With every killing she makes, Katniss loses more and more of what was left of her innocence.

Awareness and responsibility

Coming to terms with The second book, Catching Fire, deals with Katniss coming to terms with what she has experienced in the Hunger Games and its aftermath. She is forced to become a celebrity, but a celebrity that knows the falsehood of her fame and the hypocrisy of those who made her one. She makes a Tour of Victory in the Districts, forced to become an envoy of sorts of the Capitol, but what she sees and hears worsens the nightmares of her recent experience as a Tribute in the Games gradually pushes her to make a decision: will she hide or run from her new awareness of the evil that is the cruel and corrupt government and system, or will she stand and fight it?

As Katniss comes to a decision, readers are also made to think about their own responses to problems and conflict, whether personal or outside their own immediate sphere of existence. The world as we know it is far from being a realm of goodness and peace, and in the last 50 years after World War II, worries of nuclear annihilation has not completely left the public’s consciousness. In the meantime, the international economic crisis caused by capitalism’s unstoppable self-destruction has resulted in chaos: millions of workers globally losing their jobs; once powerful business conglomerates including banks crashing and closing; homelessness and hunger are on the rise especially in the so-called First World countries.

One cannot hide from these realities, and even the once politically indifferent and the socially apathetic have become aware that much is not right in the world. The question is whether one simply resigns oneself to the problems that beset society : from the endless traffic jams to the ‘desterioration of social services, to worsened corruption in government and human rights violations of the armed forces against the citizenry, or take action against them.

Katniss takes action against the horrors of her own world.

Rebellion and watchfulness

The third book, Mockingjay, sees the struggle against the Capitol erupt in full force. Her victory in the Hunger Games and how she succeded in defying the Capitol (albeit undeliberately) was witnessed by the whole population of Panem, and the people’s long festering anger can no longer be contained. The death toll rises as the war breaks out, and Katniss accepts her role as the Face of the rebellion.

Those who have accepted that there is a need to speak out and act against injustice will take note of Katniss’ hesitation. Katniss had difficulty trusting leaders who declared themselves to be one with the people and against oppression, but did not participate directly in the fight for freedom. She feared against trusting those who never knew how it was to starve or be victimized, and never shared the pain of those who did. She was warry that those who lead the movement only seek power for themselves in a set-up similar to that established by those they want to bring down.

By the end of the book, her decision and final act of defiance are cause for shock, but it also ellicits understanding and respect for her bravery.

The last pages of Mockingjay reveals a Katniss with no more illusions, and it is primarily the fear that the Hunger Games and the government she helped bring down will return that keeps her awake at night. She has children of her own, and they play in a meadow that was only a decade before a massive graveyard of civilians killed in the war against the Capitol. She lives from day to day, afraid to hope, and but always in her heart prepared to once more fight against anything that threatens to bring back the system that created the Hunger Games.

Katniss learns that injustice and the wars that erupt because of it destroy more than structures or countries, but the innocence of children and any hope there can be of a future where war is only a memory. And a counter-war, a movement of opposition and liberation that does not keep at its heart the determination to never repeat what the oppressors have done will do nothing to help the cause of humanity for true peace.

There are other characters in the Hunger Games books that influence Katniss and her decisions. For the most part Katniss has no true goals of her own apart from keeping her sister and mother safe and alive; but her friendship with two boys, Peeta Mellark and Gale Hawthorne help her decide the paths she will follow. The relationships she forms with other Tributes, primarily the little girl Rue from District 1, also make their mark on her life and is direction in the context of war.

Peeta is the voice of compassionate reason. In the midst of conflict and even as his life is directly threatened, he firmly clings to keep his humanity. He struggles against any course of action that will compromise what he believes to be humane and just, even if will save his life.

Gale, is also an idealist, but his ideals embrace retribution and revenge. He has Machiavellian instincts; and while he cannot be immediately blamed for it living as he did as an essential slave of the Capitol, the crucial decisions he makes in time of war serve to fuel continuing hatred instead of strengthening resolves to do justice.

The Hunger Games is rife with metaphors for how governments of the powerful nations of the world today send the working people to their death by denying them their economic rights, by violating the rest of their human rights, and by systematically creating a climate of impunity wherein the armed forces maim and kill those who chose to voice their dissent. And at the end of everything, its always the children, the younger generations who suffer the most, and unless one takes a stand, the suffering never ends and the Hunger Games continue.

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