Katniss Character Analysis

The Hunger Games novel by Suzanne Collins, with it’s morally challenging moments often leave the main character, Katniss confused, helpless, and angry. However, one thing that helps her emotions be understood by the reader are plenty of minor characters that she partners with that helps her show how she truly feels and act about things that are around her so it shows that minor characters are often used to help the reader understand the central character in the Hunger Games novel and examples of minor characters are Gale and Peeta.

Gale, Katniss’s close friend and hunting partner is a first example. Gale and Katniss often hunt for food together on the outskirts of District 12 and through this, the reader can see how Katniss feels about mutualistic

Through his interaction with her, we can see how Katniss is paranoid about trust by thinking “how a kind Peeta Mellark is far more dangerous than an unkind one because she can be manipulated”(pg. 49) in addition to how, “for there to be betrayal, there would have been trust first.”(pg.114) because of Peeta being wanted to be trained separately for the interview after all their training together before the Hunger Games which shows the reader how difficult it is for Katniss to trust other people. Another way in how Peeta helps the reader understand Katniss’s emotions is when he plays up the romance with her during the Hunger Games and through these acts, the reader can see how Katniss feels about love thinking about how “she does not want to loose the boy with the bread”(pg.297) and after the games, how “she has not even begun to separate her feelings about Peeta because it is complicated”(pg.358) due to Peeta actually being in love with Katniss while she only played up the romance to survive the Hunger Games which shows Katniss’s complications with love to the reader. Through Peeta’s acts during the Hunger Games, the reader can understand Katniss’s lack of trust when she feels in danger and her own problems with really falling in love with