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Katniss's mother is a healer who specializes in home remedies, and she loved her husband deeply. Even as a child, Katniss understood the profound love her parents shared, which years later becomes her inspiration when she must convince Panem that she is in love with Peeta in the arena. Katniss's mother was broken by her husband's death and became "worn" and "beaten down" in its aftermath. Katniss states that her "mother was locked in some dark world of sadness," and withdrew from her children's lives. Though it’s clear she is experiencing a depressive episode, Katniss's mother’s grief has become debilitating to the point that it prevents her from being a parent. Instead of ensuring that her children were safe and provided for, she "sat by, blank and unreachable, while her children turned to skin and bones."
In addition to symbolizing the crippling nature of grief, Katniss's mother also provides vital insight into Katniss's character. As a result of her mother's neglect, an eleven-year-old Katniss essentially switched roles with her mother and "took over as head of the family." She bore the burden alone and hid her mother's condition to ensure that she and Prim were not taken away and put in a community home. By entering her name additional times for the reaping ceremony in exchange for tesserae, Katniss literally trades her life in order to keep food on the table for Prim and their mother. Katniss harbors a lot of anger and resentment for her mother as a result of her mother’s abandonment. Katniss’s tough, hardened, independent, and untrusting nature clearly developed at an early age in response to her mother's emotional absence. Katniss describes that she "put up a wall to protect [herself] from needing [her mother]." This perhaps explains why Katniss is so hesitant to accept help and so distrusting of people like Peeta who clearly want to protect her.
