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"Our part of District 12, nicknamed the Seam, is usually crawling with coal miners heading out to the morning shift at this hour. Men and women with hunched shoulders, swollen knuckles, many of whom have long since stopped trying to scrub the coal dust out of their broken nails and the lines of their sunken faces."
Katniss Everdeen[src]

The Seam was the most impoverished area of District 12.[1]

Description[]

Coal dust covered everything in the Seam, including the streets, houses, and even the people themselves. Residents of the Seam lived in "squat gray houses"[1] with a number of gates, yards, and alleys between them.[2]

The Everdeen house used in The Hunger Games film.

The Everdeen house used in The Hunger Games (film).

Katniss Everdeen's house[]

Katniss Everdeen and her family lived in a "squat little place"[2] near the edge of the Seam, a few gates down from the Meadow.[1]

History[]

Hunger Games[]

Lucy Gray Baird and Jessup Diggs were reaped to participate in the 10th Hunger Games.[3] Lucy Gray went on to become District 12's first victor.[4]

Forty years later, an unnamed female tribute from the Seam was reaped for the 50th Hunger Games, as was Haymitch Abernathy, the victor that year.[5] The male and female tribute in the 73rd Hunger Games were both from the Seam,[6] and the same was true of Primrose Everdeen, who was reaped for the 74th Hunger Games the next year.[1] However, her older sister Katniss Everdeen volunteered to go in her place.[7]

Following Katniss's joint victory with Peeta Mellark, hungry children from the Seam benefited from monthly Parcel Day food deliveries. These were given to the district by the Capitol as part of the victors' winnings.[8] However, after only a few months, Parcel Day deliveries and regular shipments of tessera grain and oil started to arrive spoiled and "defiled by rodents".[9]

Katniss and Haymitch were both reaped again for the 75th Hunger Games, but Peeta volunteered to compete in place of Haymitch.[10]

Second Rebellion[]

Like most parts of the district, the Seam was destroyed in the bombing of District 12, and many of its people were killed. However, fewer than a dozen merchants escaped, so the vast majority of survivors were from the Seam. Gale Hawthorne led refugees to the lake in the woods outside District 12, and upon discovery and rescue by rebels, they were all granted citizenship in District 13.[11]

Culture[]

People who lived in the Seam typically had straight black hair, olive skin, and gray eyes.[1] Most citizens here were coal miners; early in the morning, the streets were crowded with them as they headed to work.[1] People generally traveled on foot since few could afford cars, though some occasionally rode in wagons.[6]

Due to rampant poverty, they often could not afford to eat, and many people outright starved. However, families with children who took out tesserae were known to make "flat, dense loaves"[1] or "ugly drop biscuits"[12] from their year-long monthly allotments of grain. Most families in District 12 who relied on tesserae were from the Seam; the trade-off was that this increased their children's chances of being reaped for the Hunger Games.[1]

Merchant and Seam children attended school and learned about their district's coal trade together, preparing them for employment in the mines[6] after their last reaping at 18 years old.[2]

In District 12, looking old was an achievement since so many people died young, and plump people were envied because it was a sign that they weren't scraping by.[13] Despite being the smallest, poorest district in Panem, the people of 12 knew how to dance.[14]

Known residents[]

Mrs. Everdeen, Gale Hawthorne, and Primrose Everdeen, three residents of the Seam.

Mrs. Everdeen, Gale Hawthorne, and Primrose Everdeen, three residents of the Seam.

*later moved to Victors' Village

Tributes[]

  • Jessup Diggs - Male tribute in the 10th Hunger Games.[3]
  • Lucy Gray Baird - Victor of the 10th Hunger Games.[18]
  • Haymitch Abernathy - Victor of the 50th Hunger Games.[5]
  • Unnamed female - One of two female tributes in the 50th Hunger Games.[5]
  • Unnamed male and unnamed female - Tributes in the 73rd Hunger Games.[6]
  • Katniss Everdeen - Co-victor of the 74th and tribute in the 75th Hunger Games.[7]

Presumed residents[]

Etymology[]

The name "Seam" comes from the actual coal seams where its citizens mined.[2]

Trivia[]

  • The films largely departed from the book description of people from the Seam, drawing accusations of whitewashing.
    • According to Suzanne Collins, people from the Seam like Katniss and Gale "were not particularly intended to be biracial", nor did she have a particular ethnic background in mind for those characters while writing. However, she stated that, since The Hunger Games trilogy is set hundreds of years into the future, "There’s been a lot of ethnic mixing."[19] This implies that much of District 12, particularly those in the Seam, comes from a mixed ethnic and/or racial background.
    • Some have also speculated that, given that District 12 is located in Appalachia[6] and people from the Seam are described as typically having olive skin,[20] its residents may be Melungeon; however, it should be noted this is a derogatory term with racist and classist connotations.
  • Mrs. Everdeen is the only member of the merchant sector known to have moved to the Seam.[1]
  • Three of District 12's four victors were from the Seam: Lucy Gray Baird, Haymitch Abernathy, and Katniss Everdeen.
  • Of District 12's known tributes, all but two were from the Seam. The exceptions were Maysilee Donner[21] and Peeta Mellark.[7]

References[]

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 The Hunger Games, Chapter 1
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Catching Fire, Chapter 1
  3. 3.0 3.1 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Chapter 2
  4. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Chapter 20
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Catching Fire, Chapter 14
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 The Hunger Games, Chapter 3
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 The Hunger Games, Chapter 2
  8. Catching Fire, Chapter 2
  9. Catching Fire, Chapter 9
  10. Catching Fire, Chapter 13
  11. Mockingjay, Chapter 1
  12. The Hunger Games, Chapter 7
  13. The Hunger Games, Chapter 9
  14. Mockingjay, Chapter 16
  15. 15.0 15.1 Mockingjay, Chapter 12
  16. Catching Fire, Chapter 8
  17. Catching Fire, Chapter 11
  18. 18.0 18.1 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Chapter 24
  19. https://ew.com/article/2011/04/07/hunger-games-suzanne-collins-gary-ross-exclusive/
  20. The Hunger Games, Chapter 1
  21. Catching Fire, Chapter 12
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