Mockingjay Study Guide

Suzanne Collins (born August 10, 1962) is an American television writer and novelist, best known for writing The Hunger Games series (which is comprised of The Hunger Games , Catching Fire , and Mockingjay ).

Mockingjay (2010)

• " My Name is Katniss Everdeen. I am seventeen years old. My home is District 12. I was in The Hunger Games. I escaped. The Capitol hates me. Peeta was taken prisoner. He is thought to be dead. Most likely he is dead. It is probably best if he is dead... "
  • Katniss (pp. 8)

• “Katniss, she’s running this district. She can’t do it if it seems like she’s caving in to your will.”“You mean she can’t stand any dissent, even if it’s fair.”
  • Gale Hawthorne and Katniss Everdeen (pp. 63-64)

• "I want to tell the rebels that I am alive. That I'm right here in District Eight, where the Capitol has just bombed a hospital full of unarmed men, women, and children. There will be no survivors. [...] I want to tell people that if you think for one second the Capitol will treat us fairly if there's a cease-fire, you're deluding yourself. Because you know who they are and what they do. [...] This is what they do! And we must fight back! [...] President Snow says he's sending us a message? Well, I have one for him. You can torture us and bomb us and burn our districts to the ground, but do you see that?" We're with the camera, tracking to the planes burning on the roof of the warehouse. Tight on the Capitol seal on a wing, which melts back into the image of my face, shouting at the president. "Fire is catching! And if we burn, you burn with us!"
  • Katniss (pp. 105-106)

• "This is your earpiece. I will give you exactly one more chance to wear it. If you remove it from your ear again, I'll have you fitted with this." He holds up some sort of metal headgear that I instantly name the head shackle. "It's an alternative audio unit that locks around your skull and under your chin until it's opened with a key. And I'll have the only key. If for some reason you're clever enough to disable it,"—Haymitch dumps the head shackle on the bed and whips out a tiny silver chip—"I'll authorize them to surgically implant this transmitter into your ear so that I may speak to you twenty-four hours a day."Haymitch in my head full-time. Horrifying. "I'll keep the earpiece in," I mutter.
  • Haymitch Abernathy and Katniss (pp. 110-111)

• Maybe everyone is just trying to protect me by lying to me. I don’t care. I’m sick of people lying to me for my own good. Because really it’s mostly for their own good. Lie to Katniss about the rebellion so she doesn’t do anything crazy.
  • Katniss (p. 118)

• To hear Delly describe it, I had next to no friends because I intimidated people by being so exceptional. Not true. I had next to no friends because I wasn't friendly.
  • Katniss (p. 188)

• Sometimes when I'm alone, I take the pearl from where it lives in my pocket and try to remember the boy with the bread, the strong arms that warded off nightmares on the train, the kisses in the arena. To make myself put a name to the thing I've lost. But what's the use? It's gone. He's gone. Whatever existed between us is gone. All that's left is my promise to kill Snow. I tell myself this ten times a day.
  • Katniss (p. 195)

• "I don't stand a chance if he doesn't get better. You'll never be able to let him go. You'll always feel wrong about being with me.""The way I always felt wrong kissing him because of you," I say.
  • Gale and Katniss (p. 197)

• Even in the Capitol, there’s nothing to match the magnificence of this old building. But there is no give to the surface—only my flesh yields, my warmth taken. Stone conquers people every time.
  • Katniss (p. 209)

• "We didn't bomb the train tunnel, you know. Some of them will probably get out.""And then we'll shoot them when they show their faces?" I ask.

  "Only if we have to," he answers.

  • Boggs and Katniss (pp. 209-210)

• "You could save a lot of lives, Katniss."
  • Haymitch (p. 213)

• "I'm not their slave," the man mutters."I am," I say. "That’s why I killed Cato … and he killed Thresh … and he killed Clove … and she tried to kill me. It just goes around and around, and who wins? Not us. Not the districts. Always the Capitol. But I'm tired of being a piece in their Games."
  • A District 2 soldier and Katniss (p. 215)

• "Was there fighting after I was shot?""Not much. The workers from the Nut turned on the Capitol soldiers. The rebels just sat by and watched," he says. "Actually, the whole country just sat by and watched."

  "Well, that’s what they do best," I say.

  • Katniss and Gale (p. 222)

• All those months of taking it for granted that Peeta thought I was wonderful are over. Finally, he can see me for who I really am. Violent. Distrustful. Manipulative. Deadly.And I hate him for it.
  • Katniss (p. 232)

• So, now that we’re dead, what’s our next move?
  • Gale (p. 289)

• You're still trying to protect me. Real or not real," he whispers."Real," I answer. It seems to require more explanation. "Because that's what you and I do. Protect each other."
  • Peeta and Katniss (p. 302)

• I think...you still have no idea. The effect you can have.
  • Peeta to Katniss (p. 325)

• Closing my eyes doesn’t help. Fire burns brighter in the darkness.
  • Katniss (p. 352)

• I refuse for this to be true. Some things even I can't survive. I utter my first words since my sister's death. "I don't believe you."Snow shakes his head in mock disappointment. "Oh, my dear Miss Everdeen. I thought we had agreed not to lie to each other."
  • Katniss and President Snow (p. 358)

• I no longer feel any allegiance to these monsters called human beings, despite being one myself. I think that Peeta was onto something about us destroying one another and letting some decent species take over. Because something is significantly wrong with a creature that sacrifices its children’s lives to settle its differences.
  • Katniss (p. 377)

• “Are you preparing for another war, Plutarch?” I ask.“Oh, not now. Now we’re in that sweet period where everyone agrees that our recent horrors should never be repeated,” he says. “But collective thinking is usually short-lived. We’re fickle, stupid beings with a great gift for self-destruction. Although who knows? Maybe this will be it, Katniss.”

  “What?” I ask.

  “The time it sticks. Maybe we are witnessing the evolution of the human race. Think about that.“

  • Katniss and Plutarch Heavensbee (p. 379)

• It was the waste of a trip. She's not here," I tell him. Buttercup hisses again. "She's not here. You can hiss all you like. You won't find Prim." At her name, he perks up. Raises his flattened ears. Begins to meow hopefully. "Get out!" He dodges the pillow I throw at him. "Go away! There's nothing left for you here!" I start to shake, furious with him. "She's not coming back! She's never ever coming back here again!" I grab another pillow and get to my feet to improve my aim. Out of nowhere, the tears begin to pour down my cheeks. "She's dead." I clutch my middle to dull the pain. Sink down on my heels, rocking the pillow, crying. "She's dead, you stupid cat. She's dead.
  • Katniss and Buttercup (p. 386)

• Buttercup begins to wail as well. He circles me, just out of reach, as wave after wave of sobs racks my body, until eventually I fall unconscious. But he must understand. He must know that the unthinkable has happened and to survive will require previously unthinkable acts. Because hours later, when I come to in my bed, he's there in the moonlight. Crouched beside me, yellow eyes alert, guarding me from the night.
  • Katniss (p. 386)

• I know this would have happened anyway. That what I need to survive is not Gale's fire, kindled with rage and hatred. I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that.So after, when he whispers, "You love me. Real or not real?"

  I tell him, "Real."

  • Katniss and Peeta (p. 388; closing words of the main text)

• The questions are just beginning. The arenas have been completely destroyed, the memorials built, there are no more Hunger Games. But they teach about them at school, and the girl knows we played a role in them. The boy will know in a few years.
  • Katniss (p. 389)

• I'll tell them how I survive it. I'll tell them that on bad mornings, it feels impossible to take pleasure in anything because I'm afraid it could be taken away. That's when I make a list in my head of every act of goodness I've seen someone do. It's like a game. Repetitive. Even a little tedious after more than twenty years.But there are much worse games to play.
  • Katniss (p. 390; closing words of the epilogue)