Lions Gate
What’s a dystopian novel without a post-apocalyptic world? Panem, the remains of the former North American continent, is a pretty scary place. In case you needed a refresher, Panem is split up into 12 districts (we don’t talk about district 13) and a glittering and wealthy capital city.
Taking a page from The Colbert Report, this ongoing “Better Know a District” series will take a look at the districts that make up the brutal world of The Hunger Games.
Welcome To District 5: They’ve Got The Power!
Industry: The main industry in District 5 is energy and power. This district is responsible to harnessing the energy for the entire nation. District 5 quite literally keeps the lights on in the rest of Panem.
Notable Residents: The most important resident of District 5 is “Foxface,” a tribute with Katniss in the 74th Annual Hunger Games. Although Katniss never learned her name, she referred to the female tribute from District 5 as Foxface during their training. Foxface was incredibly intelligent, even though she wasn’t as strong or tough as the other tributes. She managed to keep herself alive far into the games thanks entirely to her wit. She would scavenge supplies from other tributes and even managed to learn the configuration of mines the career tributes used to boobytrap the Cornicopia. Unfortunately for Foxface, this same wit ended up backfiring on her in the end. She died after stealing some Nightlock berries from a pile Peeta accidentally picked.
Got Tesserae? The population in District 5 is the lowest in all of the districts, probably because residents don’t take advantage of the “tesserae” system. For children between the ages of 12 and 18, tesserae is available in order to help starving families gain needed supplies. Unfortunately, getting tesserae also means an additional entry of the child’s name in the reaping for the Hunger Games.
Hunger Games Prospects: Since the residents of District 5 are mostly working with power and electricity, their weapons training is fairly poor. The District 5 tributes don’t generally do well in the games, with everyone other than Foxface dying pretty rapidly after the games begin.
Which District is your favorite? Sound off in the comments!
