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Christopher Kanazeh
Professor Groome
ENC 1102 13M
8 Apr. 2013
Psychological Mentality of Katniss Everdeen
In Suzanne Collins's, The Hunger Games, Katniss is the main character of the story, her
family and whole district is extremely poor and is the supplier for her family. Katniss hunts,
gathers, and makes sure her family is taken care of to the best of her ability while risking the
chance of getting caught going into the woods. The "reaping" has come, for the annual Hunger
Games event, which pits two randomly selected people from each district, a boy and a girl,
against each other and two other people from each other district. Katniss's sister Prim has been
chosen to be in the annual Hunger Games, with the sense of shock knowing her sister will most
likely die in the games, Katniss steps up and volunteers to replace Prim in the Hunger Games.
While preparing for the fight of her life, Katniss displays the psychological aspect of survival
and her mentality towards events before and during the Hunger Games.
Before the games start, both Katniss and the male counterpart from her district, Peeta, are
to be trained by Haymitch, a previous winner of the Hunger Games. Haymitch explains to both
Katniss and Peeta that during the games, he will be looking for people to sponsor them in the
games. The sponsors will send them valuable assets they will need to survive the games, and the
sponsors want to see a reason why they should send the tributes something and not another
participant. While arriving in town, Katniss notices Peeta waving at the people awaiting their
arrival. Peeta says, "One of them may be rich" (Collins 50). Katniss suddenly realizes that Peeta
is in survival mode, he will do anything to win, or get ahead of all the participants, even a
member of his own district. When the games begin, everyone is circled around the "Cornucopia",
which is the center of the arena they are in and has all the supplies and weapons that are supplied
at the start of the games. Since every participant is in one area, and the only supplies and

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weapons at their disposal are in one area, everyone wants to run in and grab what they need to
survive the others. With this mentality, a majority of the participants try to race for the
provisions, but in the end, walk into their own deaths. Knowing that in order to participate in the
Hunger Games, the age requirements are between the ages of twelve and eighteen, so there are
bound to be young children participating in the act of killing people in cold blood, or killing to
stay alive. The thought of children as young as twelve murdering other children on public
television would frighten even the coldest of hearts.
Each of the twelve districts have something they each do to obtain their income. District
twelve, which Katniss and Peeta represent in the Hunger Games, consist mainly of miners in
search of coal. When all the tributes are making an entrance, Cinna, who is the stylist for Katniss
and Peeta has decided to coat both of them in synthetic flames to catch everyone's attention and
still represent their district while making their entrance. Appearance to some people is
everything. According to Burton, Netemeyer, and Lichtenstein, "Relationships between
attractiveness and a broad range of favorable characteristics also extend to adulthood. For
example, physically attractive individuals are viewed as more sociable, dominant, mentally
healthy, sexually warm, and socially skilled than less attractive individuals"(qtd. in Feingold
1992, 61). Both Katniss and Peeta's appearance came off as dominant, and attractive to the fans
watching their entrance. With the fans admiring the two tributes, they are more likely to develop
a psychological relationship with the tributes and have a chance to sponsor them in an attempt to
give them an edge in winning the games. While both Katniss and Peeta are trying to maintain a
strong, dominant, and attractive appearance, the psychological aspect of trying to appear
different and fake from who they are would have a distinct role later in the games when it is
announced that two tributes from the same district are able to win. Before the games have begun,
and the tributes are being interviewed, Peeta has made it clear that he has had a crush on the

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fellow tribute from district twelve, Katniss. Katniss has a mental breakdown on Peeta after his
interview because she believes that it will make her looks weak to everyone and it is a plot
against her so Peeta can obtain an advantage. Haymitch argues that it makes her look desirable
and might have the exact opposite effect Katniss assumed it would have on herself. This part
shows just how intense it can get, knowing she is fighting for her life, thinking everyone is out to
get the slightest edge over her.
With all the tributes training for the annual Hunger Games, they notice some tributes who
are referred to as "career tributes". Career tributes are people who since birth have been training
their whole lives to compete in the Hunger Games and bring honor to their respective districts.
With most of the other tributes knowing they have a distinct advantage over them, minds begin
to roam freely, just how much of a chance do they stand against trained fighters in a battle to the
death. Doubt begins to rise and emotions begin to stir, thinking about the inevitable fate that will
be had fighting against trained killers. According to Bronson and Eleftheriou, mice are
genetically similar to humans, and during their experiment, they put a mouse trained to fight in
the same cage as a regular mouse. The mouse trained to fight won every time, and the regular
mouse had drastically high amounts of adrenaline because they know that if it continues they
will die (411). Although the career tributes have a distinct advantage overall against the other
tributes, others have special skills that have been learned and reflected through their lives. Rue,
the youngest tribute, has a special skill for climbing to high places, which might reflect
something as a tree climber back in her district, which could be used to avoid dangerous
situations. Katniss who has a special skill with the bow and arrow, showing she has used one
many times to hunt prey to feed her family, and knowing there will be weapons at the start of the
games, Katniss knows she will be better off with retrieving that weapon to fight off the other
tributes. Peeta, who is a good wrestler, has great strength overall and also excels at camouflage

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because his parents are bakers and cake decorators, so Peeta knows how to decorate something
perfectly, such as decorating himself to match the environment.
After the initial start of the Hunger Games, eleven tributes have been killed from the
malicious killing in the center of the arena. At the end of the night the images of the killed are
projected into the sky and Katniss knows that Peeta is still alive. At night, Katniss climbs high up
a tree to try and keep away from being killed while sleeping, but before she falls asleep, she
notices someone has made a fire and hears rustling bushes aiming towards the fire, it is some of
the career tributes who have grouped together with Peeta who took out the tribute that started the
fire. Katniss is shocked seeing Peeta who has joined up with the career tributes, knowing that
eventually they all can't win, and betrayal is inevitable. "Each group will inevitably pass through
a number of selective events. The individuals not selected away by such an event, only survive to
meet with another selective event when they are scrutinized again by natural selection" (Boer
93). Boer explains that even though it seems as Peeta's group is working well in the Hunger
Games right now, things can change in an instant. With only one winner at the end of the games,
Peeta will eventually have to fight the others in his group.
While Peeta has teamed up with the career tributes, Peeta is stuck with his own thought,
the thought of betrayal, and if he can trust the others. Peeta also is left to wonder what the career
tributes are thinking. The career tributes could just be using him to track down and find Katniss
since she scored the highest, she is the biggest threat. When Peeta's group is wandering around
killing other tributes, Peeta knows that the fate of the other tributes will eventually happen to
himself. Hamby and Sugarman explain that when individuals are engaging in acts of malicious
and intentional aggression, then those individuals are likely to turn on their partners and display
the same aggression they have showed to others on their partner (961).
Survival in the outdoors is something that every tribute will eventually have to adhere to
in order to survive. Just eating berries and plants anywhere, and sleeping under a tree isn't going

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to cut it. If they don't know which berries are edible and not poisonous, that is a ticket to disaster
straight off the bat. Sleeping anywhere and everywhere might work some days, but with weather
and climate change, a tribute might develop a sickness which would lead to their prolonged and
inevitable death. Katniss has an advantage in this area, she goes on to say that her mother had a
book from the apothecary shop that had drawings of plants with detailed information about them
such as their names, where to gather them, when they were available, and the uses of each plant,
but her father has added papers to the book stating which ones are edible (Collins 50). Katniss
knowing she has this knowledge and is able to survive in the outdoors, her mentality to survive
has skyrocketed, thinking if she can't overwhelm a tribute with power to kill someone, she is able
to survive and outlast everyone, even if the tributes have obtained all the supplies that have been
set in the middle of the arena.
Katniss has shown the psychological aspect of surviving and fighting off others during
the Hunger Games, displaying her knowledge of surviving in the outdoors and as well as staying
away from the confrontation of others. Katniss has delved into deep thought about certain
aspects of events and has shown her mentality towards them throughout the novel. Katniss tries
to hold back emotion towards her fellow tribute Peeta before the games, knowing in order to win
she will have to eventually kill him. Thinking about how certain tributes have trained their entire
lives to fight in these games, knowing Katniss and Peeta will be pitted against them, displays
deep emotion of anger and fear, knowing they are at a severe disadvantage. Even through all of
the events that happened to Katniss, with some rough bumps through the road, Katniss has kept a
relatively clear mind and has handled the situations she has been put in extremely well. Katniss
is not just fighting for her survival, Katniss is fighting for the survival of her sister and mother,
and that is the greatest psychological threat that could be thought of.

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Work Cited
Boer, P.J. "Natural Selection or the Non-survival of the Non-fit." Acta Biotheoretica (1999): 8397. Behavioral Science eJournal Collection (Springer). Web. 5 Mar. 2013.
Bronson, F.H. and B.E. Eleftheriou. Behavioral, Pituitary, and Adrenal Correlates of Controlled
Fighting (Defeat) in Mice. Physiological Zoology (1965): 406-411. JSTOR. Web. 29
Mar. 2013
Burton, Scot, Richard Netemeyer, and Donald Lichtenstein. "Gender Differences for
Appearance-Related Attitudes and Behaviors: Implications for Consumer Welfare."
Journal of Public Policy & Marketing 14.1 (1995): 60-75. JSTOR. Web. 29 Mar. 2013.
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic, 2008. Print.
Hamby, Sherry, and David Sugarman. "Acts of Psychological Aggression Against a Partner and
Their Relation to Physical Assault and Gender." Journal of Marriage and Family 61.4
(1999): 959-70. JSTOR. Web. 5 Mar. 2013.

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