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Chapter 22
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Hunger Games, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Division and Control
Love, Loyalty, and Compassion
Societal Inequality
Appearances
Hypocrisy
Summary
Analysis
Katniss and Peeta are careful to ration the rich food so that it doesn’t disturb their stomachs. They talk about how Haymitch will become their neighbor if they win the games and move to Victor’s Village—the part of the district where previous Hunger Games winners live. It occurs to Katniss that they don’t know how Haymitch won his Games, and Peeta and Katniss conclude that he must have outsmarted his competitors. Katniss begins to serve herself a second portion of the food when the anthem begins to play. Peeta checks the images in the sky and tells her gently that Thresh is now dead. Katniss is upset by the news, but she waits until her face is covered inside the sleeping bag to mourn. She vows to remember Thresh and Rue. Katniss drifts off to sleep, and Peeta wakes her in a few hours to eat again.
The fact that the victors—who become very wealthy after winning the Games—are sectioned off into a small village in the district emphasizes class divisions. Although Katniss is extremely saddened by the news of Thresh’s death, she knows that she can’t show her distress to the audience, since mourning another tribute directly counters the object of the Games—to kill everyone else. She has to pretend that there’s still some sense of division between her and all of the other districts’ tributes.
Themes
As Peeta takes his turn sleeping, Katniss keeps watch. During her shift, the rain stops suddenly, and a full moon appears in the sky, reminding Katniss of how long it’s been since she was last in District 12. She imagines what life might be like if she won and didn’t have to hunt for food anymore, and she finds the thought somewhat alarming. She also wonders what things will be like with Peeta if they win, but she can’t imagine being anything more than good friends.
Since her family has always needed more food, Katniss’s existence has revolved around the acquisition of more food, and she has trouble imagining an identity outside of that. She can’t comprehend what it would be like to be wealthy and idle. Also, she’s confused by what winning would mean for her relationship with Peeta because she knows that she does genuinely care for him now, but not in the way that it appears on camera.
Themes
Katniss wakes Peeta in the morning and they split the remaining stew. They joke about what Effie would say about their manners, but when they leave the cave to begin their day, they become serious. After a while, it becomes evident that they have to split up because Peeta’s loud footsteps are scaring away the game. Peeta heads off to forage nearby while Katniss hunts.
Again, the fact that Peeta has never had to hunt becomes obvious when he can’t tread as lightly as Katniss. It’s another point of annoyance for her.
Themes
Katniss grows worried when Peeta doesn’t respond to her whistled signal, however, and runs to find him, seeing a stash of gathered roots and berries on the ground. She yells for Peeta, who appears, worried. Angrily, Katniss observes the food stash, noticing that some of the cheese is missing. She also recognizes that the berries are poisonous ones, and then suddenly, a cannon goes off and a hovercraft nearby lifts Foxface’s body away. Assuming that she was killed by Cato, Peeta grabs Katniss and begins to run—but Katniss informs Peeta that Foxface was his kill, not Cato’s, thanks to the berries.
Foxface was clever at reading appearances—it was only because Peeta had genuinely believed that the berries were safe that she was tricked into eating them. His genuine error caused her to outsmart herself. The berries will also come to play an important role later in the book.
Themes
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