She’s independent, strong-willed, and a survivor. What’s there not to admire about Katniss Everdeen, the narrator and main character of The Hunger Games? The only thing she really knows at the beginning of the book is how to provide for her family. Katniss, being a natural survivor, gets through the games easily. She can run, she can hunt, she can camouflage, and most importantly, she has the instinct that she needs to stay alive. But that’s really all she has going for her.
Katniss is socially awkward, stubborn, and determined to a fault. She’s also self-centered and self-reliant. Her pessimistic self really shows when she is narrating. Katniss’s struggles with her father’s death has hardened her, making her a somewhat difficult character to actually connect with. Everybody likes a happy story with a kind and self-sacrificing main character, but Katniss is far from that. She doesn’t have much warmth and love to offer anyone, and she finds it hard to get attached to someone – only socializing with her family, Gale’s family, and occasionally Hob traders. Katniss is a self-trusting person. She will only rely on herself and is stubborn when it comes to asking for help.
Well, I guess she’s got some good sides to her, too. Katniss is a tragic hero, saving her sister and taking her place in the Hunger Games. She’s noble to a degree, protecting Rue, who reminded Katniss so much of her own sister. She mercifully killed Cato, another tribute who’s been basically terrorizing her and Peeta for the entire duration of the Games. And most importantly to the plotline, she cared for Peeta during the Games, going as far as to risk her life to bring him something that would help his wound
Many characters in The Hunger Games really help enhance Katniss’s personality. Take Katniss’s relationship with her sister’s pet cat, Buttercup, for example. Most girls go gaga over cats and other cute animals. Katniss sees Buttercup as a nuisance, “another mouth to feed”. She went as far as trying to drown the cat as an act of “mercy”, a means for Buttercup to escape starving to death. Not surprisingly, Buttercup, while completely adoring Prim, hates Katniss.
Katniss’s main fault is that she doesn’t understand herself. Doesn’t understand her goals, her beliefs, her identity. Nothing. During the book, she is constantly in a feud with her inner self, wrestling her emotions. This is my personal analysis of Katniss.