Catching Fire

Katniss and Peeta there are rushed back to a small room in the Justice Building, from which they’ve just come. There, they find Haymitch, Effie, and Cinna. Effie frantically asks what’s going on—Peeta replies, a little too calmly, that “an old truck backfired.” Even as he says this, they hear two more gunshots. This terrifies everyone, Effie in particular.

Haymitch shouts that everyone needs to follow him. Wordlessly, he walks up a staircase in the room where they’ve been moved. Upstairs, they find a luxurious banquet hall where, presumably, they were supposed to eat dinner. Haymitch notices that Katniss and Peeta have been fitted with microphones for the ceremony—he rips these off their chests and throws them to the floor. Katniss realizes that Haymitch knows his way around the Justice Building, because he visited there himself years ago, when he won the Hunger Games.

Haymitch leads Peeta and Katniss up a ladder, which leads to the dome at the top of the Justice Building. He leaves the rest of the entourage in the banquet hall. In the dome, he asks Peeta to explain to him what’s going on. Peeta explains the whistling incident that led to three deaths, and wonders aloud why the Peacekeepers would kill someone simply for whistling. In response, Katniss reluctantly explains what President Snow told her—she needs to preserve order or risk her friends’ lives. Katniss tells her friends the entire truth, including the kiss Gale gave her.

Peeta is angry that Katniss didn’t tell her about her conversation with Snow. He explains that he had a right to know, since he has loved ones who are in just as much danger as Katniss’s. He worries that his generosity led three people to be executed, a suggestion that Katniss can’t disagree with. Peeta is also angry, he says, that Haymitch gave Katniss help during the Hunger Games, but never aided him until Katniss had allied with Peeta. Katniss realizes that Peeta has a point—Haymitch, who should have been equally helpful to both tributes from District 11, favored Katniss from the beginning. Haymitch promises that he’ll keep Peeta fully informed from now on. Peeta nods, but leaves the dome and climbs back down the ladder.

Katniss, still standing in the dome with Haymitch, asks him about favoritism. Haymitch tells her that he always preferred Peeta to her, but when he noticed that Peeta was protecting Katniss, he realized that he could do more good by sending supplies to Katniss. Haymitch concludes by telling Katniss, very curtly, that they have a ceremonial dinner to attend.

As Katniss, Peeta, and their entourage prepare to go to their dinner, Effie complains that she doesn’t like how they’ve been treated: they’ve been rushed into cars and pushed around by Peacekeepers. Peeta apologizes to Katniss for his outburst in the dome—he realizes that he shouldn’t be angry with Katniss for keeping secrets from him, since he’s concealed the truth from her before. This reminds Katniss that Peeta first told her he loved her on television, in front of all the people of Panem.

The narrative “fast forwards” to describe Katniss and Peeta’s tour routine. They ride in the train, arrive at each new district, make polite speeches, smile winningly for the cameras, attend banquets, pretend to love each other, and move on to the next district. Katniss notes that her speech in District 11 was edited before being broadcast over television and radio. Subsequently, she’s careful to give calm, uncontroversial speeches. She also notices that in some districts, such as 8, 4, and 3, the citizens are visibly angry with her for winning the Games. They seem to resent a resident of District 12—the poorest and smallest district—for winning such a prestigious competition.

As Katniss moves on with her Tour, she gets little sleep, and begins to lose weight. At night, she pictures the horror of the Games. Peeta sleeps in Katniss’s bed because it calms her and helps her sleep, and this fact becomes the subject of much gossip among the entourage.

The visits to the final two districts, 2 and 1, are the most challenging for Katniss, since the tributes from these districts might have survived the Games had it not been for Katniss. She personally killed a girl, Glimmer, from District 2, and a boy from District 1, whose name, she learns, was Marvel.

Katniss and her entourage reach the Capitol, where the most powerful and privileged people of Panem live. Here, unlike in any of the districts, there is no danger of an uprising.

Katniss and Peeta take up residence in the Training Center of the Capitol, where they’d previously spent time during the Hunger Games. There, Katniss proposes that she and Peeta marry during their time in the Capitol, thereby giving the reporters exactly what they want. Peeta agrees immediately, but then leaves the room. When Katniss tells Haymitch about her proposal, Haymitch tells her that Peeta had wanted to marry Katniss, but not for the sake of publicity.

The night after Katniss discusses marriage with Peeta, they appear on the stage of the Training Center to talk with Caesar Flickerman, a charismatic reporter and broadcaster. There, Peeta proposes marriage to Katniss, and she accepts, following the script to which they’ve agreed. The audiences in the Capitol are almost hysterical with happiness. President Snow, who is presiding over the event that night, appears on the stage to congratulate Peeta and Katniss. As he congratulates Katniss, Katniss gives an almost imperceptible raise of her eyebrows, as if to ask if she’s done enough to obey Snow’s directions. In response, Snow silently shakes his head.