapter 15
Chapter 2
Saad, G., Sejean, R., Greengross, G., & Cherkas, L. (2020). Are identical twins more similar in their decision making styles than their fraternal counterparts? Journal of Business Research, 120, 638–643. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.03.049
Segal, H., Rum, Y., Barkan, A., & Knafo‐Noam, A. (2024). “You and me”: Parental perceptions on asymmetry in twins’ development and their dominance relationship dynamics. Family Relations, 74(1), 102–120. https://doi.org/10.1111/fare.13104
Chapter 26
ibid. (Side note: I looked up what hard-boiled eggs mean in a dream, and the most thorough answer said, “new situations being started or made easier through intentional aggravation. ‘Softening’ something up with pressure or problems to make it easier to start. Preparation to make a desired beginning easier.”)
Chapter 4
Not to mention Haymitch's dead twin sisters. Bro is quite literally haunted by twins, bless him. 😭 Loved this post, Em!