How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
But that was before the Games. Before my fellow tribute, Peeta Mellark, announced he was madly in love with me. Our romance became a key strategy for our survival in the arena. Only it wasn't just a strategy for Peeta. I'm not sure what it was for me. [...] My chest tightens as I think about how, on the Victory Tour, Peeta and I will have to present ourselves as lovers again. (1.17)
In the arena, nothing is what it seems. Katniss and Peeta made it out alive by performing a love affair, which was "a key strategy for [their] survival." What makes things more complicated is that, for Peeta, "it wasn't just a strategy"; he's really in love with her. With this ambiguity and forced pretense of a romance, it becomes even harder for Katniss to know what's real and what's not.
Quote #2
It's just one more part of the lie the Capitol has concocted. When Peeta and I made it into the final eight in the Hunger Games, they sent reporters to do personal stories about us. When they asked about my friends, everyone directed them to Gale. But it wouldn't do, what with the romance I was playing out in the arena, to have my best friend be Gale. [...] So some genius made him my cousin. (1.37)
The Games have turned Katniss' life inside out. Everything has to fit neatly into a box and form a simple, exciting narrative for the media. In the arena, Katniss and Peeta's narrative became a romance against all odds, and nothing could be permitted to get in the way of that storyline. Somewhat ironically, the Capitol's media worked for Katniss by helping perpetuate the idea of that romance, which is what ended up keeping her alive.
Quote #3
It's true that Peeta froze me out after I confessed that my love for him during the Games was something of an act. But I don't hold that against him. In the arena, I'd played that romance angle for all it was worth. There had been times when I didn't honestly know how I felt about him. I still don't really. (4.31)
In the arena, Katniss fully intended to manipulate her audience in order to get sponsors and make it out alive. What she didn't realize was how much she was manipulating Peeta as well. She thought he was in on the trick, but in fact she was leading him on. Poor Peeta.
Quote #4
"This has to stop. Right now. This – this – game you two play, where you tell each other secrets but keep them from me like I'm too inconsequential or stupid or weak to handle them." (5.13)
Layers of games run throughout the book. Everyone's running a game on somebody else. Even Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch, who are supposed to be allies, have secrets from one another. As Peeta rightfully points out, Haymitch and Katniss have been keeping him out of the loop at a time when they should have trusted him more than ever.
Quote #5
I don't want Peeta singling himself out as a target for the Gamemakers' anger. That's part of my job. To draw fire away from Peeta. But how did he upset them? Because I'd love to do just that and more. To break through the smug veneer of those who use their brains to find amusing ways to kill us. To make them realize that while we're vulnerable to the Capitol's cruelties, they are as well. (16.100)
As soon as you become associated with the Games, you have to learn about manipulation. It's a necessity. Katniss has come a long way since she first got tapped to play in the Hunger Games. Now she knows she's being manipulated, and how. She's trying to manipulate people right back so that she and Peeta can stay alive.
Quote #6
"You'd have thought we planned it," says Peeta, giving me just the hint of a smile.
[...] "No," I say, looking at Peeta with a new sense of appreciation. "Neither of use even knew what we were going to do before we went in." (17.26, 28)
Peeta and Katniss are becoming more skilled manipulators by the day. They're becoming so good that they can manipulate on the spur of the moment; they don't need to plan in advance anymore. That's one way they know they're getting ready to go into the arena.
Quote #7
One way or the other, I have a very valuable piece of information. And if they know I have it, they might do something to alter the force field so I can't see the aberration anymore. So I lie. (20.24)
Katniss constantly has to be thinking on her feet. She's always being watched, especially in the arena. Not only does she have to worry about the other players, she has to worry about the people who designed the game. The Quell isn't static; the people behind the scenes could easily tweak it to make it more difficult. So Katniss has to play dumb and try to retain her "valuable piece of information."
Quote #8
"I don't know what kind of deal you think you've made with Haymitch, but you should know he made me promises as well." Of course, I know this too. He told Peeta they could keep me alive so that he wouldn't be suspicious. "So I think we can assume he was lying to one of us."
This gets my attention. A double deal. A double promise. With only Haymitch knowing which one is real. (24.75-76)
Who is the best manipulator in this book? Haymitch certainly gives the other characters a run for their money. He tricked Peeta and Katniss both by making a "double deal" with each of them to try and save the other. By doing so, he has kept them both alive so far.
Quote #9
There was a plan to break us out of the arena from the moment the Quell was announced. The victor tributes from 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 11 had varying degrees of knowledge about it. Plutarch Heavensbee has been, for several years, part of an undercover group aiming to overthrow the Capitol. (27.28)
The whole book rests on levels and layers of manipulation – nearly all the characters associated with the Games are working some kind of strategy. But this one is deeper than most, revealing a massive, long-standing plot that turns the Capitol's Games on itself and changes the entire country of Panem.
Quote #10
It's an awful lot to take in, this elaborate plan in which I was a piece, just as I was meant to be a piece in the Hunger Games. Used without consent, without knowledge. At least in the Hunger Games, I knew I was being played with. (27.30)
It's never good to feel like you're being played, and Katniss has certainly had her share of that feeling in the Games. Now she finds out that she's been used as a pawn in two different games at the same time: the Quarter Quell and the rebels' plan to overthrow the Capitol.