Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!

Effie Trinket is the escort of the District 12 tributes in the Hunger Game series. At first, she appears as a very naïve, posh ‘Capitol’ style woman. The ‘girlish’ that I use in the title to describe her is not the youthful-girl-who-likes-cats-and-ice-cream type of girlish, but as a little girl that grows under wealthy environment, being spoiled and given everything she wanted. She grows under the background of watching tributes killing each other as an entertainment for residents like her in the Capitol, for her the reaping is truly a game, because when the people around you think like that, it is normal for you to think like that, it is the human nature.

When Katniss volunteered to replace her sister in the 74^th Hunger Game reaping, the audience remained silent and Effie was left alone clapping on the stage to lighten the atmosphere. She is naïve but cruel, energetic and overwhelming because she grows in an environment that does not care about tributes’ lives.

Here’s some advice. Stay alive.

suzanne collins, the hunger games

Effie is very well-known for her Capitol accent, her famous line: Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor! At first, you will think she is the typical Capitol badass that ignores human lives and arrogant and stupid. Not until she starts to show concern towards Katniss and begin to change her attitude when she realizes the Capitol’s mistakes. She grows more emotionally attached to the people in the rebellion throughout the series.

Just like the other residents in the Capitol, Effie dresses fashionably and wears heavy make up. She likes clean and she focuses a lot on manners. When Haymitch threw up in the train, she is obviously disgusted. She is relieved when she sees Katniss and Peeta eat with manners unlike the previous tributes on the train, although Katniss starts to eat like animal after that to upset Effie.

Before the game starts, Katniss and Peeta have training sessions with Haymitch and Effie. While Haymitch teaches them the techniques to survive, Effie mostly help them to prepare for the interview. She tries but fails to help Katniss with her interview with Caesar, she attempts to teach her how to sit, talk and smile like a lady, but only get frustrated with this.

She provides comic relief in the series, such as the famous meme that only Hunger Games fans will know: ” That is mahogany!”. Although my first impression towards her is not so good, but as she changes her attitude and treats Katniss whole-heartedly, I start to like her. As she shows joy and excitement when Katniss and Peeta manage to get high score from the Gamekeepers, and looks upset and heartbroken the night before the Game because she starts to like them, she looks less despicable than she is in the opening of the series.

We as the audience tend to find the behaviour of residents of Capitol disgusting and cruel, and we can easily curse for how cold-hearted the residents are, because we are not the people living in the environment. It is not easy for a people to change his/her mind if she grows living in such environment, not even mention to be like Effie to betray the Capitol as she finds the justice in her heart. We could be happy when we realize Effie the character is becoming better and more fleshly, but in fact it is very brave and takes a lot of courage to erase what you used to think is correct in the past tens years, to smash the belief and build a new one, a completely different one in one’s mind.

Effie can choose to ignore the agony that the people in the rebellion are suffering, and continues live her carefree life in the Capitol, but she chooses to help them, to stand on the side with them. She gives up her beloved fashionable costume and make up as she comes to District 13 with Haymith and others, and as her repay, she is not treated with distrust and hostility as President Coin seems to welcome her.