68 pages • 2 hours read
Suzanne CollinsSunrise on the Reaping
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2025A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 1, Chapters 1-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “The Birthday”
Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains graphic descriptions of violence and death.
Haymitch Abernathy wakes up on the morning of his 16th birthday, which coincides with the reaping ceremony for the Hunger Games. Haymitch lives in District 12, the poorest of 12 districts in Panem, all of which are under the thumb of the powerful Capitol. 50 years ago, a coalition of rebel districts participated in a civil war against the Capitol. They ultimately lost, and as punishment, the Capitol instituted the Hunger Games. Each year, two children from each district are selected or “reaped” from a pool of “tributes,” then made to enter an arena and fight to the death in a televised competition until only one remains. This year’s Hunger Games is a Quarter Quell, a special edition of the games held every 25 years. In honor of the second Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be selected for this year’s games.
Haymitch lives with his 10-year-old brother Sid and his mother, whom he calls Ma. Ma has raised Haymitch and Sid alone since the death of her miner husband in a coal fire. Haymitch supports the household by helping an elderly woman named Hattie Meeney make and sell white liquor. This practice is illegal, but the Peacekeepers stationed in 12 turn a blind eye because they use Hattie’s services.
Haymitch visits Hattie, who gives him a bottle of liquor. Although he doesn’t drink himself, he can pawn it in The Seam, District 12’s poorest neighborhood. Haymitch sneaks under the fence surrounding District 12 and heads to the outlying meadow to meet his girlfriend, Lenore Dove. Lenore is the cousin of Haymitch’s best friend Burdock Everdeen, named after the lost Lenore in Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven”. Since Lenore’s mother died in childbirth, she has been raised by her uncles, Clerk Carmine and Tam Amber. Lenore is strong-willed and outspoken against the Capitol.
When Haymitch finds Lenore, she is singing The Goose and the Common, an English folk song about the injustice of common land laws. They embrace, and Lenore laments the upcoming reaping. Haymitch says that the reaping is as inevitable as a sunrise, but Lenore counters that they should not “count on things happening tomorrow just because they happened in the past” (6). She gives Haymitch a flint-striker forged by Tam Amber, in the shape of a snake and a bird facing one another. She and Haymitch plan to meet up again after the reaping.
With a few minutes to spare before the reaping, Haymitch heads into town, the wealthier merchant area of District 12. He stops by the apothecary, where a girl named Asterid March is working. Though the Marches are one of District 12’s wealthier families, Asterid always stands up for the less advantaged members of the district. Haymitch pawns the bottle of liquor and uses the money to buy a bag of gumdrops for Lenore at the sweet shop, which is owned by the wealthy Donner family.
The reaping begins. Haymitch is particularly apprehensive about this year because he has repeatedly taken tesserae, a system in which eligible District children receive small food rations in exchange for extra entries into the reaping pool.
A Capitol escort named Drusilla Sickle announces the female tributes: Louella McCoy, a younger friend of Haymitch’s, and Maysilee Donner, “the most stuck-up girl in town” (10). The male tributes are Wyatt Callow, an 18-year-old miner, and Woodbine Chance, the youngest son of the troublemaking Chance family. When Woodbine’s name is called, he runs and is shot in the head by a Peacekeeper.
Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary
Capitol videographers immediately cut the feed, and Haymitch realizes that the “live-streamed” reaping is actually shown on a five-minute delay, allowing the Capitol to edit the output. Peacekeepers order everyone onto the ground, shooting those who disobey. Haymitch spots Lenore trying to wrestle Woodbine’s body away from a Capitol Peacekeeper, who prepares to knock her out with his rifle. When Haymitch jumps in to intervene, the Peacekeeper hits him instead. Drusilla declares, “I think we’ve just found our replacement” (14). She orders the Peacekeeper to take Lenore off-camera and shoot her. Haymitch is led closer to the stage, and the reaping is filmed once again. This time, Drusilla calls out Haymitch’s name instead of Woodbine’s.
Haymitch recalls the year that Sarshee Whitcomb, the daughter of his father’s boss, was reaped. The Abernathys were Sarshee’s only visitors at the district’s Justice Building, where the tributes are given a final farewell. Drusilla tells the tributes they have all lost goodbye privileges due to their behavior. A Capitol cameraman named Plutarch Heavensbee intervenes, telling Drusilla that he needs “reaction shots” of the tributes’ families.
Plutarch offers Ma and Sid a deal: In exchange for recreating their reactions, he will give them a few minutes with Haymitch. He makes them pantomime their shock and grief at the moment Haymitch was reaped, calling for increasingly dramatic performances, until Haymitch stops him.
Haymitch rushes to hug his family. He gives Sid the gumdrops and asks him to bring them to Lenore. A Peacekeeper carries Haymitch onto the train, where he is handcuffed and thrown into a metal compartment with a barred window.
As the train pulls out of District 12, Haymitch sees Lenore Dove up on a ridge, wailing. Haymitch is “grateful for her final gift” (17), her refusal to let Plutarch use their pain for content.
Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary
Haymitch looks out at the landscape passing by and thinks of everything he has lost—his family, his home, and Lenore. He’s always thought that Lenore would be the one to leave District 12. She is descended from the Covey, a nomadic group of traveling musicians. After the rebellion, Peacekeepers killed the adult Covey and rehomed the children to District 12.
Plutarch opens the compartment door and leads Haymitch to another compartment, where Louella, Wyatt, and Maysilee are already sitting. Haymitch takes Louella’s hand comfortingly and asks her to be his ally. He calls her “sweetheart,” a joke dating back to Louella’s short-lived crush on him when they were both children.
Haymitch sizes up the other tributes. He knows little about Wyatt, but Maysilee has a reputation for being mean and vain. She loves jewelry and is wearing six necklaces, which irks Haymitch because Seam dwellers rarely own any jewelry at all.
An attendant named Tibby enters the compartment carrying a tray of sandwiches. As he offers one to Louella, Maysilee cuts in and demands plates and silverware. She tells Louella, “[I]f you let them treat you like an animal, they will. So don’t let them” (20).
As the tributes eat, Plutarch says that he’s spun the footage from the reaping into a flattering segment. The Capitol News begins to play on a wall-mounted TV, and they watch the reaping ceremonies across Panem. The tributes from 1, 2, and 4, known as the Career districts, have been training for the Hunger Games their entire lives, so the odds are heavily stacked in their favor. District 12 has only ever had one victor, a girl who won so long ago that few remember her name. Since most tributes are mentored by past victors from their own districts, Haymitch is unsure who will mentor them.
The District 12 segment plays. All traces of Woodbine’s death and the ensuing chaos have been edited out. The reaping of Wyatt and Haymitch is shown, followed by shots of the Abernathy family weeping. When Haymitch protests that this is not what happened, Plutarch replies that he has done them a favor, transforming them from combative to orderly and sympathetic. Along the way, he has covered up the Capitol’s incompetence. Haymitch realizes that he is just a pawn for the Capitol, to be used for entertainment and then killed. As he ponders this, Tibby reenters the room holding a birthday cake.
Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary
Haymitch knows that Plutarch is hoping to film a happy reaction, to broadcast to Panem as an example of how well the Capitol treats tributes. He recalls what his father told Sarshee in the Justice Building: “Don’t let them use you…Don’t let them paint their posters with your blood” (23).
Haymitch silently walks over to the window of the train, ignoring Tibby. Plutarch apologizes and returns to discussing the Games. Drusilla makes a snide remark about Louella’s dress, causing Maysilee to snap back, mocking Drusilla’s age and her outfit. Drusilla slaps Maysilee, and Maysilee slaps her back, knocking her off her feet. Drusilla begins to beat Maysilee with a riding crop, raising welts on her body, until Plutarch stops her. Drusilla tells Maysilee that she hopes she wins because she has “no idea what’s in store for [her] then” (24).
Night falls, and a Peacekeeper escorts the tributes to a shared sleeping compartment. Lying in bed, Haymitch touches his flint striker and thinks of “The Raven”, which he has memorized line by line. His thoughts are interrupted by Maysilee asking to see his necklace. Haymitch declines, thinking of the Donner twins’ 13th birthday, when Tam Amber gave them gold pins—a hummingbird for Merrilee and a mockingjay for Maysilee. Maysilee complained that the pin was ugly and stashed it at the bottom of a drawer.
Haymitch drifts off to sleep but is woken by Louella. Louella whispers that she doesn’t want to ally with Wyatt because his father is a “Booker Boy,” part of a well-known family of gamblers in District 12 who are known for taking bets on the tributes’ odds. Haymitch agrees to avoid Wyatt.
In the morning, the train pulls into Panem, alongside a train from District 1. As the District 1 tributes disembark, Wyatt begins to list off their names, traits, and projected odds of winning. He states: “You might not want me, but it’s a sure bet you need me” (24).
Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary
Wyatt has overheard Louella and Haymitch’s conversation in the sleeping car. He clarifies that he is not a Booker Boy like the rest of his family, but an oddsmaker. Maysilee chimes in to say that she and Wyatt don’t want to ally with Haymitch and Louella either.
The Peacekeepers don’t bother to handcuff the District 12 tributes as they disembark the train. The station is plastered with banners that read: “NO PEACE, NO PROSPERITY! NO HUNGER GAMES, NO PEACE!” (28).
The tributes are thrown into a windowless van. Louella leans on Haymitch, and he knows that looking out for her will help him get through the games. He hopes that they die together.
The van drops the tributes off at a worn-down gym with a sign reading “TRIBUTE CENTER.” They are escorted to locker rooms and lined up for inspection. A Peacekeeper asks if Haymitch’s flint striker is his “token,” the one sentimental item from home that each tribute is allowed to take into the arena. Haymitch replies that it is, hoping that Capitol eyes won’t recognize the utility of a flint striker.
The tributes meet their prep team. District 12 has been assigned two college students, Proserpina and Vitus. Their stylist is the notoriously incompetent Magno Stift, who is known to be lazy and reuse costumes.
After Vitus and Proserpina prep Haymitch, they leave, and he once again thinks of Lenore, worrying that her outspoken nature will get her into trouble. She has previously had brushes with the law but has always been able to talk her way out of trouble.
Tributes from District 1 and District 2 are brought to the center and costumed. Maysilee makes an insulting comment to Silka, one of the female District 1 tributes, causing Silka to lunge for her before being intercepted by a Peacekeeper. District 12 is the last to be costumed. Magno Stift arrives late. He presents the coal miner uniforms, stating carelessly, “[N]o one cares about Twelve” (34). The tributes are dressed and brought to a small chariot led by a team of “skittish” horses.
As the parade begins, Capitol attendees harass the tributes, throwing trash and making lewd gestures. When someone sets off a firework, the horses spook and begin galloping wildly. The District 12 chariot collides with the District 6 chariot, sending the tributes flying through the air. When Haymitch comes to, he sees Louella lying dead on the ground.
Part 1, Chapter 6 Summary
Haymitch kneels by Louella’s body, blaming himself for failing to protect her. Maysilee places one of her necklaces around Louella’s neck. As Peacekeepers begin to approach, Haymitch picks Louella up and runs. He commandeers an empty chariot and rides it up to President Snow’s driveway, stopping directly under the balcony where he stands.
Haymitch lays Louella’s body on the ground and gestures to Snow, implicating him in her death. Snow’s expression shifts, though Haymitch can’t quite read it. Peacekeepers seize Haymitch. As they drag him away, the Capitol audience shouts out approval at his boldness. Haymitch is thrown into a District 4 chariot, where he stays as the crowd thins out. Maysilee and Wyatt congratulate him on putting District 12 on the map. A young District 3 boy named Ampert approaches Haymitch and asks him to join an anti-Career alliance, along with Districts 3, 7, and 8. Haymitch turns Ampert down, thinking that “[his] ally days began and ended with Louella” (40).
District 12 meets their mentors: Wiress, a clever but “off-putting” woman who won the previous year’s Hunger Games, and Mags, an older District 4 victor. Mags tells Haymitch that she is sorry about Louella. In response, he steps into her arms and starts to cry.
Part 1, Chapters 1-6 Analysis
Opening on Haymitch Abernathy’s 16th birthday, Collins positions Sunrise on the Reaping as a prequel to The Hunger Games. Readers of the original series will recognize Haymitch as Katniss’s abrasive and heavy-drinking mentor. In Sunrise on the Reaping, he is just 16, sober, and displays selfless altruism. The stark difference between the teenaged Haymitch and the adult Haymitch suggests that the trauma of his Games caused major changes in his character.
The novel’s epigraph contains several quotations that relate to its key themes. A quote from David Hume about implicit submission establishes the theme of The Complexities of Submission and Control. Though the oppressed citizens of Panem vastly outnumber their oppressors, the Capitol keeps them subservient through a multi-layered system of physical and psychological control tactics. In an early conversation with Lenore, Haymitch says resignedly, “[T]he reaping’s going to happen no matter what…sure as the sun will rise tomorrow” (7). Haymitch exhibits learned helplessness. After 16 years of reapings on his birthday, he is conditioned to expect that a reaping will always happen on his birthday, resigning himself to a seemingly inevitable event.
Lenore offers an opposing viewpoint, stating: “You can’t count on things happening tomorrow just because they happened in the past” (7). Her opinion connects directly to another Hume quote in the epigraph: “That the sun will not rise tomorrow is no less intelligible a proposition, and implies no more contradiction, than the affirmation, that it will rise” (1). Lenore shares Hume’s opinion that the future cannot be guaranteed, a view that allows ample room for hope. Perspectives like Lenore’s are dangerous to the Capitol because they challenge the idea that continuation of the status quo is inevitable.
Haymitch’s implicit submission is engineered by the Capitol using multiple methods of control. The most obvious of these is the threat of violence. Capitol Peacekeepers patrol every district, ready to kill troublemakers. The Hunger Games themselves are a hyper-violent spectacle in which district children are publicly sacrificed, and Haymitch’s reaping shows how the Games can be manipulated to punish dissenters.
The Capitol also uses subtler control tactics. As Haymitch walks through District 12, signs of poverty are evident. The Capitol keeps the districts impoverished to disempower their inhabitants. One example of this is the tesserae that Haymitch and other poor district kids take, submitting extra entries into the reaping pool in exchange for meager food rations. Notably, while Haymitch brews and sells white liquor, he does not drink because he feels responsible for his family, once more stressing his economic vulnerability. Here, Collins also employs dramatic irony, as one of Haymitch’s defining characteristics in The Hunger Games is his alcohol dependency. The revelation that teenaged Haymitch is sober implies that the events that" occurred between his reaping and The Hunger Games drove him to drink, heightening the tension of the narrative.
Propaganda is another key control tactic employed by the Capitol, establishing the theme of The Dangers of Media Monopoly and Propaganda. In the window of the Donners’ candy shop, Haymitch notes posters reading: “NO PEACE, NO BREAD,” “NO PEACEKEEPERS, NO PEACE,” and “NO CAPITOL, NO PEACE” (10). Rampant pro-Capitol propaganda is disseminated throughout the districts, intended to reinforce the idea that the current status quo is not only preferable but the only possible method of continued existence. The Capitol elite is keenly aware that Panem’s structure is unequal and illogical. By positioning the Capitol as the only thing standing between Panem and complete disorder, they proactively discourage revolutionary thought.
A key element of the Capitol’s propaganda machine is its monopolization of the media. It controls all forms of media, disseminating news and coverage that aligns with their interests. One key example of this is the Capitol’s coverage of the Hunger Games, which are presented as a necessary form of reparations for the war. The reaping and the Games are broadcast “live” throughout Panem, but after Woodbine’s shooting, Haymitch realizes that the footage is actually on a five-minute delay, allowing the Capitol to manipulate the narrative through strategic edits.
After realizing how important propaganda is to the Capitol, Haymitch attempts to weaponize its own tool against it by “[painting] his own poster” (36) when he displays Louella’s body to the cameras. His actions are smoothly edited out of the finalized broadcast, illustrating the power of the Capitol-controlled media to manipulate the truth.
In these initial chapters, Collins references touchpoints of Panem’s history, setting up the theme of The Importance of Resistance. The failed rebellion 50 years prior contextualizes Haymitch’s actions throughout the novel as part of a larger movement. The fact that the rebels’ efforts have continued despite losing the war foreshadows the novel’s conclusion that progress is a process that can take generations and that setbacks do not necessarily spell the end of a movement.
Finally, these chapters introduce the symbol of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven”. The poem, which gives Lenore Dove her name, foreshadows the doomed love story of Haymitch and Lenore. Throughout the book, Haymitch repeats stanzas of the poem with increasing frequency as his experience starts to parallel that of the speaker.
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