Katniss was worried about Rue’s safety when they decided to separate for doing their mission to trick the Careers tribute. It is clearly show through her
thoughts how caring she is. Unexpectedly, Rue throws her arms around me. I only hesitate a moment
before I hug her back. “You be careful,” she says to me.
“You, too,” I say. I turn and head back to the stream, feeling somehow worried. About Rue being killed, about Rue not being killed and the two of
us being left for last, about leaving Rue alone, about leaving Prim alone back home. No, Prim has my mother and Gale and a baker who has
promise she won’t go hungry. Rue has only me p. 213.
Katniss reaction when Rue was dying after a boy from district one threw a spear into Rue’s body showed her care and love to Rue. She stayed in Rue side
until Rue last breath. She made Rue comfortable by pulling Rue’s head onto her lap, brushing Rue’s hair gently, and even singing as Rue wish her to. Although
she have not sung much since her father died and she does not know much song, she tried to do Rue’s last request.
“Don’t go.” Rue tightens her grip on my hand. “Course not. Staying right here,” I say. I move in closer to her, pulling her
head onto my lap. I gently brush the dark, thick hair back behind her ear. “Sing,” she says, but I barely catch the word p. 234.
When Rue died, Katniss was drowning in sadness. She cried a lot but she was still singing, finishing her song for Rue. Then she treated Rue gently. She
kissed Rue’s temple, laid Rue’s head back on the ground and released Rue’s hand. Her care and love for Rue is also seen through her reaction.
For a moment, I sit there, watching my tears drip down on her face. Rue’s cannon fires. I lean forward and press my lips against her temple. Slowly,
as if not to wake her, I lay her head back on the ground and release her hand p. 235-236.
Katniss could not stop looking at Rue. She thought she cannot leave Rue like this. She showed her love to Rue for the last through her reaction, so she
decorated Rue’s body with flowers. She wanted everyone see Rue like that when the hovercraft collect the bodies of the death people. At the end, she pressed the
three middle fingers of her left hand against her lips and held them out in Rue’s direction. This sign means thanks, admiration, and good bye to someone you love.
A few steps into the woods grow a bank of wildflowers. Perhaps they are really weeds of some sort, but they have blossoms in beautiful shades of
violet and yellow and white. I gather up an armful and come back to Rue’s side. Slowly, one step at a time, I decorate her body in the flowers.
Covering the ugly wound. Wreathing her face. Weaving her hair with bright colors.
“Bye, Rue,” I whisper. I press the three middle fingers of my left hand against my lips and hold them out in her direction. Then I walk away
without looking back p. 237.
Once again, Katniss proved that she is a caring and loving person through her thoughts. She was lying on the ground, hiding her face from camera then she
remembered Rue and how Rue saved her life from the tracker jackers stings. She remembered Tresh and how Tresh saved her then let her go instead of kill her as a
thank for her to took care Rue. She thought if she comes home, she will do something to help Rue and Tresh’s family as a thank for them.
Under the hood, I silently say good-bye to Tresh and thank him for my life. I promise to remember him and, if I can, do something to help his
family and Rue’s, if I win p. 309.
5. Clever
Katniss tried to trick her opponents in the Games. As the news was announced that both tributes from the same district can win the Games, Katniss
started to track Peeta. Through her thoughts and the way she was using to track Peeta, it shows she is clever.
Well, it’s a place to start, anyway. To confuse my enemies’ mind, I start a fire with plenty of green wood.
Even if they think it’s a ruse, I hope they’ll decide I’m hidden somewhere near it. While in reality, I’ll be tracking Peeta p. 250.
Peeta asked Katniss to tell him about the happiest day she can remember. Most stories she remembers involve Gale. She thought it was not good if the
audience and Peeta know about it because she needs the sponsor from the audience to support good stuffs which help her in the Games. The audience love
Katniss and Peeta love story which created by Haymitch. She is so clever so she decided to tell a story about Prim’s goat. She little bit changed the story and told it
carrefuly in order to keep her illegal hunting as a secret. Her cleverness is seen through her thoughts.
“Did I ever tell you about how I got Prim’s goat?” I ask. Peeta shakes his head, and looks at me expectantly. So I begin. But carefully. Because my
words are going out all over Panem. And while people have no doubt put two and two together that I hunt illegally, I don’t want to hurt Gale or
Greasy Sae or the butcher or even the Peacekeepers back home who are my customers by publicly announcing they’re breaking the law, too p.
268.
Katniss was in dilemma when at the end of the Games, the Gamemakers announced the changing of the game rules. The victor could not be both tributes
of the same district, there would no two victors, but there would only one victor.
The Gamemakers wanted Katniss and Peeta get into fight and kill each other. She would not let it happen. She had an idea to trick the Gamemakers because they
had to have a victor, if they had not, they would fail and humiliate the Capitol. So she decided to eat the nightlock, poisonous dark berries with Peeta, hoped the
Gamemakers will not let them eat the dark berries. Her thoughts is shown her clever characteristics.
Yes, they have to have a victor. Without a victor, the whole thing would blow up in the Gamemakers’ faces. They’d 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 won’t let you.” “Trust me,” I whisper. He holds my gaze for a long moment then lets me
go. I loosen the top of the pouch and pour a few spoonfuls of berries into his palm. Then I fill my own. “On the count of three?” p. 344
Katniss’s cleverness is also seen in her hunting and archery. It can be proved through Peeta’s point of view. She can hunt and shoot arrows perfectly.
She used to hunt with her father, who taught her hunt and archery since her childhood. She hunts to support her family. She usually sells her kills or barters
them for bread or anything her family’s need. When Haymitch ask Katniss whether she is good at hunting or not, then Peeta answered it. Peeta told Haymitch
how good she is at shooting arrow as he ever heard from his father. It is shown that her cleverness is seen through character as seen by another.
“She’s excellent,” says Peeta. “My father buys her squirrels. He always comments on how the arrows never pierce the body. She hits everyone in
the eye. It’s the same with the rabbits she sells the butcher. She can even bring down deer p. 89.”
Katniss’s cleverness in hunting skill is also seen through her speech. She knows how to set snare. She knows about trapping. Those things prove that
Katniss is clever and skilful to defence herself in the wild. After about a minute of this, Haymitch says, “Well, then. Well, well, well.
Katniss, there’s no guarantee there’ll be bows and arrows in the arena, but during your private session with the Gamemakers, show them what you
can do. Until then, stay clear of archery. Are you any good at trapping?” “I know a few basic snares,” I mutter p. 91.
6. Responsible
Katniss is a responsible young woman. It is showed through her past life in the novel. She made a big decision to take over as head of the family when she
was eleven years old because her mother could not do it since her father died in the mine accident which made her mother really desperate in sadness. She has to
take care of her family and feed them. At eleven years old, with Prim just seven, I took over as head of the
family. There was no choice. I bought our food at the market and cooked it as best I could and tried to keep Prim and myself looking presentable.
Because if it had become known that my mother could no longer care for us, the district would have taken us away from her and placed us in the
community home p. 27.
Her responsibility also seen through her thoughts. She told her mother firmly that she will not be there to take care of the family, feed them, and keep
them alive when she enters the Games. She informed her mother and Prim about what should they do when she is not present.
My mother sits beside me and wraps her arms around us. For a few minutes, we say nothing. Then I start telling them all the things they must
remember to do, now that I will not be there to do them for them p. 34.
Her mother cannot leave again and stuck in her dark world desperation, so she had to make sure that her mother has to be strong, to be responsible of Prim
and herself in every situation even in the bad ones. Her responsible characteristics is seen through her speech.
When I am done with instruction about fuel, and trading, and staying in school, I turn to my mother and grip her arm, hard. “Listen to me. Are you
listening to me?” She nods, alarm by my intensity. She must know what’s coming. “You can’t leave again,” I say.
My mother’s eyes find the floor. “I know. I won’t. I couldn’t help what –“ “Well, you have to help it this time. You can’t clock out and leave Prim on
her own. There’s no me now to keep you both alive. It doesn’t matter what happens. Whatever you see on the screen. You have to promise me you’ll
fight through it” My voice has risen to a shout. In it is all the anger, all the fear I felt at her abandonment p. 35.
B. The Influence of Katniss Everdeen’s Chracteristics Towards Her Struggle for Existence
In this novel, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, there are some situation when Katniss was struggling and she tried to show her existence. Living
in a society which is ruled by a cruel powerful government makes the people have a difficult life. Capitol take the whole comodities from the twelve districts of
Panem as a result the people in the twelve districts live in a poverty. People in Panem are afraid of the powerful Capitol. This difficult situation makes Katniss
hates the Capitol, especially her life is getting worse because of the Capitol rules. Capitol treat them whatever Capitol like as if they do not exist. Those situations
make Katniss struggle for her existence as a human being because how Capitol treats their people is not an appropriate treatment for human being.
Her characteristics have some part in determining her to show her existence when she faces some problems. So when Katniss decides to do
something to fight against her problems and prove her existence, her characteristics influence how she acts. According to the definition of existence,
Katniss’s existence is seen because she is “being”, and she is in the state of existing which is she exists and she is able to do what human suppose to do to
fight and survive in any bad situation. She shows from herself that she has the specifically human quality, which is shown in her way to deal with her struggles.
Her existence is also seen when she makes responsible decisions, and decides what she wants to do to create her life and existence. All of her struggles and how
her characteristics influence her to show her existence can be seen in those following explanations:
1. Decides to be a Leader and Taking Care of the Family
Katniss and her family lives in a poor district, district twelve. Her district is a part of Panem. Panem is ruled by the Capitol which is a rich and high
technology area. At first her family lived so well. Her father worked in mining and her mother worked as apothecary. They could fulfill their needs even though
they are not rich. When her father died in mining accident when she was eleven, no one support her family anymore. Her family becomes poor. It is seen in the
novel on pages twenty seven, “But the money ran out and we were slowly starving to death. There’s no other way to put it p. 27”.
One day Katniss could not earn some money for her family. She was starving and her family had nothing to eat. They just had some water to drink as
