Catching Fire Chapter 23 Quotes
Catching Fire Chapter 23 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
(Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote 1
And there are six of us now. Even if you count Beetee and Wiress out, we've got four good fighters. It's so different from where I was last year at this point, doing everything on my own. Yes, it's great to have allies as long as you can ignore the thought that you'll have to kill them. (23.25)
In normal wars, you don't turn on your own side after you've vanquished your opponent. You'd celebrate victory and look forward to a time of peace. In the arena, though, war is constant. Each person in the arena represents an eventual enemy and an imminent new battle, even if you are temporarily allied against a third party.
Quote 2
That's when I remember the wire and how important it was to him. I look frantically around. Where is it? Where is it? And then I see it, still clutched in Wiress's hands, far out in the water. My stomach contracts at the thought of what I must do next. (23.54)
Katniss is willing to risk her life to save this wire, because she knows how important it is to Beetee. She trusts him enough to know that if he believes the wire has value, it must be the case. She has to be brave enough to swim into blood-drenched water and take it from the body of a dead woman. That's loyalty.
Quote 3
There is no question about it. For reasons completely unfathomable to me, some of the other victors are trying to keep him alive, even if it means sacrificing themselves.
I'm dumbfounded. For one thing, that's my job. For another, it doesn't make sense. Only one of us can get out. So why have they chosen Peeta to protect? What has Haymitch possibly said to them, what has he bargained with to make them put Peeta's life above their own? (23.74-75)
Here people are acting loyally when they shouldn't, at least according to reason. Katniss finds this behavior highly suspicious. The first thing people like Finnick and Johanna should do in the arena is take out weaker opponents like Peeta, but instead, they're "put[ting] Peeta's life above their own." This seems like putting off the inevitable since, as far as they know, by the end of the Games only one of them can still be standing.