"The bird, the pin, the song, the berries, the watch, the cracker, the dress that burst into flames. I am the mockingjay. The one that survived despite the Capitol's plans. The symbol of rebellion." ― Katniss Everdeen
Katniss Everdeen is the protagonist of The Hunger Games trilogy. She is the older sister of Primrose Everdeen, and the daughter of Mr. Everdeen & Carine Everdeen. She won The 74th Hunger Games along with Peeta Mellark at age 16. She, alongside Peeta, was the 2nd victor of District 12. She also participated in The 75th Hunger Games, as she was the only existing female victor from District 12, but the rebels broke in on the 3rd day to save her. She sparked the start of the Second Rebellion and was nicknamed "Girl on Fire." She is the wife of Peeta, and the mother of Rye and Willow Mellark.
Sources:
https:///wiki/Katniss_Everdeen#Third_Quarter_Quell
Early Life[]
In 63 ADD when Katniss went to school, Peeta saw her for the first time and immediately developed a crush on her. Later during the 74th Hunger Games, Peeta recalled the details, saying she was wearing a red plaid dress and had two braids instead of one. In school, during music class, her teacher asked the class if anyone knew the valley song. Katniss's hand shot up first and when she sang it, according to Peeta, "And I swear, every bird outside the windows fell silent." Sometime during Katniss's childhood, her father would teach her, "The Hanging Tree" song. He told her not to sing it out loud, as songs were used as weapons in the Capitol and the Districts. Her father also taught her how to swim in the woods in a lake, how to hunt, and tell the difference between edible plants an inedible plants, which could be poisonous.
In 68 ADD, Katniss surprised Prim on her tenth birthday by giving her a goat, which she would go on to call 'Lady'. Katniss recalls that Prim was so happy that she was crying and laughing at the same time.
On January 24th, 69 ADD, her father would die instantly in a mining accident, coincidentally, this was the same accident that killed Gale's father as well. The death of her father would lead Katniss' mother, Carine Everdeen, to go down into a depression spiral. Such accident broke her mother's heart to such a degree that she almost let Katniss and Prim starve, leading Katniss to have severe trust issues growing up. This event led Katniss to become the provider for her family, leading her to learn how to hunt and use a bow.
In 70 ADD, she met Gale Hawthorne, a 14 year old at the time while hunting. They later became friends and started hunting together. Gale was the person she could feel like being herself with. He had a crush on her, and so did Peeta Mellark. He gave her bread once by burning it so it would be thrown out. However, his mother punished him by hitting him.
One day, Gale and Katniss saw two people running from a Capitol ship. After being spotted, Lavinia and Levinus, whom Katniss believed was her brother or lover, were seen by Katniss and Gale while they were out hunting, in an off-limits wood outside of District 12. Katniss noted that the two had a "Capitol look" to them. A Capitol hovercraft appeared; the brother was struck with a spear that was shot from the hovercraft and was killed instantly, then was lifted up to the hovercraft, not to be mentioned again in the series. Lavinia, however, was scooped up by a net and taken into the hovercraft, and she briefly locked eyes with Katniss and Gale. When the boy was killed, she screamed what sounded like a name, and Katniss wondered if it was the name of the boy, in which it was.
74th Hunger Games[]
This year, her sister, Prim would be reaped that year. However, Katniss volunteered for her place to save her. The male tribute that gets reaped is Peeta Mellark. Their mentor that year is Haymitch Abernathy, since the last one died when she met Gale. Haymitch is described as a drunk mentor. However he gives her and Peeta good advice that year to survive the Games. During the bloodbath, she and the district 9 boy were fighting over a backpack, until Clove killed him with a throwing knife going into his back, getting blood all over Katniss. Clove threw another knife, now targeted at her, but she used the backpack as a shield, now having a knife.
Later that night, she would later almost get caught by the careers, but she remained quiet and hidden. The Gamemakers would later make her closer to the other tributes, since she was the farthest tribute away from anybody. They achieved this by starting a forest fire, with her getting some injuries. However, she received a sponsor that would later cure her anyways. She ran into the careers, but she climbed up a tree to avoid her. They couldn't reach her, so they set up a camp there, so if she would leave, they would know about it. However, Rue would later notify her that there was a tracker jacker nest near her, so she cut it down with the knife she got from Clove. However, she would get stung a couple of times by the tracker jackers during the process. The plan worked, killing Glimmer and the District 4 Female. She tried to escape, with havoc wreaking, but she started hallucinating too. Peeta tried to get her out of trouble, but Cato was chasing them. However, she lost them, with her passing out from the injuries. She would later be nursed into health by Rue later. They would later be allies, with them blowing up the careers supplies, resulting in the District 3 Male's death by Cato. Later, Marvel would kill Rue with the throw of a spear, and Katniss would shoot him in the neck with her bow that she stole from the corpse of Glimmer, making him suffocate in his own blood. Katniss would grieve greatly over Rue's death.
Later, she would stumble over Peeta, since he camouflaged. He would later explain on how Cato cut his leg severely, leaving him for dead. She would try the best of her ability to helming Peeta, using the medicine she got from the sponsor. She would also be in love with him at this time. During the feast, she would go alone (even though Peeta didn't want her to) stumbling into Clove. She would almost kill her, until Thresh would smash Clove's head into the cornucopia until she was eventually dead. This would anger Cato so much that he would later kill Thresh himself. After that, on the final day of the Games, the last three would be chased by mutts. Katniss would later find out that Cato got an armor chest piece that would deflect the arrows that she would shoot at him. She would later fight Cato on top of the cornucopia. She would eventually spare Cato when he fell off of the cornucopia because of Peeta, shooting an arrow at Cato's head. When it was just her and Peeta left, she threatened the Gamemakers that if they didn't let the both of them win, they would commit suicide. This would work, and there would be two victors that year. This heavily worked Haymitch, as he knows what will happen if she does risky things like that. She later returns to District 12 happy.
Catching Fire[]
During this year (only a year after) she would make new friends at 12, like a new friends named Darius, who would later become an Avox. She also goes on her Victory Tour, and sees many of the tribute's families. She doesn't not like this, since she hates remembering the Games. Eventually, she would later find out that the districts are rebelling because of her rebellious act against the Capitol. President Snow threatens to kill her family if she doesn't try to calm the districts down with her love story. She fails at doing this when she goes on her Victory Tour. Because of this, the new Quarter Quell's twist would be that the tributes would be the remaining victors, meaning that she would be in the Games again. This obviously upsets her, along with Peeta and Haymitch. During the reaping, she would make a promise with Haymitch about him keeping Peeta safe. Before the Games, she would watch some of the tapes of the past victors they'll face. One of the tapes they watched is Haymitches. She also sees Peeta watching Brutus's Games.
Years later, Lavinia waited on Katniss as an Avox whose tongue had been cut out for committing crimes against the Capitol. Katniss said she knew Lavinia, but at that time did not know her name or where she remembered her from. This worried the residents from the Capitol, so Peeta stepped in and claimed that Lavinia looked like Delly Cartwright - a girl from District 12 who went to school with them, and who Katniss claims, could be the nicest person on earth. As an Avox, she could not publicly acknowledge anything that was not a direct order, so Katniss' initial attempt at conversation was ignored.
However when she later walks in on the mess Katniss has made in her room prior to interview night she shows some response to Katniss' attempted apology, indicating by gestures that Katniss did not need to be sorry, and that there was nothing she could have done, otherwise she too, would have been an Avox or she would be killed.
They would later go into training, meet the other tributes, and get their score. She hangs a dummy that is supposed to be Seneca Crane with some rope after seeing a picture of Rue. They both get 12's, so the other tributes can target her. Peeta makes many friends during training, while Katniss makes a select few. During the countdown of this year's Games, Woof was standing to the right of her, but Cashmere replaces his spot in the movie. During the start of there Games, she realizes that many other tributes are trying to protect her during the Games. She first makes an alliance with Peeta, Finnick, and Mags. Peeta accidentally hits an invisible forcefield, almost killing him. However, Finnick manages to save him, making Katniss and Peeta forever in his debt. They usually just wander aimlessly around the arena after that, until they run into poisonous fog. They know the fog won't stop until one is dead, so Mags sacrificed herself, which killed her very quickly. This left Finnick very sad. Later, they would meet up with Johanna, Wiress, and Beete, with them making a bigger alliance. They would return to the cornucopia, but get attacked by the careers. They would kill Wiress, while Johanna would kill Cashmere, and Katniss would kill Gloss. After that, the cornucopia spins, so she tries to hold on to the ground. However, she loses her grip, but in time, Johanna grabbed her hand to try to stop her from falling into the water. However, Katniss's grip loosened, and she fell into the water. However, she would recover with very minor injuries.
Later, Peeta tries to give Katniss a gold locket and tells her he wants her to win, because if she dies he has nothing to live for, even though he said that he has family he wants to take care of. She realizes that she loves Peeta and wants to fulfill her plan of keeping him
alive. The next day, after telling Peeta that they need to leave the alliance, he tells her to wait because he believes Beetee has a plan. The plan is to tie Beetee's wire around a tree that is struck by lightning and run the wire into the ocean, making the beach a conductor to electrocute everything in its path. Katniss and Johanna are in charge of running the wire down to the beach because they are the fastest, however they are attacked by Brutus & Enobaria, the remaining of the career alliance. Johanna rips Katniss's tracker out of her, making it look like she's injured. Brutus says that she's good for dead. This gives her time to see that Beetee has accidentally hit an invisible forcefield like Peeta did. Katniss wonders where Peeta is, and assumes Finnick killed him. She hides and is about to shoot Finnick, when he tells her to remember who the real enemy is. She sees that he hasn't killed him.
Realizing that Beetee was trying to blow up the forcefield, she wraps his wire around her bow and shoots it right into the flaw in the forcefield at the exact moment when the lightning strikes the tree, blowing up the arena. After this, District 13 rescues her, along with Beetee and Finnick. However, the Capitol captures Peeta, Johanna, and Enobaria. She later finds out that Peeta was captured, so she tries to fight Haymitch, since he promised he would save Peeta. She later finds out that about half of the tributes were in on the plan to save Katniss, since she's the face of the Second Rebellion. She later passes out from a shot injected into her while she was fighting Haymitch by Plutarch Heavensbee. She later talks to Gale, finding out that District 12 was bombed, but he saved her family. She finds out that there is no District 12.
Mockingjay[]
During mockingly, she helps the Districts win against the Capitol. However, this is obviously achieved with many casualties. The war ends with President Snow dead and Alma Coin dead as well, as she kills her. During the epilogue, she has 3 kids now, with her being a mother and Peeta being a father.
Katniss's Kids:
Arya Mellark (daughter) ( Age 16)
Finnick (son) (Age 4)
Willow (daughter) ( Age 13)
Trivia[]
- Her odds of winning the 74th Games were 23-1
- She was born on May 8th
- She weighed 122 lbs in the 74th Games
- Suzanne Collins compares Katniss to the Greek warrior, Theseus.
- She was District 12's very first volunteer according to Effie in the first film, while in the book District 12 "hadn't had a volunteer in decades."
- She had 7 known victims- Glimmer Belcourt, Marina (book) Marvel Sanford, Cato Hedley,Gloss Nicholo, Unnamed Capitol woman (Second Rebellion) and Alma Coin.
- Katniss and Peeta are the only victors to ever participate in the Games two years in a row.
- Her favorite color is green
- Her name comes from a plant with edible tubers called Sagittaria (katniss), from Sagittarius the Archer, whose name means He that throws arrows in Latin. This would explain why her character is good at archery.
- In the epilogue, she says it took 15 years for her to agree about having children with Peeta. Because she was an 18-year-old by the end of Mockingjay, it is implied that she gave birth to their daughter at around 33. It is mentioned that more than twenty years have passed since the games came to an end, meaning Katniss would be at least 38.