How Katniss is Shaped by her Background

             In the novel, The Hunger Games, Katniss’s background of representing and living in District 12 heavily influences her opinion of other tributes. Katniss is more quick to trust and form an allyship with Rue, while she is not willing to even consider the Career tributes as competitors that she should feel bad for. Instead, Katniss is more likely to blame the Careers as well and dislike them for their better lives in Districts 1, 2 and 4 compared to her life in District 12.

            Katniss partially becomes allies with Rue because she reminds her of Prim and how unfair it is that young, innocent children are being sent to participate in the games. However, along with how young Rue is, she also comes from a working-class district with harsh realities that Katniss can relate to. After befriending one another in the arena, Rue explains that while District 11 might grow crops, the residents aren’t allowed to eat them. Instead, if people of District 11 are caught eating the crops that they harvest, they will be whipped as punishment, and the mayor is very strict about it (Collins, 202). The whipping punishment is actually more severe in 11 than in 12, so Katniss is reminded that many districts have it bad and that Rue is probably also trying to get through the games on a survival instinct like she is as well. Thresh, also from District 11, has similar instincts and morals to Katniss as he doesn’t kill her at the cornucopia so that he doesn’t “owe” her for giving Rue a more meaningful death, and this is another example of Katniss’s background shaping her experience (288).

            Food is extremely limited in District 12, especially for those from the Seam, so Katniss uses her motivation for survival to get through life and learn to adapt, which is what makes her able to survive in the Hunger Games as well. While many of the Careers are often on the offensive during the games, Katniss is in defensive mode until she becomes allies with Rue. After Rue mentions the Careers aren’t starving, Katniss comes up with a plan to destroy their food, which she realizes is the first time she has an offensive plan since entering the arena (207).

            While Katniss is more able to relate to tributes from districts like hers, she heavily dislikes the tributes from the Career districts. Katniss continues hating the Capitol throughout the game, but she also is adamant about hating the Careers. After Rue dies, Katniss thinks about how the Careers are responsible for her death, thinking “[t]hey, at least, can be made to pay for Rue’s death” (238). Even though the Careers are just kids too and they also want to go home, they don’t grow up fighting to survive and Katniss dislikes them for that and they’re enthusiasm to participate in the games, so her background heavily influences her hatred for them within the arena.