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“I don’t drink.”

Haymitch delivers this line to Plutarch after he offers him a drink in Chapter 9. Haymitch’s rejection of the offered alcohol echoes his previous claim that he doesn’t drink the white liquor that he helps Hattie Meeney brew in the woods of District 12. Haymitch’s comment is short—merely a three-word sentence—but it is a deeply tragic piece of foreshadowing. The very first thing that readers learn about Haymitch in The Hunger Games is that he is an alcoholic, one who has clearly been numbing the pain of his trauma for years. Suzanne Collins utilizes sixteen-year-old Haymitch’s aversion to alcohol to illustrate the devastating impact the Games have had on Haymitch’s mental state. His rejection of the offered drink also anticipates the moments in the novel’s final chapter when a freshly traumatized Haymitch turns to sleep syrup and then alcohol after suffering the loss of his family, friends, and girlfriend.

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