Personality: "Katniss is the mockingjay. She is the thing that should never have been created, that the Capitol never intended to happen. In the same way they just let the jabberjays go and thought, 'We don’t have to worry about them,' they thought, 'We don’t have to worry about District 12. 'And this new creature evolved, which is the mockingjay, which is Katniss." -Author Suzanne Collins, "The Last Battle: With 'Mockingjay' on its way, Suzanne Collins weighs in on Katniss and the Capitol"
Like that titular and symbolic mockingjay, the new species of bird created when the genetically-engineered, Capitol-sponsored "jabberjays" began to mate with female mockingbirds in the wild, Katniss Everdeen is the product of a host of unforeseen circumstances. In the dark, dystopic future of Panem, a nation of oppression, where the majority suffer on the whims and excesses of the few, where children are forced to their deaths annually for the sole purpose of spectacle, that brazen uniqueness about her, that distinct spirit that just can’t be taken away, is something that truly stands out. And ultimately, the feisty "Girl on Fire" goes on to inspire a revolution.
Katniss hails from District 12, the smallest and poorest of Panem’s districts, and in particular from the Seam, the poorest area of the district. Up until volunteering as tribute for the 74th Hunger Games and then being whisked away to the Capitol, poverty has been the only reality that she has known, and thus survival, the drive to do whatever it takes to survive, is practically hardwired into her DNA. To only add to the hard life she was already facing, at age eleven, tragedy in the Everdeen family (her father's death and her mother's subsequent crippling depression) forced Katniss to step into the role of main provider, to take on a huge number of responsibilities at a young age and, consequently, to grow up very quickly.
Because of these early life experiences, Katniss had to become independent and self-reliant. With a deceased father and a virtually absent mother, there was no one to care for her or to guide her gently through the world. Using skills and knowledge taught to her by her father before he died, such as archery and identification of edible plants, Katniss began to turn to the woods as a way to provide for her family, eventually teaming up and becoming hunting partners with Gale Hawthorne (who would later become her best friend). While hunting and trading hunted game on the black market is technically illegal in District 12, law enforcement tends to be lax, and the enforcers (or "Peacekeepers") tend to interact with the general population than what may be seen in other districts. Thus, Katniss is able to continue to go into the woods over the years, not only using it as a means of providing food, but also as a place of solace. According to Gale, Katniss never smiles except when she's in the woods.
While being as self-reliant as she is, Katniss also possesses a strong instinct to protect her loved ones, or those she sees as needing her protection. This is, of course, most evident in the case of her younger sister, Prim. Katniss loves Prim more than anyone else in the world, and would literally do anything for her, including make the ultimate sacrifice of volunteering for her at the reaping. This is an instinct that carries her through many aspects of her life. For instance, during the Hunger Games, Katniss begins to feel protective over Rue, the 12-year-old tribute from District 11. Rue very strongly reminded Katniss of Prim, and thus the instinct carried over naturally. As time goes on, however, others begin to enter the fray of people Katniss fights tooth and nail to protect. In particular, Katniss has a strong desire to keep Peeta Mellark, her fellow tribute from District 12, alive, a desire that only becomes stronger as their lives become progressively more intertwined.
Because of her experiences, and her strong determination to both survive and provide for her loved ones, Katniss has allowed herself to become hardened and closed-off, pushing her own base emotions off to the side. They simply do not serve a purpose in her world. And besides, who knows who could be seeing your weakness and using it against you later? In her view, it’s best to keep that collected head that is useful on the hunt, and she has quite a talent for staying logical in a variety of situations. But such a modus operandi may come with a price.
By being so narrowly focused on her own life goals, and not being very well tuned-in to her emotional side (outside of her love for her family, of course), Katniss does not readily pick up on social and emotional cues from others. For instance, Gale has been her best friend for five years, and not once did she even entertain the possibility that he had romantic feelings for her, until he kissed her that one day after she returned from the 74th Hunger Games. (For most of her life, romance hasn’t been something to register on her radar; multiple times over the years, she has stated that she does not want marriage or children, due to the possibility that those children might be forced into the Hunger Games themselves.) She goes along with the "star-crossed lovers" charade with Peeta in the arena, not realizing until after the Games are over that it might not have been so much of a charade for him. This doesn't just apply to the romance department; it took years for Katniss to come to the realization that Madge, the Mayor’s daughter, was actually her friend.
Limits to Katniss's knowledge can also be seen in the realm of politics. Having grown up in the poorest part of District 12, and most likely not having had access to better education, her worldview is understandably narrow. For instance, on the night before the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss does not quite understand what Peeta means when he states that he still wants to die as himself, rather than allow the Capitol to simply use him as a piece in their games, and becomes angry with him after this conversation. However, as the trilogy progresses, her political awareness becomes more sophisticated, and there comes a point when she begins to understand what had been unconsciously inside of her all along: that she resents being someone else's pawn, that she wants more than anything to defy those who are trying to make her their pawn and break free of their control. Upon the end of each book in the trilogy, whether she realizes it or not, by what appear to be small, simple acts, Katniss always manages to find the third option, the one unforeseen by those in power, the ones who want to target her.
At the end of the day, Katniss is still very much a teenage girl, and one that has been thrust into horrific circumstances and had nightmarish experiences to boot. As canon progresses, she grows increasingly frustrated by her situation, and can be prone to lash out at kindness offered to her with hostility. Careful emotional control will invariably spiral away from her in moments of extreme distress, giving way to the other, more destructive side of the "fire" in her personality. She can be rash and impulsive, and demonstrate one hell of a temper during these states, as evidenced by a number of canon events. For instance, in Catching Fire, upon learning that she will have to return to the arena for the second time, Katniss runs off aimlessly, puts her hand through a glass window, and gets drunk as a skunk for the first time in her life. Upon being told by Haymitch, her mentor, that Peeta has been picked up by the Capitol, she proceeds to, in a rage, scratch at Haymitch's face with all of the strength she can muster.
Abilities/Powers: Katniss is a normal human from a non-fantastical world (just a grim dystopia), and therefore has no supernatural abilities. She does, however, have a number of skills and a whole host of knowledge that enable her to survive horrible and extreme circumstances. Thanks to careful teachings from her father during her childhood, Katniss has exceptional skill with a bow and arrow, even to the extent that she’s able to shoot squirrels in the eye and an apple out of a dead pig’s mouth in front of the Gamemakers, and a good working knowledge of edible and poisonous plants. From hunting with her friend Gale, she has learned a great deal about traps and snares, and thus is more than capable of surviving and obtaining food even in the absence of her weapon of choice. Her skills in tree-climbing have also saved her life on more than one occasion, and, in general, she has a good head on her shoulders regarding what it takes to make it through hardship. And finally, though she may be reluctant to show it, especially after her father’s death, Katniss also has an exceptional singing voice that the mockingjays will stop to listen to (which is a sign of respect).
Items/Weapons: Katniss will be entering the game with items that were on her in the arena, and are listed as follows:
- (1) bow and quiver of arrows - (1) spile - (1) locket, containing pictures of Prim, her mother, and Gale (given to her by Peeta)
She's walked this path a million times; it's as natural to her as breathing. Every curve, every dip she can navigate without thinking.
In fact, as her feet tread those familiar steps, quiet and catlike, for once, she has no thoughts at all. She's been granted temporary respite from the images that continually haunt her nightmares and sometimes lurk just at the edge of consciousness during her waking hours. The sight of her own burning flesh. The full effects of tracker jacker venom she'd been able to narrowly escape. Those mutts ripping Cato to shreds, one of which had stared at her with Rue's eyes…--
… No. Right now, she's only focused on one thing. The destination before her.
With one quick, futile check for the hum of electricity, with one unceremonious slip under the fence, she's back where she belongs. In the woods. In the one place where she's free. She allows herself one moment's pause, taking in her surroundings and inhaling deeply, letting that lungful of air rush through her bloodstream and detox every cell in her body of Capitol contamination, with a certain peace settling in its place.
It's a peace that she knows will only be temporary at best. The prospect of the Victory Tour is a dark cloud already hanging over her head, and she knows she can't escape forever. Something in her, buried deep down, that she's avoiding like the plague, knows that her life has been irrevocably changed. She's a victor now, and when you're a victor, there's no going back.
But in this one brief moment, as her hand clutches her bow, as her senses calm and steady for the hunt, for the first time since stepping off the train and back into District 12, she feels like she's home.
She'll cling to that feeling for as long as she can.
katniss everdeen | the hunger games | reserved
Contact Info: email: thespoonisalie @ gmail
Other Characters Played: N/A
Preferred Apartment: None
Character Name: Katniss Everdeen
Canon: The Hunger Games
Canon Point: Catching Fire, end of Chapter 26
Background/History: Here!
Personality:
"Katniss is the mockingjay. She is the thing that should never have been created, that the Capitol never intended to happen. In the same way they just let the jabberjays go and thought, 'We don’t have to worry about them,' they thought, 'We don’t have to worry about District 12. 'And this new creature evolved, which is the mockingjay, which is Katniss."
-Author Suzanne Collins, "The Last Battle: With 'Mockingjay' on its way, Suzanne Collins weighs in on Katniss and the Capitol"
Like that titular and symbolic mockingjay, the new species of bird created when the genetically-engineered, Capitol-sponsored "jabberjays" began to mate with female mockingbirds in the wild, Katniss Everdeen is the product of a host of unforeseen circumstances. In the dark, dystopic future of Panem, a nation of oppression, where the majority suffer on the whims and excesses of the few, where children are forced to their deaths annually for the sole purpose of spectacle, that brazen uniqueness about her, that distinct spirit that just can’t be taken away, is something that truly stands out. And ultimately, the feisty "Girl on Fire" goes on to inspire a revolution.
Katniss hails from District 12, the smallest and poorest of Panem’s districts, and in particular from the Seam, the poorest area of the district. Up until volunteering as tribute for the 74th Hunger Games and then being whisked away to the Capitol, poverty has been the only reality that she has known, and thus survival, the drive to do whatever it takes to survive, is practically hardwired into her DNA. To only add to the hard life she was already facing, at age eleven, tragedy in the Everdeen family (her father's death and her mother's subsequent crippling depression) forced Katniss to step into the role of main provider, to take on a huge number of responsibilities at a young age and, consequently, to grow up very quickly.
Because of these early life experiences, Katniss had to become independent and self-reliant. With a deceased father and a virtually absent mother, there was no one to care for her or to guide her gently through the world. Using skills and knowledge taught to her by her father before he died, such as archery and identification of edible plants, Katniss began to turn to the woods as a way to provide for her family, eventually teaming up and becoming hunting partners with Gale Hawthorne (who would later become her best friend). While hunting and trading hunted game on the black market is technically illegal in District 12, law enforcement tends to be lax, and the enforcers (or "Peacekeepers") tend to interact with the general population than what may be seen in other districts. Thus, Katniss is able to continue to go into the woods over the years, not only using it as a means of providing food, but also as a place of solace. According to Gale, Katniss never smiles except when she's in the woods.
While being as self-reliant as she is, Katniss also possesses a strong instinct to protect her loved ones, or those she sees as needing her protection. This is, of course, most evident in the case of her younger sister, Prim. Katniss loves Prim more than anyone else in the world, and would literally do anything for her, including make the ultimate sacrifice of volunteering for her at the reaping. This is an instinct that carries her through many aspects of her life. For instance, during the Hunger Games, Katniss begins to feel protective over Rue, the 12-year-old tribute from District 11. Rue very strongly reminded Katniss of Prim, and thus the instinct carried over naturally. As time goes on, however, others begin to enter the fray of people Katniss fights tooth and nail to protect. In particular, Katniss has a strong desire to keep Peeta Mellark, her fellow tribute from District 12, alive, a desire that only becomes stronger as their lives become progressively more intertwined.
Because of her experiences, and her strong determination to both survive and provide for her loved ones, Katniss has allowed herself to become hardened and closed-off, pushing her own base emotions off to the side. They simply do not serve a purpose in her world. And besides, who knows who could be seeing your weakness and using it against you later? In her view, it’s best to keep that collected head that is useful on the hunt, and she has quite a talent for staying logical in a variety of situations. But such a modus operandi may come with a price.
By being so narrowly focused on her own life goals, and not being very well tuned-in to her emotional side (outside of her love for her family, of course), Katniss does not readily pick up on social and emotional cues from others. For instance, Gale has been her best friend for five years, and not once did she even entertain the possibility that he had romantic feelings for her, until he kissed her that one day after she returned from the 74th Hunger Games. (For most of her life, romance hasn’t been something to register on her radar; multiple times over the years, she has stated that she does not want marriage or children, due to the possibility that those children might be forced into the Hunger Games themselves.) She goes along with the "star-crossed lovers" charade with Peeta in the arena, not realizing until after the Games are over that it might not have been so much of a charade for him. This doesn't just apply to the romance department; it took years for Katniss to come to the realization that Madge, the Mayor’s daughter, was actually her friend.
Limits to Katniss's knowledge can also be seen in the realm of politics. Having grown up in the poorest part of District 12, and most likely not having had access to better education, her worldview is understandably narrow. For instance, on the night before the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss does not quite understand what Peeta means when he states that he still wants to die as himself, rather than allow the Capitol to simply use him as a piece in their games, and becomes angry with him after this conversation. However, as the trilogy progresses, her political awareness becomes more sophisticated, and there comes a point when she begins to understand what had been unconsciously inside of her all along: that she resents being someone else's pawn, that she wants more than anything to defy those who are trying to make her their pawn and break free of their control. Upon the end of each book in the trilogy, whether she realizes it or not, by what appear to be small, simple acts, Katniss always manages to find the third option, the one unforeseen by those in power, the ones who want to target her.
At the end of the day, Katniss is still very much a teenage girl, and one that has been thrust into horrific circumstances and had nightmarish experiences to boot. As canon progresses, she grows increasingly frustrated by her situation, and can be prone to lash out at kindness offered to her with hostility. Careful emotional control will invariably spiral away from her in moments of extreme distress, giving way to the other, more destructive side of the "fire" in her personality. She can be rash and impulsive, and demonstrate one hell of a temper during these states, as evidenced by a number of canon events. For instance, in Catching Fire, upon learning that she will have to return to the arena for the second time, Katniss runs off aimlessly, puts her hand through a glass window, and gets drunk as a skunk for the first time in her life. Upon being told by Haymitch, her mentor, that Peeta has been picked up by the Capitol, she proceeds to, in a rage, scratch at Haymitch's face with all of the strength she can muster.
Abilities/Powers: Katniss is a normal human from a non-fantastical world (just a grim dystopia), and therefore has no supernatural abilities. She does, however, have a number of skills and a whole host of knowledge that enable her to survive horrible and extreme circumstances. Thanks to careful teachings from her father during her childhood, Katniss has exceptional skill with a bow and arrow, even to the extent that she’s able to shoot squirrels in the eye and an apple out of a dead pig’s mouth in front of the Gamemakers, and a good working knowledge of edible and poisonous plants. From hunting with her friend Gale, she has learned a great deal about traps and snares, and thus is more than capable of surviving and obtaining food even in the absence of her weapon of choice. Her skills in tree-climbing have also saved her life on more than one occasion, and, in general, she has a good head on her shoulders regarding what it takes to make it through hardship. And finally, though she may be reluctant to show it, especially after her father’s death, Katniss also has an exceptional singing voice that the mockingjays will stop to listen to (which is a sign of respect).
Items/Weapons: Katniss will be entering the game with items that were on her in the arena, and are listed as follows:
- (1) bow and quiver of arrows
- (1) spile
- (1) locket, containing pictures of Prim, her mother, and Gale (given to her by Peeta)
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Sample Entry Two:
She's walked this path a million times; it's as natural to her as breathing. Every curve, every dip she can navigate without thinking.
In fact, as her feet tread those familiar steps, quiet and catlike, for once, she has no thoughts at all. She's been granted temporary respite from the images that continually haunt her nightmares and sometimes lurk just at the edge of consciousness during her waking hours. The sight of her own burning flesh. The full effects of tracker jacker venom she'd been able to narrowly escape. Those mutts ripping Cato to shreds, one of which had stared at her with Rue's eyes…--
… No. Right now, she's only focused on one thing. The destination before her.
With one quick, futile check for the hum of electricity, with one unceremonious slip under the fence, she's back where she belongs. In the woods. In the one place where she's free. She allows herself one moment's pause, taking in her surroundings and inhaling deeply, letting that lungful of air rush through her bloodstream and detox every cell in her body of Capitol contamination, with a certain peace settling in its place.
It's a peace that she knows will only be temporary at best. The prospect of the Victory Tour is a dark cloud already hanging over her head, and she knows she can't escape forever. Something in her, buried deep down, that she's avoiding like the plague, knows that her life has been irrevocably changed. She's a victor now, and when you're a victor, there's no going back.
But in this one brief moment, as her hand clutches her bow, as her senses calm and steady for the hunt, for the first time since stepping off the train and back into District 12, she feels like she's home.
She'll cling to that feeling for as long as she can.