The Hunger Games

Katniss acknowledges that allying with Peeta makes her extremely vulnerable, as she is bound to his needs. Remembering the importance of sponsors, Katniss plays the role of a teenager in the throes of a first love, hopeful that the strategy will not be as doomed as it once seemed. At Peeta’s request, she tells him a heavily edited story about Prim.

An announcement comes, inviting the tributes to a “feast”—a lure for the tributes to converge on one location, resulting in a bloodbath. Katniss intends to ignore it, but the announcement explains that the feast will offer an item that each tribute needs. She realizes it is the medicine she needs to stop Peeta’s blood poisoning, which will otherwise kill him. Peeta insists that Katniss not go to the obvious trap, but she counters that she is not willing to watch him die. They agree that he will follow her instructions if she stays put. Haymitch sends her a vial of sleeping syrup, which she uses to drug Peeta. Just before he passes out, he realizes that Katniss intends to go back on her word and risk her life to save him.

Katniss prepares to go to the feast at the Cornucopia and thinks about Gale, wishing he were there to look out for her and considering whether their relationship might become romantic if she let it.

At the Cornucopia, a table emerges with backpacks labeled with district numbers, containing each tribute’s valued item. To Katniss’s surprise, Foxface appears, having hid herself in the Cornucopia. She takes her backpack and darts away. Katniss wishes she had come up with such a clever strategy, knowing that no one will follow Foxface and risk leaving their object for someone else. She runs for the backpack marked 12, knowing that the next person will steal the backpack with Peeta’s medicine along with their own pack.

Clove, the female tribute from District 2, throws a knife that hits Katniss in the forehead. Despite her best efforts, Katniss soon finds herself at Clove’s mercy as she promises to give the audience a show by cutting Katniss’s face. As Clove taunts Katniss about Rue’s death, Katniss is surprised to find Thresh, the male tribute of District 11, pulling Clove off of her. He kills Clove for her part in hurting Rue and demands to know what Clove was saying. Katniss explains that she had allied with Rue, avenged her, sang to her until she died, and buried her in flowers. She mentions his district sent her bread and asks for a quick death. Thresh says he will spare her to repay her care for Rue, but only once. Katniss understands and flees before Cato returns. She makes it back to Peeta and injects him with the medicine before passing out due to her head wound.

Katniss tells Peeta what happened at the feast, but he is confused by Thresh’s actions and the concept of the debt. Katniss admits that she does not expect him to understand since he always had enough. As they recover, she takes comfort in Peeta’s presence and enjoys his kisses.

Since a storm is raging and they cannot hunt or forage for supplies, their only hope is that Haymitch will send them food. Katniss knows he will only reward them for a show of emotional intimacy that will entertain the audience. She asks Peeta when he first began to like her, but he answers with an alarmingly accurate story of their first day of school. His father pointed her out to him on the first day of school, saying he wanted to marry Katniss’s mother, but she chose a coal miner because even the birds went silent when he sang—an accurate description of Katniss’s father’s talent. Reportedly, Katniss sang on the first day of school, and Peeta claims the birds went silent for her, too, and that he was “a goner” from that moment on. Katniss is uncomfortable with the truth in his words but knows she must play up the intimacy for Haymitch to send them the food they need. When Peeta says he only has her attention now because he does not “have much competition” in the games, she responds the way she knows Haymitch wants her to: “You don’t have much competition anywhere” (302). Haymitch rewards her acting with a veritable feast.

Now that she truly believes she has a chance of winning the games, Katniss thinks about what her future will be like. She looks forward to a life of plenty in Victor’s Village but wonders who she will be without the poaching that took up her days and defined her identity. Katniss internally affirms that she will never marry or have children because her status as a victor would not protect her children from being reaped. She considers that Haymitch’s alcoholism is likely a response to being forced to mentor children, only to watch them die—a fate that will soon be hers as a victor.

Katniss also considers Peeta and how their relationship will change once they are home and done pretending to be in love. She acknowledges that Gale must not be happy with their fake relationship. They try to hunt, but Peeta scares off all the game, making her remember Gale’s sure, silent stride.

When Peeta does not return her “all’s well” signal whistle, Katniss panics, thinking Cato has killed him just as the District 1 boy killed Rue after her signals stopped. She lashes out at him and blames him for eating without her when she notices some cheese is missing. Peeta claims he did not eat it and shows her the berries he found. At the sound of a cannon, Katniss quickly realizes they are toxic nightlock berries and that Foxface died after stealing them from their stash.