Coriolanus Snow
This novel is a prequel to the Hunger Games series, following a young President Snow as he works as a mentor for the tenth annual Hunger Games. Snow is depicted as an ambitious and cunning young man, and is set on his tribute winning the Hunger Games. Debatably sympathetic at first, Coriolanus (nicknamed Coryo by his cousin Tigris) battles the trauma of a childhood filled with hunger, poverty, and war while navigating the shrewd politics of the Academy.
Named after the titular character of Shakespeare's play Coriolanus, the Roman general Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus, Coryo is similarly thrust to stardom after victory, but he is later banished from his home city. Coryo must find a renewed sense of purpose while serving as a Peacekeeper in District 12, ultimately leading him to choose whether or not he will remain loyal to the Capitol or loyal to his rebel friend Sejanus and his love for Lucy Gray.
Lucy Gray
Lucy is the District 12 female tribute for the tenth annual Hunger Games. When chosen at The Reaping, she purposefully plants a snake on Mayfair, the daughter of the mayor of District 12, humiliating Mayfair and making Lucy herself unforgettable to the Capitol audience. Wearing a rainbow-colored dress and sporting a beautiful voice, she quickly becomes a favorite in the games. She is a member of a traveling band of singers/performers called the Covey, meaning a flock of birds—echoing the symbol of Mockingjay and the motif of songbirds throughout the series. With the help of her mentor Coriolanus Snow, Lucy Gray wins the tenth Hunger Games by charming the poisonous snakes that Dr. Gaul pours into the arena and by possessing the handkerchief that Coryo slipped into the tank of snakes at the biology lab earlier on, thus making the venomous snakes refrain from biting her.
In District 12, Lucy resumes her role in the Covey as lead-singer, rekindles her relationship with the now Peacekeeper Coriolanus; she eventually plans to run away with him to avoid their troubles. On their journey, Lucy realizes that Coryo betrayed Sejanus. The only witness to his crime of killing Mayfair, Lucy tries to flee from Coriolanus in the cover of the forest, as the now panic-stricken Coriolanus maniacally sprays bullets from a Peacekeeper rifle in her direction. The text leaves it a mystery as to whether or not she was killed in the confrontation. Her disappearance is as mysterious as that of the titular character in William Wordsworth’s lyrical poem, "Lucy Gray."
Dr. Volumnia Gaul
Gaul is the Head Gamemaker of the tenth Hunger Games and a professor at the Capitol's University. She has a fascination with genetic engineering and wants to foster the popularity and effectiveness of the Hunger Games as a tool of control. She tasks the senior class of the Academy with making the games more entertaining. After Coriolanus' many stunts, Dr. Gaul takes special interest in the young man, shaping him to be the evil, self-serving tyrant he becomes in the later books of the series.
As is typical with Suzanne Collins' works, Volumnia Gaul's name has a special meaning. Volumnia is the name of the mother of Coriolanus in Shakespeare's Coriolanus, a power-hungry woman who drives her son's ambitious rise to power. Here, Dr. Volumnia Gaul also urges Coriolanus' ascendency to the Presidency. The last name Gaul evokes the sometimes-enemies of ancient Rome: the Gauls, who were betrayed as barbaric and savage. Certainly, Dr. Gaul's fascination with mutating pets, creating monstrous snakes, and inflicting pain in others (especially her punishment of Clemensia for lying about her role in the essay assignment) underscores her barbarism.
Sejanus Plinth
Sejanus Plinth is a District-born citizen of the Capitol; his enrollment in the Academy and placement as a mentor in the Hunger Games is due to his father's vast riches as a munitions giant in District 2. Hating his out-of-place life in the Capitol and facing the hazing of other Academy students due to his District lineage, Sejanus is quick to take on Coriolanus as a "friend." Kind to a fault, Sejanus feeds the tributes while they are held in the monkey cage at the zoo, tries to die in the arena with his former friend and tribute, Marcus, and lets Coriolanus in on the rebel plan to free a District 12 captive.
The name Sejanus is likely an allusion to the humble-born Roman who quickly ascended to become the emperor Tiberius' right-hand man. A plinth is the foundation of a statue, and Sejanus is a rock-solid friend who gives Coryo hope. He also gives Coriolanus the idea of applying to officer's school, which lays the foundation of Coriolanus' ascent to the Presidency.
Dean Casca Highbottom
Casca is the dean of the Academy and is given credit for creating the Hunger Games. Dean Highbottom demerits Coriolanus and threatens to expel him. Alternately ridiculous, threatening, and tragic, Dean Highbottom suffers from an addiction to morphling due to his regret about giving Coriolanus' father, Crassus Snow, the premise of the Hunger Games while they were University students. Crassus used the brutal idea, undermining his friendship with Casca.
Casca is the name of one of the conspirators in the assassination of Julius Caesar by some members of the Roman Senate. Clearly, Dean Highbottom works to quash the Hunger Games by arguing with Dr. Gaul and even voices the rebellious notion that district-born people are no better than Capitol citizens. The name Highbottom refers to the Dean's addiction to morphling, a fictional drug that has possible parallels to morphine. High-functioning addicts are referred to as "high bottom."
Tigris
Tigris, Coryo's cousin, is active in the garment and fashion trade in the Capitol. In The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, she is mostly presented as a helpful and well-intentioned young woman in reduced circumstances, talented in refashioning old clothes into sleek outfits. There are few signs here of the cloistered, wildly eccentric Tigris who emerges 65 years later in Mockingjay, complete with the feline cosmetic surgery and wildcat tattoos that fit her name.
Pluribus Bell
Pluribus is a former nightclub owner who helps the Snows at several points. He provides them with the stores of lima beans that will sustain them in the war and acts as a confidante throughout the events of The Ballad. He also knows something, though not everything, about the mysterious falling-out between Coriolanus's father and Casca Highbottom.
Though the Hunger Games series does little with romances beyond heterosexual and mostly chaste teenage connections, the narration of this novel does briefly indicate that Pluribus is gay. He is mentioned as having a "partner" named Cyrus who was the love of his, Pluribus's, life, though the details of their relationship are not explored in depth.
The Grandma'am
Coriolanus's grandmother is mostly referred to by her nickname. A figure of faded gentility, the Grandma'am is a symbol of the Snow family's persistent loyalty to the Capitol even in the face of hardship; after all, she is singing the Capitol Anthem when she first appears in The Ballad. She also grows roses of remarkable beauty, providing a symbol that will resurface in later books in the series, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, which feature an aging Coriolanus Snow using such stunning roses as his emblems.
Billy Taupe
A musician who has been rejected by the Covey, Billy Taupe is the love interest to whom Lucy refers in one of her Capitol songs. He emerges in connection with a rebel plot late in the novel. He is romantically connected to Mayfair, though he does intrude upon Lucy and Coriolanus's more pleasant moments in District 12.
Mayfair
The daughter of the mayor of District 12, Mayfair causes trouble for the principal characters of the novel at several points. Her father apparently tweaks the Reaping ceremony, normally a random drawing of names, to ensure that Lucy is sent to the Hunger Games. Later, Mayfair herself is at risk of bringing a rebel plot to the attention of the authorities. Such a move would place Sejanus (who is directly involved) and Coryo (who is mostly a bystander) in danger.
