President Coriolanus Snow

"War, terrible war. Widows, orphans, a motherless child. This was the uprising that rocked our land. Thirteen districts rebelled against the country that fed them, loved them, protected them. Brother turned on brother until nothing remained. And then came the peace, hard fought, sorely won. A people rose up from the ashes and a new era was born. But freedom has a cost. When the traitors were defeated, we swore as a nation we would never know this treason again. And so it was decreed, that each year, the various districts of Panem would offer up in tribute, one young man and woman, to fight to the death in a pageant of honor, courage and sacrifice. The lone victor, bathed in riches, would serve as a reminder of our generosity and our forgiveness. This is how we remember our past. This is how we safeguard our future."

- President Snow

President Coriolanus Snow is the main antagonist in Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy. He is the President of Panem (North America after the apocalypse).

Biography
President Snow is responsible for taking care of the country and working on the Hunger Games (a competiton on which one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each of the 12 districts must have a fight to the death) year after year. He is not afraid to hurt or kill people if he feels that they will be a threat or a sign of rebellion. In Catching Fire (book two) he threatens to kill Katniss', Peeta's and Gale's family if she didn't convince all of Panem that what she did in the games (threaten that she and Peeta would commit suicide if the Capitol didn't make them both winners) was just her madly in love and not a sign of rebellion.

Description
The President is a small, thin man, with paper-white hair and thick lips that seem pulled across his face. Katniss once states that his lips smelled of blood and roses and his eyes are that of a snake's. His lips are thought to be changed, to make them more apealling. Overall, his appearance is quite snake-like. His trademark sign is a single white rose, which he always wears, and what Katniss finds in her house in the beginning of the 3rd book.

Residence
Snow lives in a huge mansion in the City Circle of the Capitol.

Personality
A cruel hard man, Snow is firm and strict, and not afraid to torture or kill people who displease him. He wants no one to stand in his way of ruling. He is also cunning as evidenced by his manipulation of Katniss during Catching Fire. In Mockingjay, he even admitts that he is not above killing children to Katniss. Despite all this, he does say that he is not wasteful. He'll only kill people for specific reasons, although these reasons are not necessarily just.

Death
After the overthrow of the Capitol, Snow is tried, convicted and sentenced to death. As the Mockingjay, Katniss is given the opportunity to execute Snow. However, she assassinates President Coin instead. In the chaos that follows, Katniss witnesses Snow laughing and coughing up blood as a crush of people surround them. When everything calms down, Snow is found dead, either from choking on his own blood or being crushed by the crowd. No one cared which way he dies, it didn't matter as long as he is dead. His death is very anticlimatic in the way that he laughs at the sheer irony of the situation.

Similarities to real-life people
President Snow maybe a fictional character, but he actually has much in common with real-life dictators. For instance, he has much in common with Muammar Gaddafi, the former dictator of Libya. Gaddafi was a cruel and opressive ruler, who, in his reign, has been reponsible for millions of deaths, to his own people even, and silenced anyone who stood in his way. Even the way they both were killed are similar. They were killed by his own people.

Another would be Central American dictator Jorge Ubico, who oppresses opposition in his country Guatemala and had lasting atrocities in his countries. Children also were forced to fight to the death during certain days in High School at the time under his rule between 1931 and 1944.

In the United States, Georgia governor Eugene Talmadge (during the Great Depression) is an example of villains who covered up their unfair cruelty of people. Talmadge, made it only fair for white southernors votes to count. However, he left the city of Atlanta and other cities in serious trouble (like Snow did with many of Panem's districts). He also tortured members of the State Congress that did not agree with his ideas of White Supremacy. They both brainwashed their own people, while Snow used the Career districts as fighting districts and Talmadge stole all of the South Georgia votes with the County Unit System and covering up their potential benefits by targeting other groups. Both spent a long time in power.

Film
In the adaptation of The Hunger Games, President Snow is protrayed by vetern actor Donald Sutherland and serves as the true main antagonist. Unlike in the novel, he appears more often and is given added scenes, but still keeps to the character's role and personality.

He gives a speech on why they have the Hunger Games. But he first appears fully on a panel to greet the tributes when they arrive in the Capitol, and while the rest smile and are amazed at Katniss and Peeta's flaming entrance, Snow remains silent and uncaring. Most of his other scenes are with the Head Gamemaker, Seneca Crane. Each of them are to discuss Katniss's involvment and keeping Panem in line. One of the more well known is when President Snow reveals the true reason of why the Games are held. Hope, which he describes as the only thing stronger then fear. That the Games show the country who dominates them and contains the hope that could lead to the end of his and the Capital's reign.

Though he admits that he favors Seneca, he doesn't delay to intimidate him and eventfully when Seneca allows Katniss and Peeta to live, Snow has him excuted by forcing him into a room and making him eat the Nightlock berries, the same berries Katniss and Peeta were going to use to kill themselves.

He is last seen crowning Katniss and Peeta, complamenting Katniss's mockingjay pin, before watching Katniss and Peeta return to District 12 and contemplating on how to kill them.