Instincts Of Katniss Everdeen In The Hunger Games By Suzanne Collins

As the famous screenwriter, Danny Boyle, once said, “That survival instinct, that will to live, that need to get back to life again, is more powerful than any consideration of taste, decency, politeness, manners, civility. Anything. It’s such a powerful force.” In The Hunger Games, the main character, Katniss Everdeen, has many strong characteristics, like her survival instincts. Because of these instincts she constantly protects and provides for the ones she cares for. In Suzanne Collins’ novel, The Hunger Games, the overarching theme is if people rely on their instincts they can survive anything, proven by Katniss Everdeen’s survival tactics before the Hunger Games, during the first few days of the Games, and after she finds another character,

Peeta Mellark.
Even before the Hunger Games, Katniss has survived since her father has died. Because her father died in a mine explosion, she was forced to learn how to survive with her late father’s knowledge and her experience with the world around her. In Chapter one, Katniss explains how she has survived since her father passed. She uses the bow and arrows her father had made and hunts with her friend, Gale. She also sells her kills to earn money to help feed her family. In Chapter two, Katniss goes through explain how rough it was for her and her sister after her father died and how her mother blanked out, leaving Katniss to provide for all of them. She also goes through a flashback when Peeta Mellark and Katniss by giving her bread, which inspires her to want to survive. Katniss constantly battled with starvation, money, and the will to live. But she still survived those hard times by her wanting to provide and take care of her sister. WIthout her instincts she would have not figured out what to do. Another time Katniss relied on her instincts is in Chapter two after Peeta gave her the loaf of bread, they saw each other at school and Katniss was embarrassed so she avoided ihs view. Which led to her looking down, seeing a dandelion which gave her a idea. This gave her a new hope because the idea was that she can forage edible plants to feed them. Here Katniss has again, found a way to survive in her town, the Seam. Even though she had help she still found a will to live and survive from different methods. Katniss, in the past and in the present, battles for survival because of many and for many reasons. She has done things almost her entire life to survive because she relied on her instincts.
Katniss has many death-defying moments during the Hunger Games and she has used her instinct to survive countless times in the arena.

In chapter eleven she is at the cornucopia with all the tributes and she has to decide whether to grab supplies or run to a source of water. She manages to get a bright orange pack but has to decide whether to stay there to fight and get more supplies or go with what she has and run. Katniss chooses to run. Because she chose to run she used her instincts to guide her into surviving. Her survival is key in the arena and she needs to take every opportunity she can to do the best and because of her instincts she will do exactly that. They have guided her from the beginning and it is like a reflex to survive because she has learned how to. In chapter thirteen, Katniss has to escape from a wall of fire that they Gamemakers sent on the tributes. She escapes the fire but is left with a burn mark on her leg. Katniss uses her survival tactics run away from the fire and to treat her leg with memory alone. The burn, this triggers memory or flashback of when a man that had his leg burned off by a mine explosion. Katniss also remembers what her mother did to treat it.This memory reminded her that she has to treat it and save it or else the skin will shrivel up and die. Katniss goes and finds a little pool of water to wash her leg. Her memory helps save her this time because she knows that she has to do it or she will lose her leg. It also takes her

remembrance of her mother to know how to treat it correctly. She relies on her mind to guide her through the wall of fire. Another time Katniss uses her instincts is when she blows up the Careers, tributes from one, two, and three, supplies in chapter sixteen and seventeen. Katniss and Rue, the female tribute from district eleven, plan to blow up the supplies to weaken the Careers. She and Rue has figured out that they are not good at finding food and Katniss says that they don’t know how to be hungry. Rue knowns that they have set up a trap around the supplies. Bombs. Katniss has Rue go and set fires around the arena to draw the careers away from their camp so she can go and blow up the supplies. Katniss got to the site and saw an apple sack. She shot her arrows at the sack. She ended up being blasted back as the bombs went off causing her ear to deafen. She was devastated when she figured it out, she crawled to a nearby bush for cover and tried to stop the bleeding. Katniss waited until the careers left to crawl away and find Rue. Here, Katniss knows the Careers can be weakened and attacked. She knew that this is a chance to destroy them and she took it because of her survival instincts. Her instincts were telling her that this was the time to strike and took it because this was a chance to limit their resources and weaken them. She knew the risk of getting hurt or killed and took it because she was on the offensive side instead of the defensive she would have a chance to win.
There has been many times Katniss has used her instincts in the arena.

The other one was when she finally found Peeta Mellark. In chapter 19, Katniss needs to find Peeta in the arena so they can team up. She knows he is hurt and that he is near death. Because of this Katniss knows to go and save them. She knows that he can not survive without water and that leads her to his whereabouts. She goes to a stream surrounded by rocks. Katniss is whispering Peeta’s name so nothing unexpected finds her, as she does that something says, “You here to finish me off, sweetheart?” (Collins 248). She jumps and slowly whispered, “Peeta, where are you?” (Collins 248). She finds him and explains why she is here and tries to heal him in the stream. She knows that he needs a lot of medical attention and she knows somethings to do but is not completely sure what to do. She uses the leaves Rue gave her to draw the tracker jacker stings out. She also uses them to draw out the infection and pus in his leg. She gives him her burn medicine from Haymitch, her mentor. Katniss slowly starts to heal him. Because she knew to get to him and the right way to heal him, she saved him from dying. She used her knowledge and instincts to heal him because her knowledge healing is second nature. Another time Katniss uses her instincts is in chapter twenty one. She uses her instincts in the the Cornucopia to survive and to get the medicine for Peeta’s leg. Peeta tells her not to go but the Capital sends her a

substance to make him sleep so she can go. After she does this she covers the cave from view and leaves to get the medicine. She gets to the Cornucopia and she sees the bags full of the resources the tributes need. Katniss notices Foxface, the tribute from district five, is the first to run because Foxface knows everyone is worried about their own bag to not worry about her. Katniss makes a break for hers and Clove, the girl tribute from district two, tackled her as Katniss tried to get her bag. She decides to torture Katniss and give her a slow, horrible death. They talk to each other and Clove is slowly cutting her as they talk. Katniss is trying to procrastinate while Thresh, a boy from eleven, slams a rock into Clove’s skull, killing her. Katniss tells him about how she was an ally to Rue and how she protected her until she died. Thresh felt like he owed Katniss and lets her go. She runs back to the cave and doesn’t stop until she puts the medicine in Peeta’s leg. Because of Katniss protecting Rue that affected whether she was going to survive the Cornucopia. Because of her instinct to protect, she survived the feast. The last time Katniss uses her instincts is when she, Peeta, and Cato try to defeat the mutts in chapter twenty-five. Peeta and Katniss wait for Cato to come and fight. But, he comes through the trees, running from Muttations. She notices that cato is wearing body armor that protects him from her arrows. They all begin to run to the Cornucopia to get away from them. Katniss realizes that the mutts look like the tributes that got killed during the games. Peeta is slipping and she has to decide whether to kill Cato and end it or save Peeta. She chooses Peeta and then she shoots a mutt that must be Thresh. After that she finds Cato holding Peeta in a headlock, trying to blackmail Katniss into not killing him. He says, “Shoot me and he goes down with me” (Collins 330). Cato is choking Peeta hard enough that his lips are turning blue. Katniss is trying to figure out what to do. Peeta dips his finger in the blood from his hurt leg and draws an x on Cato’s hand. Before he realizes what that means Katniss shoots his hand and he releases Peeta and falls to the ground, instantly attacked by the mutts. Peeta and Katniss wait on top the horn waiting for Cato’s cannon to go off, meaning that he is dead. They waited for hours until Cato came near the Cornucopia for Katniss to shoot him in the head. She They get off the horn and wait for the Gamemakers to call the games off but it never happens. The head Gamemaker ‘s voice booms through the arena. He says, “Greetings to the final contestants of the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games. The earlier revision has been revoked. Closer examination of the rule book has disclosed that only one winner may be allowed, good luck and may the odds be ever in your favor” (Collins 337). Katniss and Peeta debate whether who will win and who will die. Katniss comes up with the thought that if at Nightlock berries together that the Capital will not have a winner and they would have to let both of them live. Katniss uses this idea as a last revolt against the Capital. They chew the berries and the head Gamemaker tells them not to die and that they are the two winners. They quickly spew out the berries. In this chapter Katniss uses her instincts a lot. She saves Peeta and herself by her quick thinking of getting to high ground. Because of her survival instincts and fast thinking she safely got to the cornucopia before the mutts. Another time is when Katniss shoots the mutt to save herself and Peeta from getting attacked. She also used them when she and Peta were debating who would die. Because of her thought of suicide she knew that it would affect many people and set the example of a rebellion against her government and society.
The overarching theme in The Hunger Games is that if you let your instincts guide you, you can survive anything. Katniss constantly proves this before the games, during the beginning, and after finding Peeta in the games. She uses them when she most needed it and when the ones she loved relied on her. Katniss used her instincts to survive and protect the other throughout the novel. As Lionel Messi once said, “The best decisions aren’t made with your mind, but with your instincts.”