- "Hope; it is the only thing stronger than fear."
- ―President Snow to Gamemaker Seneca Crane[src]
President Coriolanus Snow is the tyrannical president of Panem. He is the main antagonist of The Hunger Games trilogy.
Biography
Early life
Coriolanus Snow is a native of the Capitol and eventually became the tyrannical and ruthless dictator of Panem at least a decade before the birth of Katniss Everdeen. Although carrying the title of President, it is unknown if he was elected to the position democratically. As he was born two years prior to the initiation of the Hunger Games, it can be assumed that he was not responsible for inventing them.
The dark times
Snow possesses total power in Panem's government and has proven to be a cruel and manipulative dictator, ruling over the Capitol and its contained districts. He also works on the annual Hunger Games and heads the military responsible for oppressing the districts. He has no qualms about using intimidation in pursuit of his agenda, such as when he threatened to kill Katniss Everdeen, Gale Hawthorne, Peeta Mellark, and their families. Two weeks after Haymitch Abernathy won the 50th Hunger Games by performing a stunt with the force field, Snow murdered Haymitch's mother, younger brother, and girlfriend as punishment because Haymitch's move made the Capitol look foolish.
It is revealed by Finnick Odair that he poisoned his allies, as he believes that they would become future foes, but he had to drink the poison as well so that he wouldn't attract suspicion. Even though he took antidotes, the poison caused permanent sores inside his mouth that never healed. As a result, he always wears a genetically-engineered rose, which covers the scent of blood stained on his breath.
After Johanna Mason won the 71st Hunger Games, he had her family killed because she refused to dabble in prostitution, despite being widely considered to be an attractive tribute.
74th Hunger Games
Snow welcomes the tributes.
During the pre-games, President Snow welcomes all the tributes during the parade in a high balcony above the chariots and gives a speech about the Hunger Games. He appears to disapprove of the fact that the Gamemakers awarded Katniss the highest score because she shot an arrow at them, likely because he saw it as a sign of rebellion. He then tells Seneca Crane the reason they have a winner in the Hunger Games is because of hope and that hope is the only thing stronger than fear. However, he believes that only a little hope is effective as long as it is contained, and orders Seneca to contain the hope. Later he is shown meeting with Seneca to discuss what he plans to do in response to the uprising in District 11 caused by Rue's death. He disagrees with Seneca's belief that the public love an underdog, as he has personally visited Districts 10, 11 and 12,
Snow in his rose garden.
President Snow warns Seneca to keep Katniss in control.
75th Hunger Games
President Snow on his mansion's balcony.
President Snow watching Katniss Everdeen's interview before her dress turned into a mockingjay.
President Snow and Plutarch Heavensbee discuss Katniss in the control room.
Endgame
Capture and interrogation
In Mockingjay, President Snow holds Peeta, Annie, Johanna and Enobaria captive and tortures them for information about the rebellion. Snow lets Enobaria off easy since she is from the most loyal district and he fully trusted her. During the interrogation, he had two avoxes, Lavinia and Darius electrocuted to death and executes Portia and the other stylists and prep teams. He did this not for answers but for Peeta to see. He also at some point ordered Johanna's head shorn. President Snow keeps Peeta healthy so he can use him to break Katniss. President Snow at some point went to District 12 and left a white rose in Katniss' room to give her a message only she would know: "I can find you. I can reach you. Perhaps I am watching you now."
He makes Peeta do an interview with Caesar Flickerman so he can manipulate and break Katniss. President Snow appears on screen during Peeta's third interview and introduces him and Caesar. After Peeta implies there will be an attack from the Capitol on District 13, President Snow orders the interview stopped and for him to be taken away. After Peeta is taken away, President Snow orders for him to be hijacked in order to use him against Katniss. During an interview Katniss and Finnick shot to distract the Capitol from the rescue team, Finnick reveals President Snow kills his enemies and allies who can become threats to him. He also reveals that Snow forced Finnick into prostitution, selling his body to wealthy Capitol women for high prices. President Snow is enraged by this and becomes angry at them, but plans to kill Katniss by using the brainwashed Peeta. Boggs reveals that retrieving Peeta was far too easy and suspects that President Snow let them take Peeta so he could kill Katniss.
The Thirteenth District unleashed
President Snow goes on television to discuss the death of Squad 451. His broadcast is cut short after Beetee hacks into the system and airs a propo. President Snow's forces discover the remains of Boggs in an apartment of a Capitol citizen and realizes he has been fooled. President Snow figures out Katniss is still alive and sends a pod of lizard-human mutts to hunt her down and kill her and her squad.
During the final battle of the war, President Snow was in his mansion and was taking in Capitol children whom he was planning on using as human shields. Later on, President Snow was going to call an official surrender but before he could there was an explosion outside his mansion that killed the Capitol children and rebel Casualty Aides, including Prim. Snow was arrested and found guilty. Katniss finds him in his rose garden and he tells her the bomb that killed Prim and the others was not from him but from President Coin. Katniss refuses to believe him but he reminds her of the promise they made not to lie to each other. Katniss ends up believing him and ultimately kills Coin.
Death
- "We both know I'm not above killing children, but I'm not wasteful. I take life for very specific reasons. And there was no reason for me to destroy a pen full of Capitol children; none at all."
- ―Snow to Katniss after the fall of the Capitol[src]
Relationships
Katniss Everdeen
- "Oh, my dear Ms. Everdeen, I thought we had agreed not to lie to each other..."
- ―Snow to Katniss in Mockingjay[src]
Seneca Crane
President Snow had no known relationship in the book. But in the film, there were scenes with Snow and Seneca in Snow's rose garden in his mansion, where they met to plan strategies, tactics, and what was going to happen next in the Games.
Granddaughter
Snow's granddaughter was only mentioned in the books but appeared in person in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part I. The girl appeared to be unaware of her grandfather's evil nature. Snow was disapproving of the fact that she looked up to Katniss, but nevertheless, he appeared to care about her to some degree. She is the only person in the entire Hunger Games franchise to whom he has shown at least a basic level of attachment.
Personality
A ruthlessly cruel, sadistic, wrathful, violent, greedy, arrogant, power-hungry, wicked and purely and utterly evil man, President Coriolanus Snow was obsessed with keeping the perfection of the established order and maintained little respect or care for human life. He was an extremely tyrannical, megalomaniacal, and egomaniacal ruler who ruled over Panem with an iron fist. He constantly threatened and killed people who stood in his way to holding absolute power over Panem. He was not hesitant to use people for his personal advantage. For example, he used Finnick and other (unknown) attractive victors and sold them into prostitution to affluent Capitol citizens. Cashmere was also one of his victims of prostitution. Snow tried to prostitute Johanna Mason as well, but she refused to go along with his plan. Because of this, he ruthlessly killed all of her loved ones as punishment which only inflamed her hatred of him further rather than breaking her.
His obsession with perfection arises out of his paranoia. He was paranoid that he will lose his power. As a result he murdered allies and enemies alike (usually by poisoning them), and in his effort to throw off suspicion he drunk his own murderous poison from the same cup, and was left with a mouthful of bloody sores (because the antidotes didn't always work) which are the only outward sign of his insanity. He uses the thick perfume of the genetically enhanced roses in his lapel to cover the scent of his bloody mouth. He fails, however, as Katniss describes his aroma as that of faux roses and blood.
Noticeably, Snow was an extremely calm and reserved man, never visibly losing his temper at any point (at least, not in public, as this would risk damaging his public image). He remained completely in control, both figuratively and literally, throughout a conversation and maintained his serenity even if his life were in danger or if he were facing a known enemy. He had absolutely no lapses when it came to discussing the execution or omission of other people, as evidenced by his conversations with Seneca Crane and the almost cynical way in which Snow referenced Crane's execution. When he encountered Katniss after being overthrown, he calmly revealed to her what had really happened in the final battle, in the knowledge that she was confronting him with the belief that he had killed her sister, and even showed sympathy (real or otherwise) for Prim's demise. He also suggested that Coin was more dangerous than he was, and even chastised Katniss for breaking their agreement never to lie to one another - an agreement that, to Snow's credit, he had kept the whole time.
His name, Snow, and his white roses symbolize his mental need to appear flawless, despite his obvious flaws. Despite all this, he claims that he is not wasteful. Snow has a very clear understanding of the districts' emotions towards the Capitol, and how fear doesn't make them back down if they have hope- which he allows, in a very limited form, as a motivator. He'll only kill people for well-defined reasons. President Snow is also willing to take the life of children for his own safety as when he was going to use them as human shields during the rebellion in Mockingjay. He was obviously highly intelligent and cunning as evidenced by his manipulation of Katniss during Catching Fire, and his ability to maintain control of Panem for at least 25 years, probably longer. He was also able to almost effortlessly judge whether or not Katniss was still alive after the showdown in District 2, knowing that she would have been martyred if she were truly dead. Despite his intelligence ,however, he was fooled and outwitted by Plutarch Heavensbee and Alma Coin. At the very least, he was quite capable of admitting that he had been overwhelmed, outwitted and defeated because of some of his own mistakes and shortcomings and that he had horribly underestimated the ruthlessness of President Coin.
To the very end, Snow showed no remorse for his tyranny and murderous desire for power, often acting self-righteous and blaming Katniss for disrupting the status quo, reasoning that for all his fascist propaganda Snow believed the games insured order and control.
Physical description
Snow's Capitol portrait
The President was a small, thin man, with paper-white hair and thick lips that seem pulled across his face. His lips were thought to be changed, to make them look fuller and more appealing. Katniss Everdeen once stated that his lips smelled of blood and roses. In Mockingjay, it is revealed that the smell of blood is due to mouth sores he got from one of the poisons that he used to kill people in his monomaniacal efforts to control Panem. He drank the poison in order to allay suspicions, then took the antidote, but he could not be cured of the sores. He also smelled strongly of genetically enhanced roses. He always wore a white rose in his lapel to cover the scent of blood. The strong smell invariably makes Katniss gag. His eyes are similar to a snake's. Overall, his appearance is quite snake-like. His trademark sign is a single white rose, which he always wears, and that Katniss finds in her house at the beginning of the third book.
His clothing is never fully described in the novel, but in the film, he wears a dark suit over a white shirt with a gray vest over it, a tie, matching pants and black shoes. In Catching Fire, he wears his suit closed, a dark fur stole over it and black leather gloves.
Residence
Snow resided in a huge mansion in the City Circle where he sometimes hosted parties. It is described as being large enough "to get lost in." The mansion contains many rooms such as bedrooms, offices, ballrooms, bathrooms, a closet with furs, a library and a room with a long-forgotten bathtub and discarded furniture. Katniss and her mother stayed in one of the rooms while they were in the Capitol.
The President's mansion during one of his balls.
Family
President Snow is known to have a granddaughter between the ages of twelve and eighteen. This also means he must have had at least one child.
Trivia
- President Snow is one of the two characters in the trilogy to have been known to be born before the Hunger Games began, being 1 year old when the first games commenced. The only other person that is known is Mags.
- There is a solar power plant, Coriolanus 9, in District 5 named after him.
- He may be named after the Shakespearean character Coriolanus, who was a scheming politician, much like Snow.
Etymology
Gaius Marcius Coriolanus was a famed Roman general. This ties into the many Roman references in the series.
