Catching Fire

Katniss is shaken by Darius’s presence, but she knows that President Snow is intentionally trying to upset her and tries to focus on the Games. Effie decides to get Peeta and Haymitch golden tokens to match Katniss’s mockingjay pin, and the next morning, Katniss notices a “solid-gold bangle with a pattern of flames” (222) on Haymitch’s wrist. Haymitch pushes Katniss and Peeta to choose allies among the tributes, but Katniss doesn’t want to team up with anyone other than Peeta. Haymitch reminds them not to underestimate these victor tributes, who are all older and more experienced than the teenagers and children Katniss and Peeta faced before.

Katniss befriends the tributes from District 3: Wiress and Beetee. They show Katniss how to spot a forcefield in the training center by looking for “A patch of space about six inches square at the corner of the table [that] seems almost to be vibrating” (228). Peeta is doubtful, but Katniss insists that “Wiress and Beetee are smart [...] And if we have to have allies, I want them” (230). Katniss also meets Mags, the elderly woman tribute from District 4 who volunteered to take the place of the young woman, Annie, who was initially chosen. Katniss decides that she also wants Mags on her team. After seeing her practice with a bow and arrows in the training center, Haymitch reports that “at least half the victors have instructed their mentors to request [Katniss] as an ally” (233), but Katniss insists on Wiress, Beetee, and Mags, or nobody at all. As the days pass, Katniss begins to like many of the tributes. She and Peeta worry about having to kill these people, and when it is time for them to demonstrate their skills to the Gamemakers, Katniss decides to create an effigy of the last Gamemaker, Seneca Crane, who was killed for allowing her and Peeta to survive the last Games.

The Gamemakers are shocked by Katniss’s behavior in the private session and Plutarch Heavensbee dismisses her immediately. Katniss knows that “It was rash and dangerous and no doubt I will pay for it ten times over” (238), but she feels satisfied that she spooked them. That night, Peeta tells everyone at dinner that he painted Rue covered in flowers for his special skill, because “[he] just wanted to hold [the Gamemakers] accountable, if only for a moment” (240) for Rue’s murder. The next day, Katniss and Peeta are given the day off, and they spend the day enjoying each other’s company. Katniss realizes that she has been “starved” for human closeness, and she relies on Peeta’s affection to bring her comfort. For the interviews that night, President Snow insists that Katniss must wear her wedding dress. Cinna made some alterations to it, but he does not explain why the dress is much heavier now. During the interviews, Katniss realizes “the depth of betrayal felt among the victors and the rage that accompanies it” (250) as one by one, the victor tributes appeal to the audience’s affection for them, and no one in the audience seems happy about these Hunger Games. During her interview, Katniss spins in her dress, and flames consume the wedding dress to reveal a black feathered dress underneath with familiar markings: “Cinna has turned me into a mockingjay” (252).

Katniss’s mockingjay costume is a hit with the Capitol audience, but Katniss knows that her dress will “[resonate] in an entirely different way throughout the districts” (253) because the mockingjay now represents rebellion. She also knows that Cinna is now in danger because he is the one responsible for this display. Peeta takes to the stage and claims that he and Katniss got married in secret and that Katniss is now pregnant with their child. His lie has the desired effect, and the Capitol audience is whipped into a horrified frenzy at the thought of sending a pregnant woman and her unborn child into the arena. Before the Capitol can end the broadcast, “the victors begin to join hands” and Katniss knows that “We victors staged our own uprising, and maybe, just maybe, the Capitol won’t be able to contain this one” (258-59). Haymitch gives Katniss some final parting advice before she enters the arena the next day: “You just remember who the enemy is” (260). At the last moment before Katniss is taken into the arena, she is forced to watch as two Peacekeepers attack Cinna and beat him savagely. Katniss screams and tries to help, but it’s too late and she is whisked into the arena and finds that she is surrounded by water.