Debunking Literature Theories | Episode 1

[00:00:03][music] Hey guys, what's up? I am CJ and welcome back to my galaxy and welcome to a whole new series on my channel, debunking literature theories. Now, if you guys don't know, I have a debunking the Hunger Games theories series, which is a mouthful, but you know, we keep the name anyway. And I have that series on my channel which I do once a week. But I wanted to get through some more Hunger Games theories that you guys have sent into me. I get all my theories from my subscribers through a Google form which is linked in the description. If you guys have a Hunger Games theory, but I thought I'd extend it to debunking literature theories. So, for this series, I'm going to be doing a mixture of Hunger Games theories and other literary works and theories around that as well. Whether I find them online or if I have my own like little head cannons or theories, something like that, I'm going to be putting them in this series. Today, I have two Hunger Games theories and then in the middle of this video, theory number two is going to be about a literary work. Today, it's going to be about Wthering Heights. But don't worry if you haven't read the book. I will be giving you guys a little bit of a synopsis of what the book is about and a little bit of context to the theory that I'm talking about. Not all the theories are going to be classic novels. I'm thinking about doing some theories surrounding other dystopian works as well and just different works that I've read. See, I have like all of these books on my bookshelf and I've read a bunch of books in my time. So, I'm going to be talking about lots of different books in this series. But before I get started with the theories, I wanted to let you guys know that I'm trying to reach 5,000 subscribers here on my YouTube channel. I am currently, at the time of recording this video, I think I'm at 3,100. So, we're starting to gain on 5,000 subscribers at this point. And when I do meet that milestone, I'm going to be making a video deep diving into Peter Mark's characterization.

[00:02:02]And that's a video I really want to make for you guys. I've started outlining it and preparing that video for when I do reach 5K. And I know you guys will absolutely love a deep dive into Peter Mog because he's a beloved bread boy. So you guys should definitely subscribe for Hunger Games content and now a little bit more literature content. I'm going to be uploading every single day. If you guys are interested in content like that, definitely subscribe and comment down below any content you'd like to see on my channel in the future. Okay, without further ado, let's get into the first theory of today's video. Theory number one, the 74th Games were rigged for Prim to be reaped. Prison Snow is a petty if nothing else. Prim is the youngest daughter of the late Berdo who was a close friend to Hamitch. She was also therefore a descendant of the Kovi, which he also dislikes because of Lucy Gray. He had the 74th Games rigged to have her be the female tribute to mess with Hamage and remind him that his punishment is never over since she will have zero chance in the arena. He didn't reap Katniss after Berdo's death because Prim was younger and would be more tragic for Berdo's youngest daughter to be reaped and die the first year she was eligible. This would also probably cause Astred and Katniss to hate him for not being able to help Prim survive. It's Snow's way of telling Hitch that even if he pushes people away, they will never be safe because of him. Personally, I don't subscribe to the idea that the Everdine family was targeted for the Hunger Games and they were intentionally raped because of that. I do think that Prim was targeted in the way and I've spoken about it in a previous debunking video on my channel that Prim was potentially reaped because they have like a certain quot for entertainment to meet. So they they reap certain kids of certain ages to make sure there's like a mixed pool of kids and there's also different other quotas that they have to meet not just with the ages of the kids.

[00:03:46]I do think that Prim was intentionally chosen for a specific entertainment purpose, but I don't subscribe to the idea that Prim was going to be targeted because she was an Everdine. I think it takes away from the idea that the odds aren't in your favor and the whole odds theme throughout the entirety of the Hunger Games novel. Susan Collins is intentionally, in my personal opinion, placing the theme of odds into the novel. So, we have this whole idea that Katniss, the odds just weren't in her favor, although the odds not being in Katniss' favor meant the odds were in the favor of the rebellion and the districts being freed of the capital's oppression. The whole idea of the Hunger Games is that the odds weren't in Everine's family's favor and the odds weren't in Prim's favor. That she was destined to die from the very beginning and the odds were already set in stone and they weren't intentionally marked or targeted by the capital because the odds are something that can't be manipulated by either the capital or the districts.

[00:04:45]And that's at least the way that I've interpreted it. So, I don't like the idea that Prim was targeted because of Katniss, because of Berdo, all of that sort of thing simply because it's the whole theme of the novel series. And I think that when it comes to Prim, it's literally just that someone that young gots raped because capital doesn't care about the districts. They're not seen technically as children. They're seen as a as a way to control the districts. The districts are also seen as animals. So they're not seen as actual children. We also see that in Finnick's characterization that he's not really seen as a child in the same way that maybe we'd consider children, especially in like the real world legally speaking as well, that we consider Finnick a child cuz he's 14, but the capital doesn't see that. He sells the Finnick at 16. So he's like of age at that point, but the they don't really see Finnick as a real human child because he's District. I think the idea of this theory also takes away from the fact that Katniss is a reluctant hero or an accidental hero. She never wanted to be the person that saves Panama, that martr for the districts as well. So when it comes to this theory, it's supposed to be that she's an accidental hero and martyr for Panm. And in saying that Prim was intentionally reached to get back at the Kovi and Hay Mitch, then I think that it kind of quells the idea of Susan Collins's themes of odds. However, one thing that's really interesting about this theory is it mentions Berdoch quite a bit and that Prim was intentionally briefed because of Berdo and Berdo's connection to Hamitch, not just the connection to the Kovi. I think when it comes to Bo Berdo, it's interesting to think about his characterization and in particular his death. I know that there's a lot of speculation and this is something I personally believe that Berdo was actually killed in the mines because he had a rebel plan going on in the same way that we see in the ballot of songbirds and snakes. Arlo Chance blew up the mines and killed three men and then he was hung for treason which is the reason that S Janice also gets involved in the rebel plan involved with the Chance family and all of that whole rebel plan. I think that also he gets involved with Lily who's imprisoned because she's trying to prevent Arlo's death. It's speculated that Berdo was planning something very similar to what Arlo did and instead Berdo was actually killed in the mine explosion to prevent this rebel plan. or maybe that was the middle of his rebel plan and it backfired on him and the capital caught on to this whole plan and killed him in the process. So when it comes to maybe the Everdine family being affected by everything to do with the coffee and to do with Berdo, I think it is directly connected to Hamitch and Snow seeking revenge on Hamitch. I would even say that even if Berdo didn't necessarily have a rebel plan or even if he did have a rebel plan, Snow was caught on to this plan and Berdoch as a person because he knew at some point Hamitch was closely connected to Berdo. We know that Hamage does push him away, but Snow would have already known that they were quite close because he was watching Hamitch's every move and District 12 as a whole. We know that Snow likely has very close eyes on District 12 because of the coffee and because of Hayage and everything that went down in the ballot of song events and snakes. So I would assume that Snow knows about Berdo and he knows about his kids and he knows about like every rebel plan that Berock possibly could have simply based on the fact that Hitch had close eyes on him and there was a connection there. whether or not Hitch pushed him away, there was still that connection that Snow knew about. So when it comes to the Everdine family, I think everything that happened to them was directly because of Hitch and McCovi, but I don't think the reaping was necessarily rigged. I just think that Snow had a close eye on them and knew about them. Whilst I don't agree with this theory, I think it's really interesting to think about the connection between Hamitch and Berdoch and McCovi and how that affected the lives of Astred Katniss and Prim later on around the time of the 74th Hunger Games. Thank you so much for sending in this theory. It's really interesting to think and talk about. If you guys want to let me know your thoughts in the comments section down below as well on this particular theory, feel free. But let's move on to theory number two.

[00:09:08]Theory number two, Kathy and Heath Cliff's attraction is asexual. I don't talk about a whole lot of queer theories in the Hunger Games because a lot of the characters are queer in the Hunger Games, but they're simply theories that I have personally had cannons for. Not all of them are explicit, but today we're talking about Wthering Heights. If you guys don't know Wthering Heights, it is a classic novel by Emily Bronty. I absolutely love the Bronty sisters.

[00:09:35]Wthering Heights is what is considered a gothic novel. Gothic as a genre is dark and gloomy and you're supposed to face things like mortality and the darkest parts of the human psyche. Frankenstein is a Gothic novel for example, so is Dracula. So you have like the creepy castle. You have things that are just like set at night, very gloomy, and you have to understand mortality and morality. There's a lot of depth to the Gothic genre, but that is basically the gist of it is like a creepy old castle, maybe a creepy mansion in Mothering Heights. You have something called the Moors and the Earn Shores and the Linton's house. The Moors are a basically a field that you get lost in very easily from the fog between the Lintons and the Earnhaw's house. The story is based around a bunch of relationships and people doing a lot of really just stupid stuff and [clears throat] people make a lot of the wrong decisions. You have to face mortality and I'm not going to spoil what happens, but you have a lot of characters that are just doing a lot of morally wrong things that could easily have been fixed, but they don't do it.

[00:10:44]There's a lot of class divide. One of the things that people talk a lot about is racism and Heath Cliffe being racially ambiguous. He's not white, but I think he's described kind of with tan or brown skin. The plot follows the two families, the Lintons and the Ernaw, and all the kids as they grow up and make life decisions. And you essentially hate every single one of the characters.

[00:11:05]Kathleen and Heathcliffe have a very obsessive love story. Or I wouldn't even say it's a love story. It's just a very obsessive relationship cuz they've grown up together. They are very similar characters and they're very interesting.

[00:11:19]This is just basically me encouraging you to read Wthering Heights because it's such an interesting novel. This is truly my favorite classic novel ever.

[00:11:26]I'm going to read out a quote to you guys that essentially says that or it doesn't say it, but I have analyzed it as the two being asexual. The reason I'm talking about this series is because when I was doing my honors dissertation, I specifically did a honors dissitation about a romantic and asexual representation in young adult literature. This classic novel isn't young adult literature. I did a case study on the Hunger Games and Katniss potentially being a-romantic and asexual. And it's just occurred to me that if you guys don't know what a-romantic and asexual means, it means that aromantic is little to no romantic attraction and asexual is little to no sexual attraction. I myself am arrow ace and I love a good arrow ace head cannon.

[00:12:06]And when I was researching for this specific project, I came across this article about talking about how Wthering Heights in Kathy and Heathcliffe specifically have asexual representation. If I can find the link to this article, I will put it in the description. I think I know where it is with amongst all my research for my project. But essentially the gist of this article was talking about how Kathy and Heathcliffe don't and this directly is against the idea or the analysis that Emerald Fennel who created the most recent adaption of Weathering Heights, she made it very sexual and she that's how she interpreted it. I personally think it would have been better as like inspired by Weathering Heights and not directly an adaption to Weathering Heights. But I digress. This specific article suggests that Kathy and Heathcliffe have no sexual attraction to one another. Rather, they actually have just this very obsessive nature because they are so similar as people that they want to be with each other because of their relationship growing up and how that's developed. And there's evidence in this book that suggests that what their actual relationship is is not necessarily sexual. It's not even necessarily romantic. I'm going to read out this quote. The context for this is one of the life decisions that Kathy is faced with is who to marry in this novel. She has the choice of two characters. Edgar Linton, who is this very posh and wellbred man who has proposed to Kathy. And then her other choice for a partner or a husband is Heathcliffe, who Heathcliffe is he grew up in the Ernshaw household essentially as a brother. Yeah, there's a little bit of weird incest in this novel, but a lot of the novels back then did have some weird family relationship and romance plot at the same time. We mostly just ignore that fact. But Heath Cliffe essentially he's been banished to become a worker because he is not white and there's a lot of racism that goes on in the novel because of that. So he's essentially a worker and he's no longer a part of the household entitled to the money of the Ernshaw household. So he is someone who Kathy would be marrying down if she were to marry Heathcliffe rather Edgar Linton she'd be marrying up. So yeah, a lot of classism, a lot of racism in this novel, but that's the context.

[00:14:28]She's trying to decide between who to marry. And this quote from my copy, it is from page 91. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliffe now. So he shall never know how I love him. And that not because he's handsome Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. And Linton's is as different as a moon beam from lightning or frost from fire. Kathy directly says she is not necessarily attracted to Heathcliffe because he's handsome. She's attracted to him because of how similar they are.

[00:14:59]They have essentially the same souls.

[00:15:02]They are attracted to one one another as people. That's not to say aomantic and asexual people don't feel any sort of attraction. It just is different to the way that aloexual and aloantic people experience it. Aloe and alo romant alosexual and aloantic essentially means if you're not asexual, you're alosexual.

[00:15:20]If you're not a romantic, you're aloant.

[00:15:22]There's a lot of definitions. Hopefully I haven't overwhelmed you guys. However, what Kathy is saying in this section of the novel is that she's feeling attraction to Heathcliffe in quite an unconventional way. Her love for Heathcliffe is completely unconventional. And that's another thing about the Gothic genre is that everything about the genre is supposed to be unconventional. You're supposed to face the fact that everything doesn't seem quite right. And it's people basically putting their deepest fears of society, of themselves, even into a novel and saying, "What if I could actually act like this? And what are the consequences if I don't act on my deepest fears and desires?" Kathy is essentially suffocating the part of herself that is asexual and potentially even a-romantic. And I I would say honestly both of them. She's both a-romantic and asexual. And her attraction to Heathcliffe is the same.

[00:16:12]By refusing to marry Heathcliffe because he is even beneath her in social status doesn't have the wealth to be able to support her as a woman. Kathy is denying herself her sexuality and her romantic orientation in this way which is why we can interpret Kathleen and Heathcliffe and their relationship as obsessive but not necessarily romantic and sexual. I personally like to think of Kathy and Heath Cliff as a-romantic and asexual because there is no indication in the novels that they have any sort of attraction or conventional attraction to one another rather that they do mention like Kathy said here like he's handsome but it's not I'm not attracted to him because he is handsome. I feel attracted to him in a way that doesn't justify me marrying him. Which I think personally from my own experience of being arro ace that feels exactly like my experience and my attraction to people. My attraction to people and the way society is telling me to have relationships and be in relationships. They're telling me it's unconventional. And the way in which Kathy is describing, I leave out the obsession part, but the way in which Kathy and Heathcliff describe one another, it's like they're experiencing a different type of attraction to one another that isn't based in anything romantic or sexual. Okay, so that is the end of this specific theory. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this part of the video.

[00:17:32]Let me know. Have you read Wthering Heights? Have you been convinced to read Wthering Heights because of my own personal head cannon and theory around them being aromantic and asexual? Lots of classic novels have very implicit queer representation that I am further studying at my time at university. So, I wanted to share a little bit of that with you guys. But now, let's go into the third and final theory about the Hunger Games. Theory number three, Snow intentionally prevented District 12 victors. One of the methods that Snow used to torture and torment Hamitch, as well as getting back at the rebels and his own personal fender, was to ensure that District 12 had no victors after Hamitch. It makes sense that forcing Hamish to watch people he would probably personally know or have links to from his times before the 50th Games would be a major form of punishment for him.

[00:18:16]Beyond this, it also serves a practical purpose of snuffing out hope in the outlying districts and ensuring that Korea tributes won so many more games, fueling district on district divide.

[00:18:27]This divide nearly foiled the entire revolution in the fight over district 2.

[00:18:31]Also, it seems clear that Katniss and Peter were never supposed to win their games with Thresh also specifically targeted cuz he's also from an outlying district that was rebelling because of Rue. Fox base could never outlast Ko and her state. Peter was supposed to bleed out and then Katniss either be killed by nuts or killed by Ko who showed he could overpower her. As such, I theorize that Snow engineered the games probably before and after the 50th so that no District 12 tribute could ever become a victor. This theory I definitely agree with when it comes to Snow literally rigging the games and who the victor is.

[00:19:04]I've made a video in the past about Hayitch intentionally being chosen to be the victor of the 50th Hunger Games. I think that Snow, it wasn't after Hitch became victor that Snow intentionally made sure that there were no more District 12 victors. I think as soon as Lucy Gay won, Snow started manipulating his way through ensuring District 12 never had any victors again. Snow has both the motivation and the resources in order to rig the Hunger Games intentionally. As we know, there is no District 12 victor between Lucy Gay and Hamitch, which is what 40 years of just no victor from District 12 whatsoever.

[00:19:42]They didn't have a mentor. They were the only district without a mentor. So, there's very much evidence that Snow was making sure that District 12 just was completely forgotten about. Let's start at the very beginning of Snow's vendetta against District 12. We know that Snow is obsessed with the Kovi, Lucy Gray, and District 12. He spent time in District 12 because he was banished or exiled as a peacekeeper after he broke the rules in the Hunger Games. So, he intentionally chose District 12. And I believe he also bribed his way in the movies to go to District 12. In the books, he asked for district 12 and they just gave it to him because no one chooses District 12. It's the worst of all the districts. Although we don't know how big of a change it is at this point directly after the dark days, how different each of the districts are from one another when it comes to poverty and all the resources they have and what the housing is like and what the people are like in the districts. But district 12 is essentially the slums of all of the districts within Panama. Snow comes to realize how disgusting he finds District 12 to be and he escape in through the woods with Lucy Gay where he turns on Lucy Gay and she gets an ambiguous ending. Whether or not Snow killed her, maybe she escaped. Snow hates the woods as well. He hates District 12. He's trying desperately to get out of there. He's trying to get to District 2 as a peacekeeper before he's brought back to the capital by Dr. Gaul.

[00:21:06]So, we know that Snow has personal experience with District 12 and he hates Lucy Gray for essentially what he thinks she did and she was what he thought he she did was that she was going to go and expose him for killing Mayfair and being a part of the rebel plan in some way.

[00:21:26]Although even though he was not a part of the rebel plan, he was simply trying to protect Sjanus or Sjanis drew him into the rebel plan even when he didn't want to. He wasn't actually protecting Sjanus. He was pretending to pro protect him. He also thought that Lucy Grey was going to expose him for being the person who sent Sjanis to his death. He has a long-standing history with the KVIe. And even though his hate for the Kovi, and Lucy Gray is completely rational. He does have like a justification in his own mind for hating them since he thinks that they're going to expose him. And he just is just disgusted by District 12 and the way in which they live. The 10th Hunger Games reveals too much about him and his vulnerability as a person. When he has feelings for someone, he doesn't want to be seen as vulnerable. And he feels as though this was going to affect his rise to power. And I'm sure in a lot of ways it would affect his it would it would definitely affect the way he is as president. People would likely overthrow him upon finding out the information about his time in district 12. After his history in district 12, he understands how the district runs and how the cave are. So he would ensure that District 12 never has a victor again because he has this obsession with ensuring District 12 continues to be this disgusting lowly slum of a district. And since the introduction of things like parcel day that provides the districts with resources in order to make sure that they do survive and they send in stronger tributes the following year, there's no way that snow would allow those resources to go to district 12 to uphold the the standards of the district. He wants district 12 to suffer because he wants to ensure that anyone connected to Lucy Gray. Even if Lucy Gray tried returning to District 12, none of the CVI survived in order to connect him to his past. That means there's essentially 40 years of no District 12 victor because Snow has worked his way up during his internship with Dr. Gaul. And he's possibly even a game maker himself at some point. He rises to power and gains more and more resources over time to make sure District 12 is rigged in the Hunger Games to lose every time. And honestly, I would even go as far to say that District 12 doesn't really need a lot of manipulation from Snow anyway because as long as they're not winning the Hunger Games and the rest of the districts are gaining more strength because they have things like parcel, they have more resources. They train even for the Hunger Games if you're from a career district. That way, District 12 never has the ability to become stronger. So, Snow just has to set the whole thing in motion and doesn't have to manipulate it after a long time. Once he set it in motion, he's gotten used to the fact that District 12 would never have a victor from the Hunger Games by the time it gets to Hitch. He doesn't realize that Hamitch has such a big potential to win. Now, if you've watched my video named Hamitch was supposed to win his games, you know, I have this, you guys know I have this stance that I think Hay was his games were rigged in order for him to survive. He was essentially chosen by Snow to survive the 50th games. But I still think there are two ways you can go with snowrigging the 50th games in some way for the victor.

[00:24:36]He either rigged the game so Hamish could win or he got so used to District 12, like I said, not winning and having a victor at all that he wasn't paying attention to Hamish at all. He assumed that Hamitch being this rebel, he brought Luella's body to Snow [snorts] as a rebel act very publicly. This meant that Snow wanted to torture him in the re arena but didn't necessarily choose him as the victor. So, I think it could go either way, but I do think that both of them hold merit that Hitch wasn't necessarily supposed to win at the very beginning because Snow didn't want a District 12 winner. But since I'm of the belief that Hitch was supposed to win his games, then I want to offer the idea to add on to this theory that I think that Hayitch was intentionally chosen to be the winner with one of the motivations being that Snow chose Hitch specifically or knew that at some point there had to be a District 12 victor as to not cause too much suspicion. So he chose it for the 50th game so he could make the district 12 victor the example for everyone and that way it meant that district 12 would suffer even more since the victor and therefore the mentor for the rest of the games would be a drunk and his life would be miserable and he wouldn't actually be able to mentor kids into being a victor like say Mags was able to mentor people from District 4 into being career tributes and in to get as many people out of the arena as possible. Snow just allowed this one District 12 victor Hitch in that entirety of the 40 years to make sure that District 12 knew that they were the lowly district and there was nothing that they could do to fight against the capital. I'm sure all the other districts were getting other propaganda in a similar way. But District 12 being the smallest district and the one that potentially suffered the most. I would argue maybe District 11 suffered the most. But District 12 being the smallest and the poorest meant that they were overlooked in a way, but they weren't actually overlooked because Snow was obsessive with them. And Hamage Winning was saying to them, "There's nothing you can do because I'm watching you at all times like big brother and that he could make sure that the victor, if any of the District 12 people won, that they would suffer like Hamitch." It wasn't just that Hamitch was the example to the future Fenix Jonas Kashmir. It was specifically to District 12 was that they would never have a Victor again.

[00:27:00]I'm not 100% sure about the part of the theory though that Katniss and Peter weren't supposed to win the games.

[00:27:04]Peter, I can definitely see that that he was typ like a typical District 12 tribute that he did fight in some way, but eventually he would have been killed if it weren't for Katniss. Katniss though, I think just the odds were in her favor. Like I said earlier in this video that the odds are a very big theme. It wasn't that Katniss wasn't supposed to win. I think maybe Snow even forgot or let his guard down. Not forgot. Yeah. Let definitely let his guard down when it came to the District 12 victors. He thought that he'd set it up enough that Hamage wouldn't be able to mentor them and eventually District 12 would just never have a victor in any way. So the odds were in Katniss's favor in every single way. And it wasn't intentionally rigged. It was just an accident. But that does make me wonder if they did choose a victor for that year and it didn't go the way in which Snow wanted to it to go or the way in which the gay makers wanted it to go.

[00:27:59]Was Ko selected potentially? Was it supposed to be Ko or Clove or someone else? But I do think that Snow was obsessive enough that he ensured after Lucy Gay that if District 12 won, it would only be because he said so. It would only be so Hamish couldn't win and he can be used as an example for District 12 and the rest of Panama. Like I said, he potentially even let his guard down when it came to District 12, Kis and Peter in the 74th Hunger Games.

[00:28:27]But yeah, that is it for today's video, guys. Hopefully you enjoyed this new series where I talked a little bit about a literature theory in the middle of the video and I want to extend into different types of literary theories throughout this series as well. So, let me know your thoughts about that in the comment section down below. If you enjoyed, please like and subscribe.

[00:28:44]Emphasis on subscribe so I can reach 5,000 subscribers. Of course, leave a comment down below about your thoughts on each of these theories. Whether you agree or disagree, I would love to hear that. Once again, guys, I hope you enjoyed this video. But I've been CJ and I'll see you guys in the next video.

[00:29:00]Bye.

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