Authors note: This is a piece on the book Catching Fire about how Katniss could have changed her mind about saving Peeta but she didn't.
In the book Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, Katniss’s (the main character) life has been changed because of the games, and all she wants is her old one back. People of District 12 look at her differently now, and she's always on the radar in the Capitol. Barely into the first chapter of the book, she says "I mourn my old life here. We barely scraped by, but I knew where I fit in, I knew what my place was in the tightly interwoven fabric that was our life. I wish I could go back to it because, in retrospect, it seems so secure compared with now, when I am so rich and so famous and so hated by the authorities in the Capitol." (10) She wants Peeta to survive in the beginning but there are many things that possibly change her mind in the games.
She wants Peeta to survive but now that she's won the Hunger Games, Katniss' family gets to live in a nice house and will never go hungry. Her role as the family's breadwinner is no longer needed. The others in her district also get more food and will be better off for at least a year, thanks to Katniss and Peeta's win in the arena. Because of this she might not want to give up her life; if Katniss dies her family no longer gets the supplies and no longer lives where they do now.
While Katniss knows what happened in the arena, she still doesn't know how she feels about it. At the end of the first Games, she and Peeta survived, thanks to her clever berry trick. Katniss decides that her action at that moment reveals who she is and how she should fit into this new, post-Games world "The berries. I realize the answer to who I am lies in that handful of poisonous fruit. If I held them out to save Peeta because I knew I would be shunned if I came back without him, then I am despicable. If I held them out because I loved him, I am still self-centered, although forgivable. But if I held them out to defy the Capitol, I am someone of worth. The trouble is, I don't know exactly what was going on inside me at that moment."(87)
Most of the time, Katniss is full of self-loathing, especially when she must decide whether to run away or stick it out in District 12 and try to fight the Capitol "I'm selfish. I'm a coward. I'm the kind of girl who, when she might actually be of use, would run to stay alive and leave those who couldn't follow to suffer and die. No wonder I won the Games. No decent person ever does." (82-83)
Is Katniss being too hard on herself? Aren't most people "selfish" and "cowardly" from time to time? Katniss can also be brave and selfless. Soon after hearing about the Quarter Quell, she determines to save Peeta's life, though it will cost her own. She doesn't give in to her gut feelings to look out for herself alone; she stays at his side and fights.
In the book Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, Katniss’s (the main character) life has been changed because of the games, and all she wants is her old one back. People of District 12 look at her differently now, and she's always on the radar in the Capitol. Barely into the first chapter of the book, she says "I mourn my old life here. We barely scraped by, but I knew where I fit in, I knew what my place was in the tightly interwoven fabric that was our life. I wish I could go back to it because, in retrospect, it seems so secure compared with now, when I am so rich and so famous and so hated by the authorities in the Capitol." (10) She wants Peeta to survive in the beginning but there are many things that possibly change her mind in the games.
She wants Peeta to survive but now that she's won the Hunger Games, Katniss' family gets to live in a nice house and will never go hungry. Her role as the family's breadwinner is no longer needed. The others in her district also get more food and will be better off for at least a year, thanks to Katniss and Peeta's win in the arena. Because of this she might not want to give up her life; if Katniss dies her family no longer gets the supplies and no longer lives where they do now.
While Katniss knows what happened in the arena, she still doesn't know how she feels about it. At the end of the first Games, she and Peeta survived, thanks to her clever berry trick. Katniss decides that her action at that moment reveals who she is and how she should fit into this new, post-Games world "The berries. I realize the answer to who I am lies in that handful of poisonous fruit. If I held them out to save Peeta because I knew I would be shunned if I came back without him, then I am despicable. If I held them out because I loved him, I am still self-centered, although forgivable. But if I held them out to defy the Capitol, I am someone of worth. The trouble is, I don't know exactly what was going on inside me at that moment."(87)
Most of the time, Katniss is full of self-loathing, especially when she must decide whether to run away or stick it out in District 12 and try to fight the Capitol "I'm selfish. I'm a coward. I'm the kind of girl who, when she might actually be of use, would run to stay alive and leave those who couldn't follow to suffer and die. No wonder I won the Games. No decent person ever does." (82-83)
Is Katniss being too hard on herself? Aren't most people "selfish" and "cowardly" from time to time? Katniss can also be brave and selfless. Soon after hearing about the Quarter Quell, she determines to save Peeta's life, though it will cost her own. She doesn't give in to her gut feelings to look out for herself alone; she stays at his side and fights.
No comments:
Post a Comment