Manipulation Quotes in Mockingjay

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

What they want is for me to truly take on the role they designed for me. The symbol of the revolution. The Mockingjay. […] I won't have to do it alone. They have a whole team of people to make me over, dress me, write my speeches, orchestrate my appearances – as if that doesn't sound horribly familiar – and all I have to do is play my part. (1.28)

Here it seems like Katniss is still being manipulated by others to fulfill a greater purpose. Before, she was deployed like a doll by the Capitol, and now she's being used in the same way to give a face to the group attempting to destroy the Capitol. In both cases, she's "play[ing a] part" that someone else wrote.

Quote #2

Yes, other people had plans, I think. Has Peeta guessed, then, how the rebels used us as pawns? How my rescue was arranged from the beginning? And finally, how our mentor, Haymitch Abernathy, betrayed us both for a cause he pretended to have no interest in? (2.25)

From a statement like this, we can tell how hard it has become for characters like Katniss and Peeta to trust anybody. The current regime that governs the Capitol and organized the Games obviously can't be trusted. But the revolutionaries also cannot really be trusted. And even Katniss and Peeta's "mentor," Haymitch, the one person they could try to rely on to get them through the games, lied to them all along.

Quote #3

In some ways, District 13 is even more controlling than the Capitol. (3.22)

The unpleasant truth is that, to an extent, the citizens of 12 have jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. In other words, they've gone from one super-controlling environment to another. This has temporarily saved their lives, but at what price? At what point is it no longer OK to put up with so many rules and restrictions in order to simply live?