Hidden Resistance vs. Direct Rebellion Theme Analysis

As she embarks on her “Victory Tour” of Panem at the start of the novel, Katniss faces a challenge—the government warns her to “behave,” or else they threaten to kill her loved ones. By going “off-script” in any way, President Snow explains, Katniss would send a subversive message to the twelve districts of Panem: that it’s okay to be disobedient to the government. Thus, she must stick to the script at all costs, smile and wave for the cameras, make bland speeches about the importance of the Hunger Games, and generally honor the formalities of the Victory Tour.

As a result of the government’s conniving, Katniss finds herself in a strange position. She despises the government for impoverishing her home, District 12, and forcing her to risk her life in the Hunger Games, yet as a result of having won the Hunger Games, the same government has given her a national platform from which to speak. In a sense, Katniss plays the part of a “Trojan Horse”—she’s fighting the government from the inside, using the government’s own weapons—a ubiquitous media, quick transportation, etc.—against it.

There are many disadvantages to Katniss’s “Trojan Horse” approach, however. To begin with, Katniss herself isn’t sure where her allegiances lie. For much of Catching Fire, she’s careful never to deviate from the script for any reason, since she’s concerned that she’s putting her mother and sister’s lives in jeopardy. This points to a general, obvious weakness in fighting the government from the inside: Katniss depends upon the government’s power to broadcast her message of rebellion, and thus she is at the government’s mercy in more ways than one.

Another problem with fighting the government from within is that Katniss’s message sometimes gets misinterpreted (See Symbols and Interpretations theme as well). While her mockingjay pin becomes a symbol of resistance to government tyranny in some districts, in the Capitol it’s seen as a symbol of the Hunger Games themselves—in other words, a symbol of the government’s power. As a consequence of her strategy to fight from within, Katniss is not only partnering with the government, she’s sometimes building support for it.

In general, fighting the government from the inside is a slow, fitful process, and it’s often difficult to tell if any progress is being made at all. Yet the “Trojan Horse” approach to rebellion has some advantages over its more obvious alternatives. Katniss’s friend Gale wants to use force and espionage to bring down the government in District 12, but he is no more successful than Katniss—in most ways, in fact, he is significantly less so. For disobeying the government’s rules, he’s savagely whipped, and as a result spends the next few weeks recovering. Though he wants to organize the miners of District 12 against President Snow, it quickly becomes clear that Gale will never defeat the government’s powerful, well-organized troops, no matter how many miners join him. Attacking President Snow’s government from the outside isn’t any more efficient or productive than attacking it from the inside.

At the end of Catching Fire, the government is still very much in power—in other words, the theme of attacking from within hasn’t been fully resolved. Yet Collins concludes with a single, powerful illustration of the advantages of the Trojan Horse strategy. Katniss, imprisoned in the Hunger Games arena, recognizes that her real enemies are not the people she’s fighting in the Games, but actually the government officials who created and run the Games. Thus, she fires an arrow at the force field surrounding the arena, freeing herself from her prison and, quite literally, attacking the government’s power from the inside. Katniss sends a clear message of rebellion to audiences watching her throughout Panem. Attacking the government from the inside is difficult and sometimes seems hopeless, but ultimately it’s an intelligent, productive way to battle tyranny and injustice.