Competition Quotes in Catching Fire

Usually winners enjoy the glory and recognition that comes with taking first place. Given the nature of this competition, though, which involves killing innocent teens in order to win, Katniss finds no joy or glory in what she has done – only relief that she made it through alive.

In the first Hunger Games book, few characters thought Haymitch would be a good mentor or that he would really be able to help Katniss and Peeta. Yet he turned out to be a great mentor by keeping them both alive – a hat trick that would have seemed impossible to anyone. Of course, Katniss and Peeta stayed alive because of their own smarts and manipulation too, but that doesn't mean they "owe" Haymitch any less.

Katniss is good at short-term strategy. She's fast, too – she thinks on her feet. At the climax of the last book, she came up with this plan on the spot to save both her life and Peeta's, and it worked. But she's a warrior, not a politician. She was so focused on saving their lives in the arena that she didn't think ahead to what problems they might face once they got out.

Sometimes the competition in the arena has seemed like it was about being the best fighter, the cleverest strategist, or the luckiest individual. Here Katniss realizes another important element is rolling with the punches. You never know when that ability will be called upon, and she admires Haymitch and Peeta for it.

Talk about the worst news ever. Getting through one Games is bad enough; even if you survive, the trauma you endured would haunt you for the rest of your life. Just when Katniss thinks she's relatively safe (although she's been marked by Snow and the Capitol as a potential threat), she is "going back into the arena." She will have to do it all over again.

The Games are all about strategy. They haven't even started yet and Katniss and Peeta already need to choose their sides. They constantly have to be thinking about how to protect themselves; they never get a moment's rest. Deciding between friend and enemy could make the difference between life and death.

There are all kinds of reasons to compete in the Games and give it your all. Usually, though, staying alive is at the top of that list. Katniss' approach is a little different this time around. She will play – she has to – but she'll do so on her own terms. It's the only way she can think of to honor Cinna, to show the people of Panem what the Capitol is really like, and to take action against them in her own "last act of rebellion."

As the Quarter Quell goes on, some of the players' actions don't seem to jive with typical competitive behavior. Finnick should have stuck with his ally Mags, but he didn't. Instead, he saved Peeta, when by all rights he could have refused to. And why did Mags give up her life "without a moment's hesitation"? In the previous Games, tributes were definitely not so willing to sacrifice themselves. This is a hint that something else is going on. The competitors seem to be following a new set of rules.

In moments like this, the Hunger Games seem like an elaborate game of strategy, like chess. Haymitch has made a move for Katniss' side, which she didn't even know about. Johanna's play is to bring in the allies Katniss supposedly requested (although she didn't actually). Katniss, for her part, has to act like she knows all about this and that Johanna has done exactly the right thing.

If there's ever a game to try hard to win, this is the one. But Katniss wants someone else to win: Peeta. She can't behave normally or even strategize to try to save the other players. As she understands it, she can only save one of them. To make matters worse, she has no way of knowing how Peeta will keep himself safe once she's out of the Games, so she has to stay alive as long as she can.