Catching Fire Chapter 21 Quotes
Catching Fire Chapter 21 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
(Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote 1
Although my instinct is to run directly away from it, I realize Finnick is moving at a diagonal down the hill. He's trying to keep a distance from the gas while steering us toward the water that surrounds the Cornucopia. Yes, water, I think as the acid droplets bore deeper into me. Now I'm so thankful I didn't kill Finnick, because how would I have gotten Peeta out of here alive? (21.14)
Here Katniss admires Finnick for his basic survival skills, not his beauty or sex appeal. Katniss is a great asset to have on your side in the arena, but so is Finnick. Neither is perfect, and each of them needs the other in order to survive a little while longer.
Quote 2
A terrible impulse to flee, to abandon Peeta and save myself, shoots through me. [...] I remember how I did just this when the mutations appeared in the last Games. [...] But this time, I trap my terror, push it down, and stay by his side. This time my survival isn't the goal. Peeta's is. (21.6)
In this instance loyalty trumps that other virtue, courage. Katniss could go out by herself and survive. That's her basic human instinct, which she deems a "terrible impulse." Deep down, her gut feeling is going to be to try to survive. Here, though, her loyalty is stronger than that. She owes Peeta and she's committed to him. That feeling is enough to get her to stay, to work for the survival of another person instead of herself.
Quote 3
I still don't understand what happened there. Why he [Finnick] essentially abandoned her [Mags] to carry Peeta. Why she not only didn't question it, but ran straight to her death without a moment's hesitation. Was it because she was so old that her days were numbered, anyway? [...] The haggard look on Finnick's face tells me that now is not the moment to ask. (21.32)
As the Quarter Quell goes on, some of the players' actions don't seem to jive with typical competitive behavior. Finnick should have stuck with his ally Mags, but he didn't. Instead, he saved Peeta, when by all rights he could have refused to. And why did Mags give up her life "without a moment's hesitation"? In the previous Games, tributes were definitely not so willing to sacrifice themselves. This is a hint that something else is going on. The competitors seem to be following a new set of rules.