Summary
The Hunger Games is a book for young adults written by Suzanne Collins. The main character’s name is Katniss Everdeen and she lives in the future country of Panem. For a while, there were 13 districts. One day the 13th district rebelled against the evil capitol. They did not succeed and their district was obliterated. As a reminder to the remaining districts not to rebel, the capitol started the annual Hunger Games.
Katniss Everdeen awakes one sad morning to find that her sister, Prim, has decided to sleep with her mother. Katniss decides to go into the woods, beyond the chain link fence that is supposed to be buzzing with electricity, but because she is in district 12. District 12 is one of the 12 districts that the Capitol keeps under constant vigilance and makes sure to control. The fence almost never had electricity running through it, but she always waited a bit and listened to check. District 12 was one of the poorest districts. She goes into the forest and takes her bow from it’s hiding place and looks for some game.
Not long after entering the woods, Katniss sees her friend Gale. He has black hair and olive skin, just like Katniss. The eat and mock the capitol and then return to their homes. Katniss is dressed in fine clothes and has her hair braided. She then goes to the town square to view the reaping. The reaping is when one girl and one boy are chosen from each of the 12 districts to fight to the death in the Hunger Games. Katniss is scared because she had entered her name extra times. You can enter your name extra times for tessera, your chance of getting picked is higher, but you get some food. Also, every since you are old enough to be entered, your name is added one more time until you are too old to be in the drawing.
When the name is picked it is Prim, her sister. Katniss immediately volunteers for her sister and gets taken away to the capitol with the male tribute. The boy from district 12 that was chosen was Peeta Mellark. The are trained and the preform for judges and are given ratings. Katniss is very good with a bow and arrow so when she privately preforms for the judges she starts to shoot a dummy. When the judges don’t even acknowledge that she is there she becomes frustrated and shoots the apple out of the pig’s mouth that they were going to eat and dismissed her self.
She is to parade around in the Capitol wearing an outfit that her designer, Cinna, will create to represent her district. District 12 mines coal and many outfits that the tributes wear are not very attractive. To her surprise, Katniss finds that Cinna has actually made her a suit that has synthetic flames that radiate from her black jumpsuit. When she is in her carriage wearing her flaming outfit, she sees herself in a television, she sees that she looks amazing, unforgettable. She is known as “Katniss, the girl who was on fire.”
She is interviewed in front of all of Panem. When she is done answering questions, Peeta goes up. He is asked some questions and is asked if he has a girlfriend. He replies saying that he doesn’t, but that he does love one specific girl. He is told by the man asking questions that if he wins the hunger games that he can go home and be with that girl forever and have eternal glory. Peeta replies saying that he can’t because that girl came with him. Katniss is taken by surprise, but must simply act flattered.
When Katniss gets into the arena, she is glad to see that there is a forest. She was told by her trainer, Haymitch, to run towards water and NOT towards the cornucopia. The cornucopia is huge and filled with supplies that will be needed in the games, but the children from the wealthier districts (1,2, and 4) stick together and form a short-term alliance with each other and take much from the cornucopia and kill all others, then those they called allies. These children are called ‘careers’.
Katniss hurries to the cornucopia and takes a backpack before heading to the forest to look for water. She is on the verge of dieing from dehydration when she finds water. She sleeps in a sleeping bag (it radiates your body heat back at you) in a tree as to stay away from the careers. She doesn’t know where Peeta is, but is more worried about survival. She hunts and stays away from others. She knows that those in the capitol want to see deaths and that this peaceful time cannot last long.
Not long after waking one day, she finds a fire blazing below. She gathers her things and tries to run. There are balls of fire being shot from somewhere and she does her best to dodge. This must be of the gamemakers doing. She escapes, but her calf was badly burned by one of the balls of fire. She runs to the edge of another lake and does her best to clean her wound. She later receives a container of medicine sent by a sponsor. A sponsor is a person who is not in the games, but wishes to help a tribute by sending things to a tribute that will help them. She opens up the container and sees that it is expensive medicine. She rubs it on her burn and feels instant relief. She also has minor burns on her hands and rubs the ointment on them. Feeling relief, she gets back into a tree to sleep.
Ever night, in the sky, the Panem national anthem plays and then the faces of that day’s dead tributes are shown. Katniss has not killed anyone, but many are killed on the first day, trying to get supplies from the cornucopia. One day she is in her tree when she hears someone scream. It is a girl, and Katniss could see the smoke from the fire she must have set in the sky. The group of careers come near her, but they do not see her. She watches careful not to make any noise.
She hears them talking, making sure the girl is dead. When the careers come into sight her breath is taken away. She sees Peeta Mellark with them. He was the one that killed the girl. She hears them talking about herself, how they cannot find her. The careers don’t hear the cannon that always is set off when a tribute dies and they send Peeta to make sure the girl is dead. While Peeta is gone they mock him and a few ask why they must keep him around, they think that he can lead them to Katniss. Peeta returns.
Later, the careers spot Katniss while she is in a tree, she climbs further up the tree, hoping that because most of the careers are big and muscular that they will not be able to follow her. She is correct in thinking so. The careers make camp under the tree that Katniss stay in and wait. Katniss remains in the tree for a while when she spots a pair of eyes staring at her from a nearby tree. The youngest tribute, Rue, sticks out her hand and points to something on a branch near Katniss. Rue disappears. When Katniss looks at the place where the girl pointed she is shocked. In the dark days, when District 13 rebelled , they created a type of bug called a trackerjacker. Trackerjackers would attack you at the slickest provocation and would sting you. Where ever they stung you a large boil would appear, it would be green and would itch incredibly. The trackerjackers got their name because they would track you down until you died, and those who survived them would have terrible hallucinations. Katniss got out a pocket knife and started to cut the branch. The careers were asleep and the trackerjackers were woozy because of the smoke issued from the fire. Once the branch was cut only a few of the trackerjackers had seen Katniss. She got stung only a few times, but those down below, where the nest fell, were being attacked in swarms.
Once the trackerjackers had chased the careers off, Katniss came down from the tree. She took a golden bow and a sheath of arrows from one girl that the trackerjackers had killed and sat to catch her breath. She started having horrible hallucinations, but then finally woke up. She started a fire and cooked some meat. While the meat was cooking she heard a noise. She whipped her head around and saw the tip of a small foot. Assuming this was Rue’s, she said, “You know, the careers and the only ones that can make alliances.” Then Rue came out from behind the tree and skeptically sat down. They agreed on being allies.
Rue treated the trackerjacker stings that Katniss had gotten and gave her some berries. Katniss gave Rue a leg of an animal she had killed to eat. This was more food than Rue was used to seeing, and she was very thankful. They later decided to try to take out the careers. The careers had many talents and had lots of food. Many didn’t know how to hunt or gather. They decided on taking out their food supply.
They had a plan. Katniss would go to the site that the careers were staying. Meanwhile, Rue would light a fire at one point, then she would run to another and light that fire, and then another, to lead the careers away from their site. Katniss would get to the food and light if ablaze.
Katniss later finds out that there are land mines surrounding the food. She takes out an arrow and shoots a bag of apples, hoping that they will fall and set off enough land mines to catch the food on fire. She succeeds in catching the food on fire, but the sound of the explosion deafens one of her ears and she is knocked onto her back. She immediately hears the careers returning. They are yelling, one of them says that he will kill whoever did this to them. Then she goes to find Rue. She finds that Rue had been killed and she kills the tribute who killed her. She puts flowers around Rue and sings her a song that Rue had taught her until she passes.
Katniss later goes about the arena looking for Peeta. She comes to a rocky place that she has never encountered. When she takes a step further down the path, she hears Peeta. She looks around immediately, but then realizes that it was he that she had stepped on. He has camouflaged himself (he is a baker’s son so he had practice icing cakes and he was good at camouflage) so well that Katniss couldn’t see him. When he is uncovered she finds out that he used his short alliance with the careers to get info and keep her safe.
Katniss sees that Peeta has been injured and has blood poisoning. She tends to him with the little knowledge she has on herbal remedies. He is taken by surprise finding that she has gotten presents from sponsors for he had gotten none. One day, all of the tributes are offered a chance to get what they need and that two tributes could win, only if they were in the same district though. Katniss is told not to go by Peeta who says that it will be too unsafe, for all of the tributes will be in one place. Katniss uses some sleep medicine from a sponsor on Peeta and she goes to get what Peeta needed, something to cure his blood poisoning. She sees a tiny little backpack and gets it. She is injured and her life is spared by the male tribute from Rue’s district (district 11), but she gets the medicine to Peeta. Peeta is not happy that she druged him, but he is still happy for the medicine that will save his life. He still has a large open wound, but now his blood isn’t poisoned and he has a chance at survival.
Katniss hunts while Peeta gathered berries. When Katniss return she looks at what he had gathered. She sees some berries that Rue had warned her were deadly. Peeta says that he had collected more. Katniss remembers a tribute that went around and stole stuff from others and realized what had happened. The cannon fired confirming her suspicions.
Peeta and Katniss return to the cornucopia and find the last tribute there as well. Though when he comes toward him they see that he looks frightened, like he is being chased. They find out that he is being chased by mutated dogs. The three of them run onto the metal cornucopia. Peeta is laying down, his leg causing him great pain. The mutated dogs, Katniss realized, have the eyes of the dead tributes. She is frightened. The other tribute with Katniss and Peeta takes Peeta and threatens to kill him, saying that if Katniss shoots him or Peeta that Peeta will be killed. When the tribute is killed and Peeta saved, the dogs retreat.
Katniss and Peeta will now be expected to kill each other. They each tell the other to kill them, but they cannot come to a conclusion. Katniss realizes that she had brought some of the poisonous berries with her incase they would help he with the disposing of the last tribute, and she thinks of an idea. She hands a berry to Peeta and takes on in her hand. She yells aloud for the cameras that if there will be either two tributes or none. Katniss and Peeta begin to eat the berries at the same time when they hear a loud voice saying that they both have won. They wash out their mouths so not to swallow any of the poison and they are brought onto a hover craft and are split up. Peeta taken away by doctors and Katniss offered a drink while she is screaming for Peeta behind the glass meant to keep her away.
She finds out, from Haymitch, that what they did with the berries was seen by some as rebellious. She is told to make it seen as though it was part of their “star-crossed lovers” act. When Peeta and Katniss are reunited they are dressed up and forced to watch the games on television. She finds this terrifying. She returns home with Peeta, and the book ends with her dreading the moment that she will have to let go of his hand.