Catching Fire: Chapter 14 Summary & Analysis

Katniss sits in the train, watching District 12 recede from view. Peeta, who is sitting next to her, assures Katniss that they’ll write letters to their loved ones. Katniss thinks to herself that she’ll never write a single letter, as she can’t summon the concentration to put her thoughts into words. Her goal for the Games is simple: keep Peeta alive.

Katniss and Peeta eat dinner with Haymitch and Effie in the train. Effie mentions that she’ll be wearing dresses to match Katniss’s mockingjay pin. Katniss realizes that most people in the Capitol have no idea that, for the rebels, the mockingjay symbolizes uprising. As they finish their meal, Effie suggests that they discuss the other competitors in the upcoming Games. They range in age from 14 to 80. Some previously won their Hunger Games with brutality, while others won with shrewdness, or even by pretending to be disabled. Two of the competitors are brother and sister, and some of them volunteered to fight again, although most were drafted against their will. Haymitch remembers many of the competitors, including an old friend of his named Chaff.

Katniss tries to sleep, but can’t stop thinking about her competitors in the upcoming Games. She goes to talk to Haymitch, thinking that he must be awake, too. In the compartment next to hers, she finds Peeta, watching old footage of Hunger Games starring Brutus, a middle-aged competitor who has volunteered to fight again. Peeta asks Katniss if she’s doing all right, and if she needs to talk about her feelings. Katniss only shakes her head. But Peeta embraces Katniss, and she is surprised to feel a sudden sense of peacefulness.

Katniss and Peeta watch the tapes of previous Games together. In one clip, government officials in District 12 call out the names of the two tributes for that year, and Katniss catches a glimpse of her own mother as a young woman—Katniss thinks that she’s very beautiful. In the clip, Haymitch’s name is called, along with that of a teenager named Maysilee, who, Katniss recognizes, was an old friend of her mother’s and died in the Games. She wonders aloud if Haymitch was the one to kill Maysilee.

The clips of the Games continue. In one, Haymitch is about to participate in his second Hunger Games, as a part of the second Quarter Quell. As the games for that year go on, tributes brutally murder one another. One “Career” pack of tributes bands together to kill as many victims as possible. “Careers” train for the Hunger Games all year, then volunteer for it. On the third day, Haymitch is almost killed, but Maysilee saves his life, shooting his attacker with an arrow. Afterwards, Haymitch and Maysilee form an alliance.

Peeta and Katniss watch as the Games in their clip draw to a close. Haymitch and Maysilee break off their alliance, recognizing that it’s better to part ways in peace rather than betray one another. Almost as soon as they part, Maysilee is killed by a group of genetically engineered birds. As she watches, Katniss is reminded of her failure to save Rue. The Games end with Haymitch narrowly defeating a woman from District 1. Haymitch discovers a strange gorge that “throws back” anything one throws into it. (Katniss realizes that the gorge must have been designed to prevent competitors from killing themselves.) In his confrontation with his opponent, she drops an axe into the gorge—unaware what the gorge can do, she stands in place, long enough for her own weapon to jump back and kill her. In the process, Haymitch sustains a near-deadly chest wound.

Katniss notes, admiringly, that Haymitch managed to win his second Games without actually murdering his final opponent. This action undoubtedly displeased the government, since he used its own technology against it. Katniss hears a noise, and finds Haymitch standing behind her, drinking a bottle of wine. Katniss is annoyed that Haymitch has taken up alcohol again, but her annoyance is drowned out by the sense that she’s only just begun to understand what kind of person Haymitch is. She and Haymitch have both been disobedient to the Capitol—thus, they’ll have to work together to help Peeta survive.