Catching Fire Chapters 25-27 Summary & Analysis

Analysis

A great deal of information about the Games, the rebellion, and Katniss’s role in all of it is finally revealed, and it changes Katniss’s understanding of several earlier events. Katniss believed, for instance, that the tributes were doing everything they could to keep Peeta alive because they thought he could be the voice of the rebellion. In fact, Peeta is only valuable because his death would likely mean Katniss wouldn’t cooperate with the rebellion. In other words, the focus wasn’t even on Peeta but on Katniss. Katniss had also suspected that Plutarch Heavensbee was trying to tip her off, and not only does she have that suspicion confirmed, she learns he’s been part of an underground rebellion for years. A plot has been in the works since the Games began, with many of the tributes playing a role, which causes Katniss to realize that everyone, most notably Haymitch, has been lying to her for weeks. Moreover, Haymitch’s dismissals of Katniss’s ideas about District 13 were also apparently lies, which suggests that District 13 may in fact be home to a rebel population. Rather than feel relieved or excited, however, Katniss feels mostly betrayed for not having been told.

Katniss, in fact, begins the section with her trust of the other tributes already quickly fading, and by the end that trust has entirely disappeared. With the field of tributes diminishing, Katniss believes that soon the remaining tributes will face off against one another, which makes her wary of them. But she also doesn’t trust them because she can sense that something is going on regarding Peeta, and while she has her theory about why they might be protecting him, the fact that she ultimately doesn’t know makes her uncomfortable. In the context of the Games, where the rule is literally kill or be killed, she feels safer concluding that, even though the others have been helpful so far, they could still turn against her and Peeta at any moment. Later, as Katniss and Johanna begin running the wire to the beach, Katniss immediately assumes Johanna and Finnick have been plotting to kill her and Peeta after Johanna attacks her, and even when she’s later recuperating in the hovercraft she assumes it’s because the Capitol wants to torture her rather than let her die quickly. Finally, when she learns the truth about everything, her trust in those around her vanishes completely.

A great irony underlies the way the rebellion used Katniss and Peeta for its own purposes. Between this novel and the last, both Katniss and Peeta have said they don’t want to be treated as pawns in the Capitol’s games. That feeling—that they aren’t totally in control of their lives and that a more powerful force is manipulating them agains their wills—is in large part why both rebel against the Capitol and want it to fail. Now Katniss learns that the rebellion, with Haymitch’s assistance in particular, has been using her and Peeta as pawns in its own schemes. It has taken Katniss as its symbol without informing her and then used Peeta essentially as leverage to keep her in line. (Alhough, unlike the Capitol, it did so by keeping him alive rather than threatening to kill him, so the rebellion at least has that in its favor.) The rebellion, in other words, treats Katniss and Peeta much like the Capitol does.

What’s notable about the way the rebellion uses Katniss is that it’s made her a symbol in appearance only. She wasn’t ever told that a rebellion was in the works and she didn’t have any part in its planning or organization. She was essentially excluded from it. But even so, the rebellion still took advantage of her image. It seems highly probable, for instance, that Cinna was also aware of everything going on and designed Katniss’s mockingjay costume with the rebellion in mind. The rebellion used her much as the Capitol did, by making her an unwilling part of a publicity campaign, which is something Katniss always hated about the way the Capitol treated her. The major differences are that she doesn’t have to give interviews or deliver speeches for the rebellion, at least not yet, and in theory she sympathizes with it, which can’t be said about her feelings toward the Capitol. Even so, Katniss never consented to any of the ways she or her image have been used, and that’s why she feels betrayed rather than feeling like she’s helped out a cause she believes in. It’s why Katniss feels so much hatred for Haymitch when she learns he participated in these deceits knowingly. Notably, the entire situation implies that Katniss’s image is perhaps of more value to the rebellion than Katniss’s actual involvement.

While the final chapters tie up a number of loose ends, they also raise new questions to be addressed in the final novel of the series. Katniss now knows that an uprising is underway across Panem, and the fact that Plutarch Heavensbee, who holds a relatively powerful position as Head Gamemaker, is involved suggests that the rebellion is more far-reaching and organized than Katniss had ever imagined. The full scope of the rebellion, however, isn’t clear, nor is it clear exactly what is happening in the districts. The Capitol has evidently bombed District 12 out of existence, and communications are down in several districts. From these details it sounds like in the brief time Katniss has been unconscious a full-scale war has broken out between the Capitol and a potentially large and well-organized resistance. It’s also not certain what, if anything, exists in District 13. Katniss has heard plenty of speculation, which Haymitch provided very logical and reasonable counter-arguments for. But Katniss learns that the hovercraft she’s in is headed to District 13, so obviously something must be there. Whether it’s the home of underground rebels armed with nuclear weapons, however, remains to be seen. Lastly, Katniss discovers that Peeta has been taken by the Capitol. It’s impossible to discern what his fate will be, but it seems likely that Katniss won’t rest until she’s rescued him.

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