Katniss’s struggle in facing the games

35 therefore become an easy target. In the novel the writer found that Katniss hides her tears during the Games for a reason, to attract the sponsors. She does not want to look weak and miserable so the sponsor can look at her as the tough one and valuable to bet.

4.3.2 Katniss’s struggle in facing the games

The Hunger Games present the tributes’ suffering as mass entertainment, and the more the tributes suffer, ideally in battle with one another, the more entertaining the Games become. The main draw of the Games for viewers is its voyeurism, in this case watching the tributes who are still children fighting and dying. Katniss at various points talks about past Games and what made them successful or unsuccessful, and the recurring motif is that the viewers want to see the tributes battling one another and not dying too quickly because it will end up the entertainment. Why dont you just be yourself? … No one can help but admire your spirit.9:8 The quotes are spoken by Cinna to give Katniss guidance on how to best sell herself to the audience in her first interview with CeaserFlickerman. Cinna is her stylist during the games. Cinna is one of the people in the Capitol that look ordinary not like the others. He becomes Katniss’s friend over the course of the story and counsels Katniss to be herself.The whole situation, as well as the work Haymitchhelp Katniss shape an image, speaks to the pervasiveness of the spectacle that is the Hunger Games. It is telling that Cinnas suggestion toKatniss for just being herself is almost revolutionary in a world where the spectacle is so highly prized. Moreover, 36 Cinna reminds Katniss that she is not only need to win the Hunger Games but also to become a hero is already inside of her. Her victory comes not from the stoic determination that makes her a good hunter, but morefrom her acceptance of her emotional and empathetic side. The revolutionary she approaches becoming by the end of the novel is someone she already is – she just has to learn to be herself and thereby accept it. But in the beginning, Katniss did not realize that her mentor and her partner trying to help her in the Games. “he made me look weak” I say. “he made you look desirable And let’s face it, you can use all the help you can get in that department…..now the all do. You’re all they’re talking about. The star-crossed lover from District twelve” says Haymitch. “but we’re not star-crossed lover” I say. …..”who cares? It’s all a big show.”10:3 Katniss discovers that by playing up the tragic love angle she may just be able to win the Games. The writer also see that Katniss does not really have much of a choice: if she wants food and supplies, she is going to have to follow the game they made. From the quote above, perhaps the most notable part of Katniss’s strategy involves her romance with Peeta. This romance is not entirely genuine on Katniss’s end. She cares about Peeta and develops a romantic interest him, but her feelings do not have nearly the same intensity as him and she always remains ambivalent about him. For the cameras, however, Katniss plays up her feelings for Peeta and works to convince the viewers, and especially the Capitol, that she is deeply in love with him. The act is one Haymitch devised for strategic reasons: Katniss’s and Peeta’s love story elicits more gifts from sponsors than if they are simply friends, and it seems 37 even to influence the Capitol’s decision to allow two tributes to be declared winners rather than the customary one. Consequently, the act Katniss puts on has a significant effect on both her and Peeta’s survival. Through these events, the novel suggests that what cameras show, on reality television for instance, is not necessarily reality and that appearances are just as consequential as the truth. “Tomorrow I’ll stay here, resting, camouflaging my backpack with mud, catching some of those little fish I saw as I sipped, digging up the roots of the pond lilies to make a nice mea. I snuggle down in my sleeping bag, hanging on to my water bottle for dear life, which, of course, it is.”12:11 Katniss struggles against the Capitol, obviously, throughout the novel. This is the most notable of the conflicts. She is constantly fighting against the Capitol. According to quotation above, she sneaks under fences to poach animals from the woods in the early chapters in spite of the possible consequences of caught. She does this because of the difficult circumstances placed of herself and her family by the Capitol. Throughout the Hunger Games Katniss is fighting against the Capitol and doing anything she can in the arena to make everything difficult for them. If she survive and can feed herself and find a save place to her, that making another tributes can’t find her also making the capitol fed up with her defenses. Katniss also has external conflicts with the other competitors in the Hunger Games. She must kill them before they kill her. To go along with this external conflict is the internal conflict of her feelings regarding murdering these other competitors. She knows that killing is wrong and under normal circumstances she would never commit murder. However, she has been putting into this situation not of 38 her own free will and has no choice. The internal conflict comes from her own morality conflicting with her circumstances. “There’s no way they could do otherwise after I’ve made them look so stupid. That nest may be the sole option I have left. If I can drop it down on them, I may be able to escape. But I’ll risk my life in the process.” In quote above, she tries to defense herself from another tribute that already had a plan to kill her. In that quote, Katniss helped by Rue, another tribute from different district that around Prim’s age. Rue reminds Katniss very much of her sister, Prim. Katniss acts as the primary protector of Rue once then both of them become allies. In this sense, she continues the role that she formerly played with her sister, Prim. Katniss and Rue share food, supplies, and stories about their lives. Katniss learns that Rue is the oldest child in her family and she loves music. Rue becomes human to Katniss and not simply a competitor. Their brief friendship during the Games allows us to see Katniss as a nurturing character, even in the midst of all the fierce competition. Rue told her to cut the nest of the Tracker-Jacker, kind of bee that has a death venomous. Even she risk her life in the process, she still doing it for survive, she can live then and comeback home. “We’re strong too,” I say. “Just in a different way.” “You are. You can shoot,” she says. “What can I do?” “You can feed yourself. Can they?” I ask. “They don’t need to. They have all those supplies,” Rue says. “say they didn’t. say the supplies were gone. How long would they last?” I say. “I mean, it’s the Hunger Games, right?” “But Katniss, they’re not hungry,” says Rue. “No, they’re not. That’s the problem,” I agree. And for the first time, I have a plan. A plan that isn’t motivated by the need for flight and evasion. An offensive plan. Katniss and Rue discover that being from a poor district gives them an advantage: they know how it feels to be hungry and they know how to hunt and 39 gather food. That is what making them have a plan to destroy all of the storage of another tribute. After both of them make a plan and did it, Rue died in the process. Katniss honors Rues body by covering her with flowers. This act is that defies the Capitol and challenges the idea that Rues death was just entertainment for a viewing audience at home. Rue is killed by the boy from District 1, and Katniss is there to singing Rue a final song and decorate her body with flowers. Rue, look like Prim, makes Katniss promise that she will win, and there are moments when it is her promise to Rue, more so than her promise to Prim, that gives Katniss the strength she needs to fight on. She wants to make sure that Rues death will not go unremembered. Ultimately, Rues death inspires Katniss to fight all the more against the Capitol – and win the Games any way she can. I want to do something, right here, right now, to shame them, to make them accountable, to show the Capitol that whatever they do or force us to do that there is a part of every tribute they cant own. That Rue was more than a piece in their Games. And so am I. 18.38 Covering Rue with flowers is an intense act of rebellion against the Capitol. The experience of witnessing Rues death inspires Katniss to go on and win the Games – and to prove to the Capitol that they cant strip the tributes of their humanity, however they might try. When the Gamemakers revoke their original rule change that would have allowed two tributes to win, they reveal what has been their goal all along. They wanted the remaining tributes to be the star-crossed lovers so that the Games final act would be the most dramatic: one lover killing the other. When Peeta raises his knife, the hunter in Katniss emerges; she aims an arrow at him before she realizes that hes 40 tossing his knife into the lake. Shes ashamed of herself, but shes a natural survivor, so her reaction is true to her character and true to the doubt that she has maintained about Peeta throughout the Games. Peeta, however, says that he wants Katniss to kill him that he could not live without her. Katniss does not question him now, but she knows that she can not go back to District 12 without him. She refuses to let the Gamemakers have the final say, and when Peeta says that they have to have a victor, she knows that hes right. His statement, instead of causing her grief, gives her an idea. The Games were all about controlling and manipulating the people of the districts, but by threatening to kill themselves with the poisonous berries, Katniss and Peeta force the Games to change, although the ultimate course of that change is left to the Capitol: Either Peeta and Katniss die and the 74th Hunger Games has no winner, or they reinstate the earlier rule and have two winners. Either way, Katniss will succeed in rebelling against the Capitol by not giving it exactly what it wants. “We both know they have to have a victor. Yes, they have to have a victor. Without a victor, the whole thing would blow up in the Gamemakers faces. Theyd have failed the Capitol. Might possibly even be executed, slowly and painfully while the cameras broadcast it to every screen in the country. If Peeta and I were both to die, or they thought we were. My fingers fumble with the pouch on my belt, freeing it. Peeta sees it and his hand clamps on my wrist. No, I wont let you. Trust me, I whisper. He holds my gaze for a long moment then lets me go. 41 …..Maybe they don’t care if we both die…The frantic voice of Claudius Templesmith shouts above them “Stop Stop Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the victors of the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games, KatnissEverdeen and PeetaMellark I give you, the tributes of District twelve” 25.85-90” Katniss and Peetacan not kill each other, so they make a show of taking poisonous berries in an act of double suicide. Fortunately, the announcer comes back on before they can kill themselves, and says that they win. Finally they defeated the Hunger Games. Katniss and Peeta keep up the star-crossed lover routine for the post- games reunion and interview, knowing that this is the only way to keep from being punished by the Capitol for the rebellious trick with the poisonous berries. 42 CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

5.1 Conclusion