Maysilee Donner was Madge Undersee's aunt[2][1] and a tribute from District 12 in the 50th Hunger Games, or the second Quarter Quell.[1] She placed 5th out of 48 in her Games and was an ally of Haymitch Abernathy.[1] She was the original owner of the mockingjay pin.[2]
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What was Maysilee Donner's ranking in the 50th Hunger Games?
Who was the original owner of the mockingjay pin in the Hunger Games?
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Biography[]
Before the Games, Maysilee Donner lived with her parents and twin sister above a sweet shop on the merchant side of District 12. She was a friend of Mrs. Everdeen's, and she also had a pet canary.[3]
The mockingjay pin worn by Katniss Everdeen since the 74th Hunger Games[4] was originally Maysilee's[1]. It later became a symbol for the second rebellion against the Capitol.[5][6][7]
50th Hunger Games[]
Maysilee was one of the four tributes from District 12 in the 50th Hunger Games, along with Haymitch Abernathy, a second male, and a second female tribute.[1] The usual number of contestants from each district was two (one male and one female), but because the 50th Hunger Games was a Quarter Quell, the Capitol demanded that twice the number of tributes be reaped for the event. They chose this to remind the districts that for every Capitol citizen that was killed during the Dark Days, two rebels were also killed.[3] Both Mrs. Undersee and Mrs. Everdeen can be seen clinging to Maysilee at the reaping.[1]
Arena[]
During her time in the arena, Maysilee escaped from the Cornucopia with only a blowgun, a bowl, some dried beef, and a backpack of rope. She was very resourceful, dipping the blowgun darts into numerous amounts of poisons available in the arena to kill other tributes. When Haymitch was about to have his throat slit by a Career Tribute, Maysilee shot the Career with her poison dart from her blowgun. She arranged a temporary alliance with Haymitch, saying that they would last longer with the two of them, but broke it when they were among the final five tributes alive, as she didn't want to have to kill him.[1]
Death[]
Maysilee died only minutes after parting with Haymitch, being attacked by a large number of bright, candy-pink birds that used their sharp beaks to skewer her in the neck. Haymitch held her hand and stayed with her until she died.
Physical description[]
Maysilee is said to have the traditional merchant look of smooth, straight blonde hair and blue eyes. She resembled Mrs. Everdeen, but even moreso her twin sister, as well as Madge, her niece.[1] For the Tribute Parade, Maysilee and the other District 12 tributes wore coal miners' outfits.[1]
Personality[]
The official synopsis for Sunrise on the Reaping describes her as "the most stuck-up girl in town".[8] It is not yet clear whether this is an accurate characterization, or if it is merely Haymitch's initial, subjective opinion.
Skills[]
Maysilee was described to be quite resourceful, as she came up with the idea to dip her darts for her weapon, the blowgun, into the poisonous substances in the arena. She was also quite accurate with her blowgun, killing even a Career tribute.[1]
Relationships[]
Haymitch Abernathy[]
Maysilee most likely didn't know Haymitch before the Games, considering they lived in different parts of District 12. Despite this, she made an alliance with him, and when she was fatally wounded, he ran to her and held her hand as she died, indicating they must have cared for each other to some degree. 25 years later, when Katniss Everdeen watched the video of the Quarter Quell, she compared this to when she held the District 11 tribute Rue as she died, which suggested Haymitch and Maysilee may have had a similar relationship to Katniss and Rue.[1]
Mrs. Undersee[]
Maysilee's twin sister struggled terribly after Maysilee died in the Games. Even after she married Mayor Undersee and had Madge, Mrs. Undersee suffered terrible headaches that she treated with morphling,[9] and she was confined to bed, possibly suffering from depression.[1] Because of how badly Mrs. Undersee was affected by Maysilee's death, it can be inferred that the sisters were very close. They also shared a close physical resemblance, both blonde-haired and blue-eyed, possibly even identical.[1]
Mrs. Everdeen[]
Mrs. Everdeen reveals at the card reading ceremony for the third Quarter Quell that her friend Maysilee Donner had been reaped for the second Quell. She had never mentioned Maysilee to her daughters before, probably because she knew they would want to know how she died.[3] Mrs. Everdeen was also standing next to her when she was reaped and broke down in tears along with Mrs. Undersee.[1] After Maysilee's death, her parents entrusted their daughter's pet canary to Mrs. Everdeen.[3]
Madge Undersee[]
Maysilee died before her niece was born, but Madge inherited her late aunt's mockingjay pin,[2][10] and she later gave it to Katniss as a tribute token.[11] Madge's mother and aunt were said to look a lot like her.[1]
Trivia[]
- Maysilee Donner is the only known District 12 tribute to make it to the top five who did not survive to become a victor.[1]
- Mrs. Undersee and Maysilee Donner are the only confirmed pair of twins in the trilogy.
- Leeg 1 and Leeg 2, despite played by identical twin actresses in the Mockingjay - Part 2 film adaptation, are not explicitly referred to as twins in the book, though it is mentioned they look so similar in uniform that others can't tell them apart.
- Pollux and Castor are also described as having a strong physical resemblance to one another, and their names refer to a pair of mythological Greek twins, but they are not explicitly confirmed to be twins in the text.
References[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 Catching Fire, Chapter 14
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Catching Fire, Chapter 7
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Catching Fire, Chapter 12
- ↑ The Hunger Games, Chapter 10
- ↑ Catching Fire, Chapter 10
- ↑ Catching Fire, Chapter 27
- ↑ Mockingjay, Chapter 1
- ↑ Scholastic Reveals Cover for New Book in the Worldwide Bestselling Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins
- ↑ Catching Fire, Chapter 8
- ↑ The Hunger Games, Chapter 1
- ↑ The Hunger Games, Chapter 3