Music and Dance in the Hunger Games

               Music and dance are very important to both the Hunger Games and in Appalachia. Both the fictional and the real rely upon music and dance to bring the community together, and both focus on the same topics.

               In  the Hunger Games we see dance and music specifically mentioned at the wedding of Finnick Odair and Annie Cresta. After their ceremony, a fiddler from District 12 begins to play. This leads to many people  from District 12 including Gale and Greasy Sae getting up and dancing along. It is also noted that as Katniss and Prim are dancing that they had plenty of practice dancing on the cold nights back in District 12. This ties in with Appalachia in that one of the themes we discussed in class was family. If Katniss and Prim danced often, that indicates that it was a family event used for entertainment. This is often when dancing is done  in Appalachia as well. Large family gatherings or community gatherings will probably be accompanied by singing and dancing. It also talked about how Katniss's father taught her to sing and the songs, thus reinforcing the family ties to music.

               The topics of the songs in the Hunger Games and in Appalachia are also similar. The song Katniss sings to Rue as she dies ,"Deep In The Meadow", talks about  a nice safe place to rest that is located in a secluded meadow. The central theme in this song is the connection to nature and safety that brings, which is also a theme heavily used in Appalachian songs and ballads. The song "The Hanging Tree" 's theme is the separated lover's struggle, and struggle is of course a common theme in Applachia.