Bread

Bread is a food made from various types of grain. It has been a staple for many cultures throughout history and plays a symbolic role in The Hunger Games trilogy.

District specialties

Each of the twelve districts of Panem has their own unique variety of bread. Each bread's shape, composition, and flavor is influenced by the district's industry and location. The districts whose breads are revealed in the narrative include:

• District 3 (Technology): Bite-sized, square shaped rolls.^[1]
• District 4 (Fishing): Salty, fish-shaped bread. Made with seaweed, giving it a green tint.^[2]
• District 9 (Grain): As the grain-producing district it can be assumed it makes the majority of the bread for Panem.
• District 11 (Agriculture): Made with dark ration grain. It is crescent shaped and sprinkled with seeds.^[3]
• District 12 (Coal mining): Two kinds of bread are mentioned: "flat, dense loaves" made from the tessera grain,^[4] and "drop biscuits" (presumably made from tessera grain as well). During the 74th Hunger Games training, Katniss remarked that the Capitol's version of the latter looked better than the ones from home, even though it was made from the same ingredients.^[5]

Capitol specialties

Several varieties of bread are seen in the Capitol. In contrast to several of the poorer districts, whose bread is made from rough ration grain, Capitol bread is made from refined white flour. Different types of bread from the Capitol include:

• Flower-shaped rolls^[6]
• Puffy bread^[7]
• Soft rolls^[8]

Mellark bakery specialties

A number of unique breads were produced at the bakery run by Peeta Mellark and his family, some of which play key roles in the story.

• Raisin-and-nut bread: This is the bread that Peeta burned on purpose to give to a starving Katniss, thus setting their relationship in motion.^[9]
• Cinnamon and dill: Katniss notices these scents lingering on Peeta, and surmises that they must be from the breads he had baked that day.^[10]
• Cheese buns: Katniss' favorite. Peeta kept her supplied with them following the 74th Hunger Games and subsequent Victory Tour.^[11]

Role of bread

• "Panem" (or simply "pan") is Latin for "bread", and forms part of the infamous Roman political phrase panem et circenses , or "bread and circuses". Coined by the satirist Juvenal around the second century C.E., he used the phrase to describe how the Roman people of his day no longer cared about political issues or participating in civic duty, as long as they were kept fed and entertained. This is even more true of Panem's Capitol: The people essentially gave up their autonomy and humanity in exchange for food and entertainment when they allowed the creation of the Hunger Games, therefore the phrase is very appropriate.
• Peeta's name is a homonym for "pita", a type of Middle Eastern flat bread.
• In District 2, it's a tradition to sprinkle breadcrumbs on the dead to wish them a good passing into the afterlife. In the 10th Hunger Games, Sejanus Plinth snuck into the arena to sprinkle breadcrumbs on Marcus' corpse.^[12] Before the Hunger Games, Sejanus was seen doing the same for Brandy before being pulled away by a Peacekeeper.^[13]
• In his first appearance, Gale Hawthorne held a loaf of bread with an arrow through it and said, "Look what I shot".^[4]
• During their training for the 74th Hunger Games, Peeta pointed out all the districts' breads to Katniss when they were having lunch,^[5], and during his first interview with Caesar Flickerman, Peeta compared the tributes to their districts' breads.^[14]
• In the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss noticed a loaf of bread on the ground by the Cornucopia. She picked it up as soon as the Games began, but lost it during the struggle with the boy from District 9 when she was trying to obtain the backpack.^[15]
• Katniss received bread from District 11 shortly after Rue's death. She assumed the bread was originally meant for Rue herself, but after her death, the district decided to give it to Katniss.^[3]
• On the morning of her Victory Tour, Katniss visited the Hob and made purchases of "coffee, buns, eggs, yarn, and oil."^[16]
• The District 12 marriage tradition, the toasting, is a literal meeting of bread and fire, which serves symbolically for Peeta and Katniss.^[17]
• To gain Katniss' trust, Bonnie and Twill showed her a cracker with a mockingjay stamped on it.^[18]
• The amount and type of bread that was given in the arena during Catching Fire served as a countdown for a start of the rebellion. Bread seemed so innocent, yet was used in communication between mentor and tribute for the start of a rebellion in the 75th Hunger Games.^[19]
• While in District 13, Katniss' prep team was imprisoned for repeated infractions over bread (i.e. they took more than was allowed by their rations).^[20]

References