How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Although they never mention it, I owe the people who frequent the Hob. Gale told me that Greasy Sae, the old woman who serves up soup, started a collection to sponsor Peeta and me during the Games. It was supposed to be just a Hob thing, but a lot of other people heard about it and chipped in. I don't know exactly how much it was, and the price of any gift in the arena was exorbitant. But for all I know, it made the difference between my life and death. (1.22)
Katniss doesn't even know what she "owe[s] the people" of the Hob, but she knows it's something. The people of District 12 have so little to give, but they manage to give nonetheless. This is incredibly meaningful to Katniss. During their first Hunger Games she and Peeta depended on kindnesses that, while they appeared small, were "exorbitant" in cost.
Quote #2
Instead he [Peeta] speaks in his simple, winning style about Thresh and Rue making it to the final eight, about how they both kept me alive – thereby keeping him alive – and about how this is a debt we can never repay. [...] "It can no way replace your losses, but as a token of our thanks we'd like for each of the tributes' families from District Eleven to receive one month of our winnings every year for the duration of our lives." (4.75)
As winners of the Games, both Peeta and Katniss make no secret of who they owe or how much. Here Peeta shows he's just as brave as Katniss by ignoring the rules in order to honor their debt. In another passage, Katniss explains exactly how brave Peeta's actions are, saying she can't even begin to guess at what their repercussions might be. In a way, it doesn't matter; Peeta has at least recognized and stated the debt they owe.
Quote #3
I thought no one saw me sneak under the fence, but who knows? There are always eyes for hire. [...] Could there be surveillance cameras? (11.3)
It's hard to know whom to trust, either inside or outside the arena. Even when Katniss thinks nobody's watching her, she can't be sure. As she explains, "[t]here are always eyes for hire." If she puts her trust in the wrong person, it could result in her death. It's hard to be sure who she can count on to be loyal to her.
Quote #4
I knew it. In this way, Peeta's not hard to predict. While I was wallowing around on the floor of that cellar, thinking only of myself, he was here, thinking only of me. Shame isn't a strong enough word for what I feel. (13.21)
Peeta's loyalty to Katniss is unwavering. When the news comes that they have to go back to the arena, Peeta instantly starts "thinking only of [Katniss]," springing into action on her behalf. In a way, this seems almost too selfless. Katniss, for her part, has a pretty normal reaction: freaking out on her own behalf. Most of us would probably do the same thing.
Quote #5
And the more I come to know these people, the worse it is. Because, on the whole, I don't hate them. And some I like. And a lot of them are so damaged that my natural instinct would be to protect them. But all of them must die if I'm to save Peeta. (16.85)
The Games take so much away from those who compete in them, even down to their ability to be loyal to more than one person. According to the design of the Games, ultimately each person can only truly be loyal to him- or herself. Even here, Katniss is stretching the rules by deciding that her ultimate loyalty is to Peeta rather than herself. When it comes down to the two of them, will she be able to stick to that?
Quote #6
It's stupid, I know, that his efforts make me so vexed. All I wanted was to keep Peeta alive, and I couldn't and Finnick could, and I should be nothing but grateful. And I am. But I am also furious because it means that I will never stop owing Finnick Odair. Ever. So how can I kill him in his sleep? (20.13)
In a way, Finnick has outsmarted Katniss here by saving Peeta's life. Now Katniss "will never stop owing Finnick." He's done her the kind of favor she can't easily pay back; now she can't let him down. Inside the arena, this kind of relationship will ultimately be a liability – nobody wants to have to kill her own friends.
Quote #7
A terrible impulse to flee, to abandon Peeta and save myself, shoots through me. [...] I remember how I did just this when the mutations appeared in the last Games. [...] But this time, I trap my terror, push it down, and stay by his side. This time my survival isn't the goal. Peeta's is. (21.6)
In this instance loyalty trumps that other virtue, courage. Katniss could go out by herself and survive. That's her basic human instinct, which she deems a "terrible impulse." Deep down, her gut feeling is going to be to try to survive. Here, though, her loyalty is stronger than that. She owes Peeta and she's committed to him. That feeling is enough to get her to stay, to work for the survival of another person instead of herself.
Quote #8
That's when I remember the wire and how important it was to him. I look frantically around. Where is it? Where is it? And then I see it, still clutched in Wiress's hands, far out in the water. My stomach contracts at the thought of what I must do next. (23.54)
Katniss is willing to risk her life to save this wire, because she knows how important it is to Beetee. She trusts him enough to know that if he believes the wire has value, it must be the case. She has to be brave enough to swim into blood-drenched water and take it from the body of a dead woman. That's loyalty.
Quote #9
There is no question about it. For reasons completely unfathomable to me, some of the other victors are trying to keep him alive, even if it means sacrificing themselves.
I'm dumbfounded. For one thing, that's my job. For another, it doesn't make sense. Only one of us can get out. So why have they chosen Peeta to protect? What has Haymitch possibly said to them, what has he bargained with to make them put Peeta's life above their own? (23.74-75)
Here people are acting loyally when they shouldn't, at least according to reason. Katniss finds this behavior highly suspicious. The first thing people like Finnick and Johanna should do in the arena is take out weaker opponents like Peeta, but instead, they're "put[ting] Peeta's life above their own." This seems like putting off the inevitable since, as far as they know, by the end of the Games only one of them can still be standing.
Quote #10
"Your family needs you, Katniss," Peeta says.
My family. My mother. My sister. And my pretend cousin Gale. But Peeta's intention is clear. That Gale really is my family, or will be one day, if I live. That I'll marry him. So Peeta's giving me his life and Gale at the same time. (24.80-81)
Peeta's skilled at strategy too. In this moment he uses Katniss' loyalty to her family against her, urging her to think of them and put them first – and to use them as a reason to survive the Games. The problem is, Katniss can't be loyal to them and Peeta at the same time. If she saves him, she can't save herself to take care of her family. But if she saves herself, how will she be able to live with the guilt? How can either she or Peeta live with themselves after watching the other die?