Mockingjay Chapter 2 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
(Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote 1
Yes, other people had plans, I think. Has Peeta guessed, then, how the rebels used us as pawns? How my rescue was arranged from the beginning? And finally, how our mentor, Haymitch Abernathy, betrayed us both for a cause he pretended to have no interest in? (2.25)
From a statement like this, we can tell how hard it has become for characters like Katniss and Peeta to trust anybody. The current regime that governs the Capitol and organized the Games obviously can't be trusted. But the revolutionaries also cannot really be trusted. And even Katniss and Peeta's "mentor," Haymitch, the one person they could try to rely on to get them through the games, lied to them all along.
Quote 2
'I want everyone watching – whether you're on the Capitol or the rebel side – to stop for just a moment and think about what this war could mean. For human beings. We almost went extinct fighting one another before. Now our numbers are even fewer. Our conditions more tenuous. Is this really what we want to do? Kill ourselves off completely? In the hopes that – what? Some decent species will inherit the smoking remains of the earth?' (2.56)
In this speech, Peeta asks for the fighting to stop. Other context in this chapter reveals that these aren't Peeta's ideas, but President Snow's – Peeta is being forced to speak for the Capitol. If the fighting stopped, the rebels would be destroyed. However, Katniss seems to realize that Peeta might mean the opposite of what he's saying here, that the rebels should fight, and that she should step forward to lead them.
Quote 3
"That giant clock ticking away your life. Every hour promising some new horror. You have to imagine that in the past two days, sixteen people have died – some of them defending you. At the rate things are going, the last eight will be dead by morning. Save one. The victor. And your plan is that it won't be you." (2.28)
Peeta tries to conjure up the kind of courage it had taken to be a tribute during the Quarter Quell, revealing the terrible circumstances that he and Katniss were in. Even though he says this during a conversation engineered by the Capitol against the rebels, there's no denying that the feelings he expresses here are very real.
Quote 4
Maybe it's because I still have the ashes of my own district on my shoes, but for the first time, I give the people of 13 something I have withheld from them: credit. For staying alive against all odds. (2.82)
Katniss realizes here that she hasn't given "credit" to the folks in 13 who have been struggling for their lives just as she has been struggling for hers. In some ways, they had as tough a time making it in 13 as she did in the arena, and she hasn't given them enough respect for that.
Quote 5
"I doubt they'll ask for details. They saw it [District 12] burn. They'll mostly be worried about how you're handling it." Gale touches my cheek. "Like I am."
I press my face against his hand for a moment. "I'll survive." (2.12-13)
In moments like this one, it's hard to tell if Gale and Katniss are just friends, or if they're something more. The way Gale touches Katniss and the way she responds both seem to suggest that they draw some kind of comfort from being physically close – and might even be craving that closeness.
Quote 6
[…] the Capitol has not killed or even punished him [Peeta]. For right now, that exceeds my wildest hopes. I drink in his wholeness, the soundness of his body and mind. It runs through me like the morphling they give me in the hospital, dulling the pain of the last weeks. (2.26)
It's also hard to tell if Katniss and Peeta are just friends, or if they're in love. Here, it sounds more like Katniss loves Peeta. She compares the discovery of him being alive to receiving a drug like morphine. Finding out he's somewhat "whole" is the best news she could receive in this moment, and, it sounds like, more than she ever expected.
Quote 7
"You're alive," I whisper, pressing my palms against my cheeks, feeling the smile that's so wide it must look like a grimace. Peeta's alive. And a traitor. But at the moment, I don't care. Not what he says, or who he says it for, only that he is still capable of speech. (2.65)
This seems like proof that Katniss loves Peeta, even if she can't admit it to even herself. The mere knowledge that Peeta's alive is all Katniss wants to know. It makes her grin like an idiot and she doesn't even care about the details, like about why he is alive. All that matters is that he is.
Quote 8
This is one of the few good things about 13. Getting Gale back. With the pressure of the Capitol's arranged marriage between Peeta and me gone, we've managed to regain our friendship. He doesn't push it any further—try to kiss me or talk about love. Either I've been too sick, or he's willing to give me space, or he knows it's just too cruel with Peeta in the hands of the Capitol. Whatever the case, I've got someone to tell my secrets to again. (2.77)
Friends or lovers? That's the question Katniss returns to again and again when thinking about both Peeta and Gale. Here, it seems like if circumstances had been different, Gale might have been the frontrunner for Katniss's heart. Yet, because of everything they've all gone through and Katniss's complicated relationship with Peeta, Gale doesn't even make a romantic move – although Katniss seems to think he'd like to.
Quote 9
Caesar leans in to him a little. "I think it was clear to all of us what your plan was. To sacrifice yourself in the arena so that Katniss Everdeen and your child could survive."
"That was it. Clear and simple." (2.23-24)
Here, Peeta continues to send a message that he's an innocent figure who would "sacrifice" himself to save Katniss's life. And, whatever else might be true or disguised in his speech with Caesar – whatever else might be propaganda that he has to say – it's pretty obvious that he would sacrifice himself for Katniss, just as she would do the same for him.