Finch Dawson [District 9]

T H I N K I N G | S P E A K I N G | H E A R I N G

N A M E: Finch 'Little Fin' Dawson
A G E: Seventeen
G E N D E R: Female
D I S T R I C T: Nine

Green finch, and linnet bird,
Nightingale, blackbird,
How is it you sing?
How can you jubilate
sitting in cages
never taking wing?

H I S T O R Y:

Finch’s entire life has consisted of exactly four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, a kitchen, an attic, a crawl space, and one very dilapidated back yard surrounded by a high stone wall. All her life she has been kept between four walls. She has never once stepped foot beyond the front door, nor has she ever had the gall to climb over the wall in the backyard. The only glimpse she can get of the outside word is through the windows.

She is held prisoner by her godfather, Mortimer. Mort’s best friend, father to Finch, and his young wife had been killed in a burglary when Finch was just over a year old, and had ended up in Mort's custody. At first, Mort despised the little girl with striking blond hair and startling blue eyes. He wasn’t too happy about ending his bachelorhood, after all he was only 22 at the time, but soon he was charmed by the child’s giggles and dazzling smile.

As Finch grew up, Mort’s love soon reached inappropriate heights. He became very possessive of her, jealously guarding her against perceived kidnappers, who he believed waited around every corner and behind every bush to snatch the cute little girl with an infectious laugh. Soon, their afternoon strolls and trips to the park ceased, and by the time Finch was just five years old she no longer saw the outside. Mort even hired a live in nanny to help take care of the girl and to home school her.

Finch was kept completely separate from the rest of world. She doesn’t know about the injustices or the oppression that is taking place just beyond her walls. Hell, she doesn’t even realize that she is being oppressed. She thinks the world outside is peaches and cream. She isn’t even aware of the Hunger Games. When Finch was about to turn twelve, Mort concocted a scheme to fake her death. According to the Capitol’s official records, Finch was kidnapped and is presumed dead. She doesn’t exist, so she doesn’t get entered into the Games.

At sixteen, Finch started to yearn for a different life. She had often wondered about life on the outside before, but only out of curiosity. She was told that bad things happened to people out there, and she was content to stay in her room with her books. She knew of nothing else, so she never questioned it. However, after years of reading stories of countless girls locked in towers, and princes coming to their rescue, she began to wonder if there was a prince out there for her. She wanted that magical relationship that unfolded in story after story. She wanted love.

Finch would look out her bedroom window and search the streets for that special boy. Waiting for someone to separate themselves from the crowd and start scaling the stone wall. No one ever did.

After a year of waiting, no prince showed up in her window to whisk her away. Which is rather unfortunate because the climate in her household is shifting. Finch has reached a marriageable age, something that her godfather hasn’t failed to notice. He has started to pursue her, something that she hasn’t failed to notice. He gives her expensive gifts. His touch lingers on her shoulders, on her head, in her hair. He finds excuses to disturb her while she is in the bath or dressing, always trying to catch her naked, or some form thereof. He has tried to ask her about marriage before, but she always finds some was to dodge the subject. She knows that he is being patient, and she knew that his patience wasn’t going to last forever.

Outside the sky waits
beckoning!
Beckoning!
Just beyond the bars...
How can you remain
staring at the rain
maddened by the stars?

P E R S O N A L I T Y:

Finch hasn’t had any human contact outside of her nanny, her godfather, and the occasional dinner guest. Despite that, Finch is an outgoing, bright child. Being shy was just never in the cards for her. But just because she isn’t shy, doesn’t mean she has people skills. If ever there were an occasion when she is able to speak to someone away from her godfather, she’d probably just babble insistently about nonsense. Or she’d somehow stumble on a sensitive subject and just plow through it. Most likely she’d say what was exactly on her mind, whether it was offensive or not.

Little Fin doesn’t have much to do with herself besides reading, and learning needle point from her nanny, Constance. Since she is terrible with needle point, she sits and reads. She reads a multitude of subjects, but her favorite is romance novels. Fin is a hopeless romantic and dreams of a prince to come and rescue her and treat her like a princess. Constance has tried to warn her that life isn’t a fairytale, but Fin refuses to listen. Her life is so mundane, that she has to believe that life out there is better, more exciting.

Fin doesn’t have a rebellious bone in her body, which explains why she has never fought her godfather for her right to leave the property. She doesn’t like it when people are angry at her, so she tries to do everything by the book. Her fantasies of being rescued by her prince are just that, fantasies. Really, it’s just her guilty pleasure. Finch doesn’t know how to handle confrontation, having had very little experience with it, so she avoids it whenever possible, sacrificing her happiness for someone else’s.

How is it you sing
anything?