Summary: Chapter 1
Katniss Everdeen, who tells her story in the first person, wakes up. It is
the day of the reaping. She sees her little sister, Prim (short for Primrose),
asleep in bed with their mother across the room. Katniss puts on her clothes to
go hunting. The area where she and her family live is called the Seam, and it’s
part of District 12. They are at the edge of the district, which is enclosed by
a high fence, and Katniss often crawls under the fence and enters the woods
outside, where she forages and hunts. Her father taught her these skills before
his death in a mine explosion when she was eleven years old, and she uses a bow
he made. Though trespassing in the woods and poaching are illegal, nobody pays
attention, and Katniss even sells meat to the Peacekeepers who are supposed to
enforce the laws. Most people in the district, she explains, don’t have enough
food.
She meets her friend Gale in the woods. They discuss running away, but
both are the caretakers of their families. They catch some fish, then stop by
the district’s black market, called the Hob, to trade for bread and salt. They
go to the mayor’s house to sell strawberries they collected and talk to the
mayor’s daughter, Madge, whom Katniss is friendly with at school. Madge is
dressed for the reaping in case she’s chosen, and Gale becomes angry because of
the injustice of the reaping process. Katniss explains that, at age twelve, your
name is entered into the drawing once; at thirteen, it’s entered twice; and so
on up until age eighteen. But you can choose to have your name entered again in
exchange for a tessera, a year’s supply of grain and oil for one person. Poor
people often need tesserae to survive, so the children of the poor end up having
their names entered numerous times. Katniss, who is sixteen, will have her name
in twenty times, and Gale, who is eighteen, will have his in forty-two times.
Katniss’s sister, Prim, is only twelve and has taken no tesserae, so her name is
only in once. Katniss returns home, and after she gets ready, goes with her
mother and Prim to the town square. That’s where the reaping, which is televised
and treated like a festive event, takes place in their district.
In the square, the mayor gives a speech that provides the history of the
Hunger Games. Struck by droughts, storms, rising seas, and other natural
problems, North America essentially dissolved, and the country of Panem rose up
in its place. Panem was formed of a Capitol and thirteen districts, but the
districts eventually rebelled. The Capitol defeated the districts, with the
thirteenth being so badly destroyed that it ceased to exist. To punish the
districts and remind them of their powerlessness, the Capitol holds the Hunger
Games, in which a male and female “tribute” between twelve and eighteen from
each district must fight to the death in a large outdoor arena. The tribute that
survives wins, and that tribute’s district receives extra food. Haymitch
Abernathy, one of only two people from District 12 to win the Hunger Games and
the only one still living, comes out on stage. He is drunk and tries to hug
Effie Trinket, a public figure who acts as an escort to District 12’s tributes.
Effie Trinket then draws the name of the first tribute: Primrose
Everdeen.
Summary: Chapter 2
As Prim walks up to the stage, Katniss, in a panic, rushes forward and
shouts that she is volunteering as tribute. A volunteer is allowed to take the
place of the person whose name is drawn, but this never happens in District 12.
Katniss and Prim embrace, and Gale has to pull Prim away from Katniss. Katniss
fights back any sign of emotion because crying will make the other tributes
think she’s weak. Effie Trinket asks for a round of applause, but the crowd
remains silent and offers only a gesture of respect to Katniss. Haymitch falls
off the stage while offering his congratulations.
The name of the boy tribute is drawn and it’s Peeta Mellark. Katniss
thinks about her interaction with Peeta years earlier. Her father had just died,
and her mother fell into severe depression. They had run out of money and
food—starvation is common in District 12, she says—and Katniss had wandered into
the lane behind the shops of the wealthier townspeople. She searched the trash
bins but found nothing. Suddenly a woman was screaming at her to leave from the
back door of the bakery. Peeta, who was in Katniss’s grade, was there, and he
and the woman (his mother) went back inside. There was a commotion, then Peeta
returned with two burned loaves of bread, his mother yelling behind him to feed
them to the pigs. He had a welt on his cheek where his mother had hit him. He
cautiously threw the loaves to Katniss instead. Katniss brought the bread home
and fed her family. It made her hopeful they wouldn’t starve, and she wondered
if he had burned the bread on purpose to help her, despite knowing his mother
would hit him for it. Later, she saw Peeta at the same time that she saw the
first dandelion of spring. Recalling that dandelions are edible, she realized
she would have to use the skills her father taught her to keep herself and her
family alive, and she associates this realization with Peeta.
Summary: Chapter 3
Katniss is escorted into the Justice Building and left in a room. Her
mother and sister are brought in to say their goodbyes, and Katniss makes her
mother promise not to fall apart again. She tells them she loves them as they’re
led out. Peter Mellark’s father, the baker, comes in. Katniss often trades him
squirrels for bread. He gives Katniss cookies and promises to make sure Prim is
being fed. Next, Madge enters. She gives Katniss a pin with a gold bird in the
center and asks Katniss to wear it into the arena. Lastly, Gale enters. He tells
Katniss to find a bow if she can, and he says he won’t let Katniss’s family
starve.
