Katniss the Cattail: A Guide to Names and Symbols in The Hunger Games

Who was Cinna? What do the hawthorn and primrose symbolize? Or President Snow’s garden and Peeta’s bread? What about Katniss’s last name? Find out here.

Katniss the Cattail: An Unauthorized Guide to Names and Symbols in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games

INTRODUCTION

 

As with series like Harry Potter, names have great significance in Suzanne Collins’s books, temptingly referencing characters out of Shakespeare, myth, and American life. The entries offered here provide a deeper understanding of the characters, along with their namesakes and literary origins. There are Roman names and flower names, set as opposites in a world poised on revolution. There are military names, echoing battles in our own history and their link to the battles of Panem�"history will never stop cycling. Some of the symbolism is simplistic on the surface but more deeply complex. Bread is a sacred food used to save lives and even make a marriage in District Twelve. It is also the meaning of Panem, as Collins named her world after the spoiled Romans glutted with Bread and Circuses. Katniss becomes the Girl Who Was on Fire, but she is Cinna’s creation, dressed like a doll in the early books. Only with her flame arrows of Mockingjay does she truly embrace that role.

Districts 11 and 12 offer nature names: The cat Buttercup; Gale’s mother Hazelle Hawthorne and her children Posy and Gale; Rue, Thresh, Chaff, and Seeder from District 11; and of course, Prim and Katniss. All these link the heroes to the simplicity and bounty of the country, filled with the wholesome beauty of nature. Some of the flower names, especially Rue and Primrose, appear in Shakespeare with heavy symbolism.

By contrast, the Capitol is full of Roman names, echoing their obsession with heedless luxury: Claudius Templesmith, Cressida, Portia, Messalla, Fulvia, Romulus, Lavinia, Purnia, Titus, Plutarch Heavensbee, Coriolanus Snow. There’s Katniss’s Prep Team: Flavius, Octavia, and Venia, headed by Cinna. And there are the Career Tributes with Roman names to honor the Capitol: Cato, Brutus, and Enobaria, while names like Glimmer and Marvel show how valued and spoiled the Careers are. Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar offers nine characters who appear in the Hunger Games series (Brutus, Cinna, Portia, Purnia, Flavius, Messala, Cato the Younger, Claudius, and Caesar himself). Shakespeare’s other Roman plays have at least seven more, covering nearly all the Roman character names. The Roman biographer Plutarch, too, wrote on many of the named characters. Thus Collins casts the traitors from Shakespeare and history against Roman emperors and their allies, building a world that echoes ancient Rome and those who defied it.

It’s also important to remember the series is told from Katniss’s point of view. Characters have prophetic or appropriate names, but they also have names based on how Katniss perceives them. To Katniss, Gale is a strong wind of revolution, willing to blow down all in his path. But Prim is a delicate flower needing protection. Peeta’s parents and Katniss’s parents, while major characters, never have their first names revealed. Their function in the story is simply to exist and be left behind as their children grow into heroes. Ultimately, Katniss’s own perceptions fuel the deeper meanings of characters’ names within the series, even as they reflect characters from our own history.

 

 

BIG THREE

 

Katniss

 

“Katniss” is of course the cattail root, as she tells us. But it is a heavily nourishing plant, important to Katniss who sees herself as the provider for her family. Her entire life is devoted to nourishing, first as a hunter/gatherer, and then as the wealthy Victor of the games.

Katniss describes her special plant as tall with white blossoms and “leaves like arrowheads” (HG 52). Of all the nourishing plants in the world, Katniss is probably the most arrowlike�"a perfect match for our heroine. She adds that the roots don’t look like much, but are as nourishing as a potato (HG 52). Katniss, from District Twelve, likewise doesn’t look like much, but she’s just as good, it turns out, as any of the children from the wealthier districts.

The plants of the forest are part of Katniss, so much so that the katniss roots give her her name. “As long as you can find yourself, you’ll never starve,” her father teases (HG 52). While this is literally true, Katniss survives by keeping herself grounded�"remembering who she is and what she cares for. Indeed, if she can find herself under so many costumes and identities like the Mockingjay, she will survive. Though the Capitol trains its Tributes in brutality, encouraging them to turn on each other, Katniss follows her instinctive compassion and bonds with Rue and Peeta in the Games. This saves her in the end.

Elizabeth Baird Hardy, author of Milton, Spenser, and the Chronicles of Narnia: Literary Sources for the C.S. Lewis Novels has an interesting observation on the katniss plant:

 

It is known as duck-potato, appropriate for someone whose sister always has a duck tail…but also as swan potato, wapatoo, tule potato, and, most commonly, as arrowhead, a name reflected in its Latin moniker�"Sagittaria (or “belonging to an arrow”; the constellation Sagittarius, of course, is an archer).

 

Katniss’ name comes from the Zodiac sign of the archer (the sign for those born November 22 through December 21). Sagittarius, according to Greek myth, may have been the centaur Chiron, a kind and gentle figure known for forest lore and for training young heroes. More scholarly sources link Sagittarius with Crotus, the satyr or half-goat man who dwelt deep in the forest. He was a great musician and tracker, inventor of the hunting bow (“Crotus”). Centaurs and satyrs are creatures of nature and the forest, a link between man and animal, hunter and hunted. For both of these mythic figures, there’s a clear link with Katniss.

Suzanne Collins notes that “Katniss Everdeen owes her last name to Bathsheba Everdene, the lead character in Far from the Madding Crowd. The two are very different, but both struggle with knowing their hearts” (Jordan). In this classic novel by Thomas Hardy, Bathsheba Everdene is courted by a rich landowner and by a poor shepherd who proposes marriage when they’re equals but then ends up working for her. Katniss, too grows up equal to Gale, her hunting partner, but then becomes as rich as Peeta, leaving Gale and his romantic plans far behind. Bathsheba, like Katniss, struggles between two such different men, one gentle and chaste (Peeta comments that he’s never cared for a girl besides Katniss) and one more violent, temperamental, and experienced in romance. After betrayal and abandonment by the more violent man, Bathsheba finally weds the humble shepherd. The romantic pattern indeed seems to echo Katniss’s struggle between her equal in warfare, Gale, and the humble baker, Peeta.

Everdeen is also two letters off from “evergreen,” fitting well with the plant names of the outer districts. Evergreen pines are eaten several times in the series, offering another wholesome plant in a world of starvation. Like the katniss plant, evergreens are sharp and pointed, in this case with rough needles and pinecones to defend themselves. They, like our heroine, thrive in areas of low nutrition�"in fact, the low nutrition prompts them to be evergreen, as losing leaves means losing nutrients (Aerts). These trees appear at Christmas as a celebration of life, as they’re healthy and strong even in the winter (and, significantly, even under vicious snow. Or President Snow). They symbolize a new beginning and reincarnation of the world into a newer, better year. Though the world is dark, sunlight and springtime will come again. This is a perfect symbol of Katniss Everdeen, remaker of the world.

 

 

Peeta

Peeta, an apparently meaningless word with Collins’s spelling, has many homophones, or sound-alikes. “Pita” is a kind of bread, a humble, simple one that’s as far from “puffed up” as it gets. “The flat dense loaves” of District Twelve (HG 7) might even resemble pita bread. If Katniss’s father, a gatherer, named her thus, and Thresh, Seeder, and other children are named for their district jobs, Peeta’s bread name in his bakery family would make sense.

In Michelangelo’s famous sculpture, the Pietà (another homophone), Mary cradles a dead Jesus. In all three books, it is Katniss’s role to nurture Peeta and unlock the gentle mothering side of her nature. In book one, he is dying from a wound in his leg (prompting much literal cradling). Book two, he momentarily dies from electric shock; book three, Katniss must help him through the Capitol’s brainwashing and learn to love him. Pietà is Italian for pity�"in all three books, Katniss must connect with Peeta through pity, compassion, and love to assure their survival. Of course, Peeta is sacrificed at the end of Catching Fire, so that Katniss and the others can escape. Many scholars, particularly the “Hogwarts Professor” John Granger see this as a Christlike moment:

 

“Peeta,” the man of town and “Boy with the Bread,” has a name that means bread (pita) as well as a vocation as a bread baker. As a child, he gives two loaves of bread to Katniss that he purchases sacrificially (he is beaten for it by his mother), bread which saves her from physical starvation and the eating of which immediately inspires her to think of her “Family Book” and the means to provide for her mother and sister. His bread, in effect, saves her. In a world named “Bread” (Panem is the accusative case form of the Latin word for Bread), I think it is transparent that Peeta or “Peter” is an icon of the Christ, the world creator, Who in St. Peter’s church at least, is received as Bread, and Who loves the world and every soul in it sacrificially.

(“Unlocking ‘The Hunger Games’”)

 

 

Peter was a humble fisherman who became Jesus’ first disciple, just as Peeta is the first to fight by Katniss’s side and believe in her. Peter may be most famous for denying Jesus when all the disciples were pursued by Romans. This echoes Peeta’s own rejection of Katniss after the Capitol’s torture and brainwashing. Peter too suffered at the hands of the Roman government. According to legend, he was executed as a scapegoat by the tyrannical Roman Emperor Nero. The Christians were rebels in the Roman Empire, but finally became its rulers, a scenario that plays out in Panem.

PETA is also the acronym for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. For gentle, pacifist Peeta who never hunts, this too is an appropriate label. While Katniss is found gutting rabbits and shooting squirrels, Peeta bakes bread and frosts cookies, providing his friends with vegetarian bounty.

Melark might be a portmanteau (or squashing-together) of “meadowlark,” a nature symbol like so many names of District Twelve. The lark is a symbol of merriment and joy as it sings to welcome the daybreak. His last name also resembles “malarkey,” a word for misleading speech or foolishness, like “tomfoolery” or “fiddlesticks.” Katniss notes how Peeta always makes people feel better: “Ironic, encouraging, a little funny, but not at anyone’s expense” (M 299). Though Peeta jokes and lifts Katniss’s spirits, he’s not excessively foolish�"but that’s what Katniss must come to realize. Before the Games, she easily dismisses him as dead weight, unable to hunt or fight. In time, however, she comes to value him and even his laughter. “This is why they’ve made it this far. Haymitch and Peeta. Nothing throws them,” Katniss thinks as the men joke loudly to distract suspicious Peacekeepers (CF 156).

 

 

Gale

 

Some may be surprised Gale isn’t named for a plant. In fact, he is: Sweet gale or myrica gale (also known as bayberry or bog myrtle) is a bushy shrub with bitter-tasting leaves. It’s versatile for many rural uses just as Gale himself is an excellent trapper, hunter, and gatherer: The branches can be used for beer making, and the cones, for candlewax, the leaves for scenting sheets, the bark for tanning skins. Boiling it produces a yellow dye, or it can be made into a natural insect repellent. Since beavers love eating it, they build dams near clusters of gale and in doing so create traps for fish, an echo of Gale with his excellent snares (Grieve).

The more obvious meaning of gale is a mighty wind that can blow down houses and mighty trees. Gale as a revolutionary is just such an uncontrolled force as he demands the deaths of everyone in the Capitol and in District Two in vengeance for his losses. The weapons he designs are cruel enough to worry Katniss, and are finally turned on his own side as well as the enemy. As an unrestrained gale, he harms both sides in the war.

Granger has a different take on the wind connection with his name:

 

Gale, the man of the woods, free and unbound except for his family obligations, is an embodiment of Nature, a “gale force wind” of spirit and the experience of natural beauty. His relationship with Katniss is platonic despite their spending years in each other’s company and both leading lives deprived of touch and love. He fosters rather than challenges Katniss’s purity, freedom, and individual strength or identity. (“Unlocking ‘The Hunger Games’”)

 

Further references to the name Gale appear in military history. It’s not a surprise that there are many military names in the book, as Suzanne Collins heard much about the armed forces in her youth. As she explained in an interview:

 

My father was career Air Force. He was in the Air Force for 30-some years. He was also a Vietnam veteran. He was there the year I was six. Beyond that, though, he was a doctor of political science, a military specialist, and a historian; he was a very intelligent man. And he felt that it was part of his responsibility to teach us, his children, about history and war…If you went to a battleground with my father, you would hear what led up to the battle. You would hear about the war. You would have the battle reenacted for you, I mean, verbally, and then the fallout from the battle. And having been in a war himself and having come from a family in which he had a brother in World War II and a father in World War I, these were not distant or academic questions for him. (Margolis)

 

Humphrey Gale was Chief Administrative Officer of Lieutenant General Dwight Eisenhower’s Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ) during World War II. The British and American administrative systems differed so greatly that separate AFHQ organizations had to be established. Gale’s job, which Eisenhower called “unique in the history of war,” was to coordinate the two (Playfair et al.). Katniss is used to the life-or-death struggle of the Hunger Games but not to District Thirteen’s army training or command system. Gale is the one to manage a grieving Katniss and help her present her demands to President Coin as he becomes liaison between the two worlds.

General Sir Richard Nelson “Windy” Gale learned enough from his ordeal in fighting World War I to challenge military thinking of the time and try to revolutionize procedures during World War II. With a suspicion of firepower-led operations, he argued for more stealth training and insisted on mobility and surprise on the battlefield (Dover 28-54). Gale Hawthorne often challenges the organizers at District Thirteen using the pain he endured at the bombing of District Twelve and his hunting knowledge to find better ways to fight. It is his plan that vanquishes District Two, and he eagerly joins Katniss’s stealth mission to assassinate Snow.

For his last name, the hawthorn is a thorny shrub in the rose family. It is called Crataegus Oxyacantha from the Greek kratos, meaning hardness (of the wood), oxcus (sharp), and akantha (a thorn) (Grieve). A “hard, sharp thorn” is a good description of Gale himself, especially for Katniss who must deal with his anger and stubbornness in the later books. Its wood is very hard and resistant to rot, marking it formidable and well-defended, also like Gale. The hawthorn root-wood makes the hottest wood-fire known (Grieve). Gale’s fire for survival, and especially for revolution, indeed burns hotter and stabs more sharply than everyone around him. Gale is willing to kill their spies and allies, civilians, and even himself to win the war, as he announces in District Two, crying, “Bring on the avalanches!” (M 205).

 

Every shepherd tells his tale
Under the hawthorn in the dale.

-John Milton, L'Allegro  

 

The hawthorn was not only a country bush favored by the rural farmers of England and Ireland�"it was one of the Three Sacred Trees beloved by fairies (oak and ash being the others). These three trees combine to make magic, rather like the threesome who become the heroes of Panem. As a fairy tree, the hawthorn carries many superstitions�"harming the tree leads to death, but those who care for nature will be rewarded by the fairies. Those who destroy Gale’s home find themselves caught in the fury of his retribution with savage fighting and deadly traps. There’s also a belief that if all the hawthorn bushes are torn up, all goodness will leave the land and that hawthorn bushes cause lightning storms (Watts 180-183). As Gale and his family leave District Twelve behind, it’s indeed destroyed by a firestorm. Finally, carrying its thorns leads to a bountiful fishing trip or cows that produce more milk. For Katniss too, bringing Gale gets her a much greater harvest.

The hawthorn was sacred to Hymenaeus, the Greek god of marriage, who was often seen carrying a brimming basket of nuts & fruits. In myth, he never wed, but always blessed the hero’s and heroine’s marriage to each other, a reference that hints at the trilogy’s end (Shepard 245). The hawthorn has also been regarded as the emblem of hope, back to the worship of the Roman goddess Flora, mistress of flowers and life. Following this, there’s a tradition that hawthorn branches were Jesus’ crown of thorns.

At the same time, some country villagers believe hawthorn blossoms still bear the smell of the Great Plague of London, thanks to their aroma of decomposition (Grieve). The bushes are associated with death and graves, as the unlucky thorns were said to spring from dead men’s dust (Watts 181). In Teutonic ritual, funeral pyres were made of hawthorn so its smoke could guide souls to the afterlife. Gale, of course, guides his friends from the ashes of District Twelve to a new life in District Thirteen. This mixture of hope, peace for mankind, and death fits Gale’s role in the story, as his best friend Katniss watches him grow from protector of her family to a leader of the revolution to a willing murderer of civilians.

 

 

 

 THE NAMES OF PANEM

 

Alma Coin

 

The most obvious “Alma” is the Battle of Alma, the first battle of the Crimean War. The British and French had a plan to defeat the Russians by distracting them with such an obvious attack that they would fail to notice the true danger. In the midst of the fighting, a cry of “Do not fire! They are French” as the Russians attacked threw the battle into confusion (Russell 154). Both Katniss’s own distracting attack with her small Mockingjay command disguised as Capitol civilians and President Coin’s bombing of the civilian children have a similar effect. Despite these alarming moments and possible friendly fire, the Battle of Alma became a glorious victory for the British and French, so much so that “Alma” as a girls’ name became popular as a result. So too Katniss and President Coin have a glorious victory. But all wars, even triumphs, have a painful cost.

 

Alma also means “nourishing” or “guiding spirit” in Latin, creating the phrase “Alma mater,” or nourishing mother, to describe one’s university (Hanks and Hodges 12). Alma Coin is indeed the guiding spirit and mother of the revolution, as Katniss is its heroine. But as Katniss discovers, Alma Coin is more of an evil stepmother, willing killer of children in the war and in the new Hunger Games she proposes.

V. Arrow, author of “A Complete Etymology of Names in Panem,” notes:

 

While the most obvious meaning for Coin is...well, coins, cash, money...COIN is also a military abbreviation [for] counter-insurgency operations. Given Collins’ military background and the role that Coin plays in the world of Panem, this is the more likely derivation of President Coin’s surname.

 

Counter-insurgency means destroying a revolution. This seems an odd name for the rebel leader, who would more fittingly be the voice of the insurgency. However, Katniss secretly comes to realize that Coin’s mission opposes the rebellion Katniss believes in�"as Coin craves the presidency and condemns more children to death in the Hunger Games, she has become the new face of the Capitol.

 

 

Annie Cresta

 

Many characters have classic American names or nicknames: Annie, Johanna, Bonnie, Martin. Among these, Annie means grace or favor (Hanks and Hodges 21). Annie’s “favored” status actually comes from her loved ones like Mags and Finnick, who willingly sacrifice themselves to protect her. The birth of her child is another grace�"a single moment of joy in Katniss’s grief at series end. Annie, a nickname like Delly or Prim, is the childish form of the name, making Annie seem like a younger character. Katniss thinks of Annie as she does Prim, a childlike sister needing protecting. In Catching Fire, Mags volunteers for the Quarter Quell to save Annie and thus provides another connection between Annie and Prim. Since Annie’s District is on the coast, her last name likely refers to the crests of waves.

 

 

Atala

 

Head Trainer of the Tributes and likely loyal to the Capitol. Her name may be short for the mythic warrior woman Atalanta. Atalanta’s name was derived from the Greek word atalantos, meaning “equal in weight” (“Atalanta”). In other words, she could do everything a man could from archery to footraces. Like Commander Paylor’s name, this reference echoes the theme of women’s equality in battle: Katniss is the greatest of many strong women in the series from Alma Coin to Glimmer. Interestingly, Atala is the title of an 1801 novella by François-René de Chateaubriand that described Native Americans as endearing and primitive, rather like the Capitol’s racist and demeaning view of the Districts. Panem’s Atala likely shares these views.

 

 

Doctor Aurelius

 

Marcus Aurelius was a Roman Emperor a century after Julius Caesar. His book Meditations was one of the most important Stoic texts, suggesting how to stay calm even in the midst of conflict while devoting oneself to duty and serving others. All of this reflects the District Thirteen doctor who helps Peeta and the other brainwashing victims overcome their programming. His Roman name suggests he once lived in the Capitol.

 

 

Avox

 

Along with Lavinia, Pollux, and Darius, there are many unnamed Avoxes within the series. There’s a servant in the first book and a group of them who are killed in the sewers under the Capitol. The word a-vox literally means without-voice in Latin, casting them as the voiceless slaves of the Roman Capitol. In myth and fairytales, silenced women represent those throughout the world who have no say in their lives or political influence (Frankel 21). Vocalizing is a source of power, and singing represents self-expression, especially in the series. The Avoxes have been deprived of all this, just as they have been stripped of their citizenship and condemned to be nonpersons. They represent the helpless civilians and disenfranchised minorities who often die in a war they had no power to stop.

 

 

Beetee 

 

Beetee is “Derived from BtU, or the unit of measurement traditionally associated with energy” (Arrow). He and Wiress make a strong team with the telling nickname of “nuts and volts.” Volts are a measurement of electricity, Beetee’s specialty, and Katniss must watch in puzzlement as Beetee clutches his spool of wire through the Games. But in the Tributes’ escape plan, Wiress and Beetee are indeed the nuts and bolts of the operation�"the essential pieces that hold it together.

 

 

Blight 

 

This male tribute for District Seven is killed early in the Quarter Quell when he’s blinded by blood rain, then killed by a force field. His name, referring to a drought or disfigurement, seems especially ominous, and thus he’s killed by a blight on the land.

 

Boggs

 

The name Boggs has a military sound to it, and there’s good reason. Rear Admiral Charles Stuart Boggs fought in the US Navy during the American Civil War, echoing Panem’s war between the Capitol and its Districts. The Navy destroyer USS Boggs was named for him. Notably, both admiral and ship survived the wars to be retired honorably, unlike Katniss’s protector. One episode out of the Civil War became particularly famous. Charles Boggs was captaining the steamboat Varuna near New Orleans.

 

On the morning of the advance he moved up the stream, second from the flagship of his division. Ordinary fuel, he knew, would not get up steam fast enough, and he had the pork, which formed a part of his ship’s stores, already prepared to throw into the furnace. At the proper time, it was cast on to the hissing coals�"the fires blazed up, and with a full head of steam on, he dashed ahead. When abreast of the forts, he fired his starboard battery, loaded with five-second-shell. "Now!" exclaimed Boggs, “fire with grape and canister as fast as possible,” and the frail boat shot ahead, wrapped in flame, and was soon above the forts. Looking around him in the early twilight, he saw that he was in a perfect nest of rebel gunboats, ranged on both sides of the river. He instantly gave orders to “work both sides, and load with grape.” Cool, and apparently unexcited, the men trained their guns with such precision, that scarcely a shot failed to hit its mark, while the forward and aft pivot-guns also kept up their steady fire.…The Stonewall Jackson, an iron-clad, came full upon her, striking her with a tremendous crash, and staving in her sides, so that the water poured in torrents into the vessel. She was also on fire, and there was now no alternative but to run her ashore, and her bow was headed for the banks.…Fast settling in the water, as she struggled towards the shore, her guns kept booming over the bosom of the Mississippi, until the water was above the trucks�"the last shot just skimming the surface. Captain Bailey saw with pride how the wounded thing fought, and says: “I saw Boggs bravely fighting, his guns level with the water, as his vessel gradually sunk underneath, leaving her bow resting on the shore, and above water.” (Headley 190-191)

 

Boggs gave everything he had, risking ship and crew to take the enemy down. The ship sank, guns still roaring and flag flying proudly, but he evacuated the crew with calm military precision, even under fire with flames raging over the deck. Boggs was welcomed home as a hero. His clever actions of throwing pork into his ship’s furnace to fuel his ship, his determination as his ship kept firing, and above all his cool-headed bravery as his ship went up in flames but he continued to fight link him with the leader of Katniss’s Star Squad. Both watched out for their crew and saved their lives so they could continue fighting.

 

Bonnie

 

A fugitive from District Eight whom Katniss meets in the forest. Typical American/British name, meaning pretty. 

 

 

Bristel

 

A District Twelve miner. The city of Bristol, UK, was built by digging up the local limestone.

 

 

Brutus

 

Katniss describes the District Two tributes’ “eagerness” and “bloodlust” (M 83). Brutus, one of the District Two Quarter Quell Tributes, is no exception. He offers an alliance during training, but Katniss turns him down, perhaps sensing that a man named Brutus should never be trusted. In fact, the English word “brutal” comes from his name. The historical Brutus stabbed his best friend and possible illegitimate father Julius Caesar; the equally cruel Enobaria, Brutus, and their Career allies savagely murder middle-aged mother Cecilia, a seriously ill morphling, the elderly Woof and Seeder, and other unnamed, ill-equipped Tributes. Famously, in one of the historical Brutus’ last speeches as he fled pursuit from Caesar’s allies, he cried, “O Zeus, do not forget the author of these ills!” (Plutarch’s Lives, Brutus, 51.1). The Tribute Brutus is the last to die in the final Games, and this quote becomes especially significant as it echoes Haymitch’s reminder to Katniss: Brutus and Enobaria are not her true enemies; her enemy is whoever decides to kill innocent children for the people’s entertainment.

 

 

Buttercup

 

Katniss’s ugly cat survives the three books and beyond�"significant when Buttercup is read as the rough, angry part of Katniss herself. As a heroine from District Twelve, Katniss is in a way like Buttercup�"scruffy, unfriendly, scarred. Both are lone hunters from the wilderness rather than pampered pets. Critic Steve Barkmeier comments:

 

Katniss describes Buttercup as “the world’s ugliest cat” with a “mashed-in nose, half of one ear missing, eyes the color of rotting squash.” By the end of Mockingjay, Katniss is also much worse for the wear. Buttercup distrusts Katniss and Katniss hates Buttercup. I believe that this is a representation of Katniss’s uneasy relationship with herself. She doesn’t see herself as beautiful. She mistrusts any feelings she has towards anyone but Prim. She even questions her motives in caring for Peeta and accuses herself of only appearing to care for him to survive.

 

As Katniss and Buttercup make peace, this indicates that Katniss is making peace with herself. When they have rough times, Katniss is anxious and unhappy with who she’s become. As the series ends, Buttercup returns with the spring just as Katniss takes the first steps to reclaim her life, venturing out of the house and hunting again. Though she screams at Buttercup, lashing out at him as she blames herself for the tragedies that surround her, Katniss and Buttercup finally cry together and reconcile, Buttercup protects Katniss through the night and Katniss heals him and gives him her breakfast bacon, finally loving the wild part of herself that has returned to defend her and love her in turn.

All flower names in the series reflect the rural Districts and a closeness to nature. In particular, the buttercup flower represents ingratitude and childishness, a good match for Buttercup’s personality (Greenaway). Cats are known for being independent and aloof, solitary hunters who are slow to show affection but who are loyal and protective. Of course, both Katniss and Buttercup are devoted to Prim beyond all else in the world.

Across the world, cats and lions are considered feminine, while in the Bible, the lion symbolizes courage, strength, and power, all traits Katniss finds within the wild part of herself (Shepherd 178). Katniss thinks of herself as Catnip (Gale’s nickname for her and another plant name), the one who drives cats crazy just as she loathes Buttercup, her own wild side. And Katniss is the one to invent “Crazy Cat,” the flashlight game that drives Buttercup batty. In flower folklore, catnip, when chewed, was said to bring courage, a good match for our heroine (Watts 61).

In the bomb shelter of District Thirteen, Katniss watches Buttercup bat uselessly for a dancing light and realizes she has indeed become the cat, chasing the dangling image of Peeta. With this knowledge, she resolves to take charge instead of letting Snow torment her. In many ways, Katniss is as helpless as Buttercup, both of them carried away from their village house and forced to follow others’ rules. But in the end, Katniss and Buttercup both prove to be survivors, able to live with each other’s surliness and defensive attitudes.

 

Reviews

[Callie Macleod]

I guessed the part about Peeta and Pita, but that's about it. This was so cool!

[RachelKim]

Thanks for gathering all this information!! I learned A LOT! Honestly, the only thing I already knew that Peeta is a type of bread. You should enter my contest, The Hunger Game Fan Fiction Contest.

[Daring Darling Didi]

Interesting! I had no idea about any of this! Thank you for the information!