Throughout The Hunger Games, Katniss reflects on what it means to owe someone. Katniss dislikes and attempts to avoid owing people because she feels as though she will never be able to repay them. Later in the novel, she discovers another tribute, Thresh, also dislikes owing people. This comparison between Katniss and Thresh highlights the hard-working and independent characters of not only the two tributes, but also Districts 11 and 12.
When Katniss first sees the red-headed girl on the train, she is struck by the sense that she has seen the girl before. She remembers the girl and a boy running in the woods of District 12, and the Capitol’s hovercraft plucking both the boy and the girl from the sky. She knows the boy is dead, and the girl’s tongue has been removed. She feels “ashamed [she] never tried to help [the girl]” (85). However, when Katniss sets out to apologize, the Avox girl reacts by “[tapping] her lips with her fingers then [pointing] to [Katniss’s] chest,” signaling to Katniss she would have “ended up an Avox” also if she had helped (119). While Katniss still feels as though she can never repay this debt, the girl provides closure for her.
Katniss relays the story of Peeta’s throwing her the burned bread to show that, before the Games even begin, she owes him. After he confesses to the Capitol that he likes her, she realizes she owes him yet again for making her look desirable and bringing her more sponsors; she asks herself, “Will I ever stop owing him?” As Peeta and Katniss struggle in the arena, the debt continues. Peeta tells Katniss to run from the Careers after she drops a tracker jacker nest on them, knowing he will have to face the Careers himself for letting her get away. Yet again, Katniss is struck with the fact that “Peeta Mellark…saved [her] life” (194). However, when Katniss discovers she and Peeta could both win the Games, she finds him and begins nursing him back to health. Therefore, she starts to repay some of the debt she owes him by saving his life as well.
At the feast, Clove manages to capture Katniss and proceeds to taunt her about her alliance with Rue and Rue’s death. Right before Clove is about to kill Katniss, she is picked up by Thresh and killed. Thresh turns on Katniss, but not to kill her; instead, he asks about her alliance with Rue. Katniss claims she “tried to save [Rue],” but when it was clear she couldn’t, she “sang her to sleep” and “buried her in flowers” (287-288). Thresh spares Katniss, telling her, “Just this one time, I let you go. For the little girl. You and me, we’re even then. No more owed” (288). Thus, because Thresh does not like owing people, he lets Katniss live. This proves that, although he is similar to the Careers in stature and threat, his character differs from theirs extensively.
Katniss’s and Thresh’s hatred for owing people stems from their lives in their districts. District 11 and District 12 are both very poor, and their citizens must often work much harder than the citizens of other districts to keep their families alive. Favors, such as the burned bread in Katniss’s case, often signify a failure to provide for oneself or one’s family. Because this is key to survival in Districts 11 and 12, the fact that Katniss and Thresh both dislike owing people shows they are survivors, both within their districts and in the Games.
The concept of being indebted to someone that you have identified is significant throughout the novel. Along with the many times Katniss feels as though she owes others, there are many times that Peeta does not understand that feeling of being in someone’s debt. After Thresh lets Katniss live for helping Rue, Peeta is in complete disbelief. Katniss tells him, “I don’t expect you to understand it. You’ve always had enough. But if you’d lived in the Seam, I wouldn’t have to explain” (292). What Katniss tries to explain to Peeta is that living in poverty where you barely have enough to survive makes any generosity from others feel like a crushing debt. With very few resources to repay others, Katniss and others from the Seam feel the pressure of not being able to reciprocate generosity. I imagine this feeling is especially amplified in the Seam because any generosity from others in the Seam would feel more significant because everyone there has so little to begin with. Peeta does not understand this feeling because there was always more to go around in his household, even if they weren’t particularly wealthy. This is why Peeta doesn’t understand Katniss’s feelings of owing him for the risk he took for her back when they were children. By burning the bread so he would be able to sneak it to Katniss, Peeta solidified a bond with Katniss that would long outlast the bread.
ReplyDeleteSelf-sufficiency is not just a point of pride in the poorer districts, it's a matter of life and death. If your family is not wealthy and can't afford to buy basic necessities like food, you have to be able and step up to provide. When Peeta intentionally ruins the bread to give to Katniss, he is definitely in the minority. Most people can't afford to look after anyone else but themselves, so he is punished for his actions. Katniss has always felt like she owed him since then, but she never had a way to pay him back until they both ended up in the Games.
ReplyDeleteThis is partially why Katniss is so confused about her feelings for Peeta. She doesn't know if they're real, if they're just a show to win the Games, or if they're because she feels a debt toward him and has to help him survive. She admits that it may even be a mix of the three.
Katniss has only been able to rely on herself (and Gale, to an extent) since her father died. She had to grow up very quickly, and because of that she feels defensive whenever she can't do something for herself. The Games present a huge challenge for her because she is forced to learn how to let other people help her the way she helps them, and that owing someone a debt doesn't have to be a death sentence.