How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
“There’s almost always some wood,” Gale says. “Since that year half of them died of cold. Not much entertainment in that.”
It’s true. We spent one Hunger Games watching the players freeze to death at night. You could hardly see them because they were just huddled in balls and had no wood for fires or torches or anything. It was considered very anti-climactic in the Capitol, all those quiet bloodless deaths. Since then, there’s usually been wood to make fires. (3.34-35)
The Hunger Games, in which tributes fight each other to the death in front of the cameras, are an extreme example of reality television. Notice how the emphasis is on the audience’s entertainment rather than the pain and suffering of the candidates.
Quote #2
I’d set out to tell her I was sorry about dinner. But I know that my apology runs much deeper. That I’m ashamed I never tried to help her in the woods. That I let the Capitol kill the boy and mutilate her without lifting a finger.
Just like I was watching the Games. (6.83-84)
Katniss feels the need to apologize to the Avox girl who she didn’t help in the woods. Notice how Katniss compares watching the girl being taken away to watching the Hunger Games. Under the harsh rule of the government, Katniss’s life has become a daily version of the Games.
Quote #3
When we finally escape to bed on the second night, Peeta mumbles, “Someone ought to get Haymitch a drink.”
I make a sound that is somewhere between a snort and a laugh. Then catch myself. It’s messing with my mind too much, trying to keep straight when we’re supposedly friends and when we’re not. At least when we get into the arena, I’ll know where we stand. “Don’t. Don’t let’s pretend when there’s no one around.” (7.85-86)
What’s real and what isn’t? In the Hunger Games, Katniss can’t be sure. Is Peeta sincere about being her friend? Or does he have other plans?