District 11

District 11
Industry	Agriculture
Victors	First Decade Victor Seeder Chaff Implied Male Victor(s)
Mayor	Unknown
Rebels	Seeder Chaff
Population	138,546
Tesserae	822,568
Colour	Cocoa Brown
Present-day location	Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas

"Known for its bountiful orchards, District 11's workers spend their days among rustling fruit trees and sizeable farms."

—Description from The Hunger Games: Tribute Guide

District 11 is one of the thirteen districts of Panem. Its main industry is agriculture.

History

First Rebellion

Little is known of the district's role in the First Rebellion, but when District 11 rebelled against the Capitol, the loss of its crops would have contributed to starvation conditions in the city while it was under siege.

Relationship with the Games

In the first ten years of the Hunger Games, District 11 tributes were considered "contenders" in the competition, presumably due to strength built up by hard physical labor. Sometime before the 10th Hunger Games, Reaper Ash killed a Peacekeeper in District 11, though he was never caught. In addition to building strength, involvement in the district's industry also gave tributes knowledge of edible and medicinal plants.

74th Hunger Games

Rue, a twelve-year-old from District 11, asked her ally Katniss Everdeen to sing to her as she lay dying. After Rue's death, Katniss wreathed her body in flowers. The people of District 11 then paid to sponsor Katniss, sending her a loaf of bread. Thresh, the other District 11 tribute, later saved and spared Katniss's life.

Katniss saluting District 11 after Rue's death.

In The Hunger Games film, Katniss thanked the people of 11 with District 12's three-finger salute, which they did back at her image on the screen. Then District 11 protested the unjust tragedy of Rue's murder with a fiery riot.

Aftermath of the 74th Hunger Games

District 11 citizens saluting Katniss back.

During Katniss and Peeta Mellark's stop in 11 on their Victory Tour, Peeta promised the families of Rue and Thresh a month of their winnings every year for the duration of the victors' lives. After Katniss's own speech expressing gratitude to the district, an old man whistled Rue's four-note song, prompting the assembled crowd to do District 12's salute. Once Katniss and Peeta were led back inside the Justice Building, the old man was dragged to the top of the steps by two Peacekeepers and shot in the back of the head. Two more gunshots were heard afterwards.

On the day before the reading of the Quell card, there were rumors of uprisings in District 7 and District 11.

75th Hunger Games

At the time of the third Quarter Quell, the tributes from Districts 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 11 were all involved in a rebel plan to protect Katniss and break out of the 75th Hunger Games arena. Soon after the plan was enacted, District 11 had seized control of transportation.

Second Rebellion

Once Katniss's propo after the hospital bombing of District 8 aired across Panem, reinvigorated rebels were able to take control of Districts 3 and 11, with "inroads in several other districts as well".

Culture

The signature bread from this district is a dark, crescent-shaped roll dotted with seeds. Music is important to the people of District 11; they sing at home and at work. While in the treetops of the orchard, Rue sang a four-note tune to the mockingjays, who would then copy it, in order to signal to the other workers below when it was quitting time.

Demographics

Most characters from this district have been described with dark brown skin and eyes. Suzanne Collins has explicitly confirmed that Rue and Thresh are African-American, so other characters described the same way almost certainly are as well. The one exception is Seeder, who has the same olive skin and straight black hair as people from the Seam in District 12. The one feature that sets her apart is her golden brown eyes, rather than the typical Seam gray.

Industry

District 11 specializes in agriculture. There are many tracker jacker nests in the district, causing workers to keep medical leaves on hand. In the orchards, small children are sent to high branches to pick the highest fruits. They work long hours from sunrise to sunset. During the harvest they often work until well after dark, using torchlight and night vision glasses. Crops are sent to the Capitol, and people in the district are not allowed to eat them. In addition to tending the fields and orchards, District 11 is responsible for herds of dairy cattle.

The fence surrounding District 11.

Government

District 11 is heavily policed. The fence surrounding the district is at least 35 feet high, topped with coils of barbed wire, with "enormous" metal plates lining to base of it to prevent anyone digging underneath. It is also guarded by evenly-spaced watchtowers manned by armed Peacekeepers.

The punitive response to even minor offenses is extreme. According to Rue, the mayor was so strict that anyone caught eating the crops would be publicly whipped. She also said that Peacekeepers once killed a mentally disabled boy named Martin for trying to keep a pair of night vision glasses to play with.

Known tributes

District 11 Tributes, 74th Hunger Games

Tributes

• Dill - Female tribute in the 10th Hunger Games. Died of tuberculosis on Day 1, placing 14th. In the film, she was killed after drinking water poisoned by Lucy Gray Baird.
• Reaper Ash - Male tribute in the 10th Hunger Games. In the book, he was exhausted and poisoned by Lucy Gray Baird on Day 5. Placed 2nd. In the film, he was killed by snake mutts.
• Rue - Female tribute in the 74th Hunger Games. Speared by Marvel on Day 8. Placed 7th.
• Thresh - Male tribute in the 74th Hunger Games. In the book, he was killed by Cato on Day 15, placing 5th. In the film, he was killed by wolf mutts, placing 4th.

Victors

• Chaff - Victor of the 45th Hunger Games and male tribute in the 75th Hunger Games. Killed by Brutus on the third night, placing 8th.
• Seeder - Victor of an unknown Games and female tribute in the 75th. Died in the Cornucopia bloodbath.
• Unnamed victor - Victor of an unknown Games between the 1st and 9th. Coriolanus Snow mentions District 11 as a contender under Districts 1 and 2 alongside District 4, implying they likely had a victor by the 10th Hunger Games.

Location and Geography

According to the map of Panem featured in The Hunger Games Adventures, District 11 is located in the far southeast of North America, along the Gulf Coast. From west to east, its territory corresponds primarily to the U.S. states of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. District 11 borders four districts: District 12 (to the northeast), District 8 (to the north), District 10 (to the southwest), and District 2 (to the northwest).

In The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, District 11 is described as the fourth district from the east, after Districts 12, 8, and 6.

Katniss noted it was comfortably warm in District 11 when the Victory Tour took place, whereas it was still snowing in District 12. This warm climate would be ideal for a lengthy growing season and provide an ideal climate for a large variety of crops, which ties well to the district's industry of agriculture.

District 11 is very large. When Katniss and Peeta arrived for their Victory Tour, Katniss described the place as vast and endless, with things being spread out across great distances. On the train, they passed small communities of shacks; Katniss commented that "by comparison the houses in the Seam"— the poorest part of District 12— "are upscale". The dwellings were deserted at the time of their arrival, as everyone was out working on the harvest.

Town square

The train had to travel far to get from the fence to the main square, which was "ringed with run-down storefronts, most of which [were] abandoned". The square also housed the "huge marble structure" of the Justice Building, which had degraded over time.

Trivia

• The racial demographics, overpolicing, and economic exploitation in District 11 are extremely reminiscent of both historical American slavery and institutionalized racism in the present day. This has been a frequent topic of discussion in academic literature around the trilogy and the films.
  • In The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, District 11's citizens are dressed in attire resembling that of the Antebellum South, further evoking the time of slavery.
• In the 74th Hunger Games, District 11 had both the tallest tribute (Thresh), and the smallest and youngest tribute (Rue).
• All known tributes from 11 have names related to plants and agriculture.
  • Rue is the name of an herb with a small yellow flower, and Thresh is a reference to "threshing", part of processing harvested grain.
  • Seeder could be a reference to "seeding" or planting a field, and "chaff" is the outer hull of grain that is often removed during the refining process.
  • Dill is the name of a herb, and Reaper refers to "reaping", cutting grain for harvest.
• After being the 2nd - 4th districts (eventually the 2nd) to pry from the Capitol's rule, communications went out in Districts 1, 3, 4, and 7. Afterwards, District 11 sends food to rebelling districts in hopes of winning the war.
• Prop currency used in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes names District 11's first governor as Vick Flemming. He appears on the twenty Panar bill.
• According to the Capitol.PN, District 11 has a cultivated acreage of 12 with a population of 138,546, making it the fourth largest district, in terms of population.
• According to the Capitol.PN, District 11 claims 822,568 in tesserae, making it the second most impoverished district.
  • If the population is 138,546 and they claim 822,568 tesserae, it would equal to 5.937 tesserae per person, making it the 10th richest district.
• Based on the arena wear for the 74th Hunger Games, the district's color seems to be cocoa brown (#36291f –    ).