How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
All I was doing was trying to keep Peeta and myself alive. Any act of rebellion was purely coincidental. But when the Capitol decrees that only one tribute can live and you have the audacity to challenge it, I guess that's a rebellion in itself. My only defense was pretending that I was driven insane by a passionate love for Peeta. So we were both allowed to live. (2.4)
Katniss didn't realize the ramifications of her actions during her first Hunger Games. She just wanted to "keep Peeta and [her]self alive." That was as far ahead as she could see. But what she didn't realize was that by saving herself and Peeta, she made it seem as though she was a rebel working against the Capitol. And inciting a rebellion is the best way to piss off the Capitol.
Quote #2
"In several of [the districts], people viewed your little trick with the berries as an act of defiance, not an act of love. And if a girl from District Twelve of all places can defy the Capitol and walk away unharmed, what is to stop them from doing the same?" he says. "What is to prevent, say, an uprising?" (2.19)
Here Katniss begins to realize what she's started, as Snow warns her that her actions, made in an innocent attempt to survive the Games, have far-reaching consequences. Instead of getting to retreat into obscurity, she may have inspired other people to start rebelling too. If so, the implication from Snow is that she'll have a heavy price to pay.
Quote #3
"What about the other families, Katniss? The ones who can't run away? Don't you see? It can't be about just saving us anymore. Not if the rebellion's begun!" Gale shakes his head, not hiding his disgust with me. "You could do so much." He throws Cinna's gloves at my feet. "I changed my mind. I don't want anything they made in the Capitol." And he's gone. (7.80)
It's Gale who helps Katniss realize that this problem is bigger than she is, and the solution has to be bigger than her small idea of running away. This isn't just a matter of getting small groups of people out from under the Capitol's dictatorship. It's about getting everyone out. "The rebellion's begun," which means that a full-scale war is on the horizon.
Quote #4
As the Peacekeepers fell, weapons were appropriated for the rebels. There was hope that this had not been an act of madness, that in some way, if they could get the word out to other districts, an actual overthrow of the government in the Capitol might be possible. (10.44)
As Snow indicated, war is brewing in Panem, and this is one of Katniss' first tastes of it. The people are desperate enough to try to attack the Peacekeepers as a first step to "an actual overthrow of the government." What worries Katniss is that she may be getting both the credit and the blame for this potential rebellion, and she didn't ask for any of it.
Quote #5
We sit in silence awhile and then I blurt out the thing that's on both our minds. "How are we going to kill these people, Peeta?" (16.93)
Unlike many soldiers in real wars, Katniss and Peeta don't have nationalism or patriotism to boost their spirits before they head into battle. They don't believe in the "cause" they're fighting for: kill or be killed. This isn't their war. After making it through the previous Games alive, now they have to turn around and head right back into battle again.
Quote #6
There. He's done it again. Dropped a bomb that wipes out the efforts of every tribute who came before him. Well, maybe not. Maybe this year he has only lit the fuse on a bomb that the victors themselves have been building. Hoping someone would be able to detonate it. Perhaps thinking it would be me in my bridal gown. Not knowing how much I rely on Cinna's talents, whereas Peeta needs nothing more than his wits. (18.28)
There are many different types of weapons in a war, and Peeta has just deployed an effective and often overlooked one: words. It's an interesting play against gender stereotypes that Peeta would be good with words and bad with fighting, while Katniss is the opposite. But that's what makes them a good team. She needs him outside the arena and he needs her inside it.
Quote #7
Well, what did I think? That the victors' chain of locked hands last night would result in some sort of universal truce in the arena? No, I never believed that. But I guess I had hoped people might show some . . . what? Restraint? Reluctance, at least. Before they jumped right into massacre mode. And you all knew each other, I think. You acted like friends. (19.47)
It's one thing to act like friends in a time of peace, but how do you keep that up when those same "friends" could turn around and kill you at any minute? In the war the tributes fight in the area, it's everyone for himself. There's no common cause, and there aren't supposed to be comrades. There's definitely no "universal truce."
Quote #8
"Oh," I say under my breath. "Tick, tock." My eyes sweep around the full circle of the arena and I know she's right. "Tick, tock. This is a clock." (22.96)
The arena is designed like a clock and operates with military precision. Every hour, on the hour, some new horror strikes. When that hour's over, the horror is replaced by another incredible trial. It's mechanical. It's false. It's orchestrated. The question is, does that make it just like all the other wars on the planet, or completely unlike them?
Quote #9
And there are six of us now. Even if you count Beetee and Wiress out, we've got four good fighters. It's so different from where I was last year at this point, doing everything on my own. Yes, it's great to have allies as long as you can ignore the thought that you'll have to kill them. (23.25)
In normal wars, you don't turn on your own side after you've vanquished your opponent. You'd celebrate victory and look forward to a time of peace. In the arena, though, war is constant. Each person in the arena represents an eventual enemy and an imminent new battle, even if you are temporarily allied against a third party.
Quote #10
Enemy. Enemy. The word is tugging at a recent memory. Pulling it into the present. The look on Haymitch's face. "Katniss, when you're in the arena . . ." The scowl, the misgiving. "What?" I hear my own voice tighten as I bristle at some unspoken accusation. "You just remember who the enemy is," Haymitch says. "That's all." (26.50)
Katniss has been fighting the other tributes this whole time, but she has nothing against them personally. She's been used like a puppet to fight the battles of others. Here she finally realizes what the advice Haymitch gave her so long ago really meant: she and the other tributes share a common enemy, the Capitol, and can do something about it.