Everdene - Hunger Games, Madding Crowd

[Jux]

I've only just noticed that both heroines have that surname - years since I read Hardy, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Does it have any significance that they share a surname do you think?

(I was initially going to put this in Children's Fiction, but saw all the Hunger Games discussions were in Adult's Fic.)

[Allalonenow]

I'm sure it was deliberate to give them the same surname, even if it was only because Bathsheba is a much loved Hardy heroine.

It also emphasises the links that Katniss and Bathsheba have with surviving in a rural setting. In some ways their actions are similar too, they both make decisions on the instant/spur of the moment, without a thought for consequences, and they both wear their hearts on their sleeve.

Can you tell I'm a fan of both?

[Jux]

Allalonenow, I agree. The choosing of that name had to be deliberate, and I'm also sure that you're right about emphasising characteristics in Katniss. I am ashamed to say that I can barely remember what happened in the Madding Crowd, so I can't draw any parallels to their fates.

[Allalonenow]

A Hardy theme is life as a game (especially in Tess) so that is another link to Hardy.
Both Bathsheba and Katniss work hard to support themselves, and when it comes to men neither behaves quite in the way society expects them to.

This will probably be a topic for a Doctorate in years to come!

(I think there is a new FFTMC film due out soon, will this chap be as hot as Alan Bates was? I don't want to take your thread of topic though.)

[Allalonenow]

OFF

[Jux]

Oh, that's on at one of our local cinemas. I was looking for a half term film and saw it, and that's what brought me to start this thread.

I asked dd if she'd like to see it, but she didn't .

[Jux]

I didn't see Alan Bates, but I did avidly watch the BBC series of Mayor of Casterbridge, prob in the 70s. It's what got me reading Hardy (I was supposed to be doing FFTMC for O level but I didn't read it then as I hated the way we were taught, so I had to wing the exam...)

[Allalonenow]

Like your winging the exam style Jux!

The names in HG are nicely done, with many of them being modern names with a bit of a twist, such as Haymitch, and the powerful characters have Roman/Shakesperian names.
In contrast Katniss and her sister are named after woodland plants, to show their innocence simplicity and honest nature, much as the Biblical Bethsheba would have highlighted Hardy's character's attributes.

I'm temped to go into "Thou art Peter and upon this rock..." to explain the use of Peeta, and he was indeed a stalwart rock for Katniss through thick and thin.

I could be over thinking this

[Jux]

I don't think so, allalone. When I was at school I didn't appreciate this sort of picking away at the surfaces, but I realised pretty quickly how much it adds to appreciation of a book. I know the Peter/rock (brought up Catholic) but not much else. As it was a Catholic school for well brung-up gels, we didn't cover Bathsheba, of course.

I do wonder, sometimes, whether authors/poets spend hours thinking about the things they inject under the surface of a good story/rhyme or whether a lot of it is instinctive, just happens to be there because of who they are, though.

Someone here said that in Cloud Atlas there was an echo (in one small part) of a best-selling book from the 20s about the collapsing of a South American bridge. Did Mitchell put that in purposely, or was his use of the bridge a coincidence, a picture that he'd formed as a child when he heard his parents speak of it and when he used it he had no recollection of the original?

I have soo many possible ways he could have come up with it. Maybe we readers put these connections in ourselves and for the authors they aren't there and never were. That's the least likely one though.

[Allalonenow]

Resurrecting this Jux to mention that the Alan Bates FFTMC is on iPlayer ATM if you fancy an afternoon of indulgence. Probably made before you were born, but I think it has stood the test of time well.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

The new Madding Crowd film is really good, and the guy playing Gabriel Oak is positively gorgeous.

You'll need a fan.

[Allalonenow]

Yes, I've heard very good things about it Remus.

[DuchessofMalfi]

I'm waiting for the DVD now, missed it at the cinema. It was filmed partly in Sherborne, which isn't far from us, in beautiful Dorset

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

I'll deffo buy it on DVD. Might just watch it with the sound off and focus on the erm...scenery.

[DuchessofMalfi]

I sense the human scenery is far more appealing then? :o I shall definitely be watching it. Kicking myself for having missed it at the cinema - had planned to go, and yet it just got forgotten about.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Dorset may well be beautiful, but Mr Oak is more beautiful by far. Too beautiful really - because it made absolutely no sense at all that she'd marry Troy instead.

[hackmum]

Well spotted, OP. I hadn't picked up on this, though it's a very long time since I read Hardy.

Allalonenow, I don't think you're overthinking it. It seems more than likely that Peeta was chosen for the biblical allusion.

I think the names in the Hunger Games were chosen very carefully - most have allusions of one sort or another.