Quote 4
When I confront Plutarch, he assures me that it's all for the camera. They've got footage of Annie getting married and Johanna hitting targets, but all of Panem is wondering about Peeta. They need to see he's fighting for the rebels, not for Snow. And maybe if they could just get a couple of shots of the two of us, not kissing necessarily, just looking happy to be back together […] (18.4)
It seems that nothing is real. Everything, whether actual or staged, is manipulated to serve the cameras' purposes. That was true during the Games, and it's true outside of them. Can Katniss even trust Plutarch? Immediately, Katniss makes it clear that she finds this last suggestion repugnant. It seems there are some lines she still won't cross.
Quote 5
In the quiet that follows, I try to imagine not being able to tell illusion from reality. Not knowing if Prim or my mother loved me. If Snow was my enemy. If the person across the heater saved or sacrificed me. With very little effort, my life rapidly morphs into a nightmare. I suddenly want to tell Peeta everything about who he is, and who I am, and how we ended up here. But I don't know how to start. (19.52)
Through empathy, Katniss is finally able to understand the dire straits Peeta is truly in, and to forgive him. But she's so overcome by feeling that she doesn't know what to do now. She can imagine only too easily what it would be like to be hijacked the way he has been. He's been locked in a "nightmare" for way too long. How will she ever get him out?
Quote 6
I'm not with Snow now. I'm in Special Weaponry back in 13 with Gale and Beetee. Looking at the designs based on Gale's traps. That played on human sympathies. The first bomb killed the victims. The second, the rescuers. (25.40)
It's a cruel twist of fate that makes the weapon Gale designed the one that killed Prim and so many other young children. Katniss had doubts about the humanity of the tactic, and then to be confronted with the ramifications of it is nearly unbearable. She knew this kind of weapon was being manufactured. She just never expected her own side would use it to such effect.