The Plinth Prize was a monetary award created by Strabo Plinth during the 10th Hunger Games. The exact amount of the prize was uncertain, but it was a substantial amount that was enough to completely pay for tuition to the University, an institution of higher learning.
History[]
During the 10th Hunger Games, a mentor program was created using the top 24 highest-performing students of the Academy and the Plinth Prize was to be awarded to the mentor of whichever tribute won the Hunger Games.
In truth, the Plinth Prize was one of many attempts by Plinth to buy away his problems with money. One such instance was after his son, Sejanus Plinth, was caught breaking into the Capitol Arena after his own tribute, Marcus, was strung up for having escaped before the Hunger Games began in the aftermath of the arena's being bombed.[1]
In the end, the Plinth Prize was never awarded directly. Lucy Gray Baird, the tribute mentored by Coriolanus Snow, won the Hunger Games. Snow, however, was confronted with his cheating in helping her to win by the Academy's dean, Casca Highbottom, and made to enroll in the Peacekeepers.[2] Ultimately, Volumnia Gaul, the Head Gamemaker of the games, brought Snow back to the Capitol and made him her personal protege at the University. Sejanus, having also enrolled in the Peacekeepers, was hung for treason. Strabo Plinth made Snow his heir and ended up paying for his tuition and other University expenses directly.[3]
Film adaptation[]
According to promotional material for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, the winner of the Plinth Prize would also "gain access to the highest reaches of government... maybe a prestigious apprenticeship in the War Department."[4] In the film itself, Dean Casca Highbottom suggested that the Plinth Prize existed prior to the 10th Hunger Games as the Academy's regular annual award, given to a high-achieving student upon graduation. However, the criteria for the Plinth Prize would change this year from academic success to the success of one's tribute in the Hunger Games.[5]
References[]
- ↑ The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Chapter 16
- ↑ The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Chapter 21
- ↑ The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Epilogue
- ↑ https://www.tiktok.com/@hungergamesofficial/video/7289149994165079339
- ↑ The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes