Gale Hawthorne Character Analysis

A friend of Katniss Everdeen and a fellow resident of District 12, Gale is a resourceful, rugged young man, for whom Katniss has had romantic feelings at many points. He and Katniss have been friends since childhood, and they still enjoy hunting together. Gale is jealous of Katniss for spending time with Peeta and ultimately marrying him. Like Peeta, Gale despises the Capitol, and tries to challenge its authority at all times. Sometimes, his challenges can be as simple as breaking the rules of poaching and hunting (a crime for which he’s ultimately punished with a brutal flogging), or as significant as leading a district-wide uprising against the government’s authority. Where Peeta seeks to dismantle the government “from the inside,” Gale tries to fight the government using more direct, head-to-head methods. By the end of the book, he’s firmly established himself as a member of a huge rebel alliance against the government.