Post #2- Hunger Games

Question 1- What do you learn about the setting- this world the author gives us? 
The setting of the Hunger Games is very depressing.  The people who live in district 12 are divided by their social class and the amount of money and food that they have.  Page 30: "He was my year, but I didn't know his name.  He stuck with the town kids, so how would I?" It appears through the text that they whole town except for the square is dark and lifeless, page 16: "It's too bad, really that they hold the reaping in the square- one of the few places in District 12 that can be pleasant... especially if there's good weather, it has a holiday feel to it."  The exact opposite feeling is given when Katniss describes the Hob.  The Hob is the symbol of poverty and this is shown through her saying that, page 11: "No one in the Seam would turn up their nose at a good leg of wild dog, but the Peacekeepers who come to the Hob can afford to be a little choosier."  Katniss and Gale are forces to go to the Hob and sale whatever they can of the game, fruits, and greens they have gathered to those of the wealthier class who are not willing to go out into the woods themselves and risk breaking the law to get the goods that they want.  So therefore they depend on the lower class  to do the dirty work for them and in return the lower class can earn a small profit from their work.  The government has strict control over all of the people that live in District 12, page 4: " enclosing all of District 12, is a high chain-link fence topped with barbed-wire loops... suppost to be electrified 24 hours a day."  This to me sounds like a modern day prison.  The fence is said to keep the preditors out but to me it seems more like it is there to keep the citizens inside the district. 

Question 2- What do you learn about Katniss?  What is she like?  What are her character traits?
Katniss is a quiet, shy 16 year old girl.  Page 12: Since neither of us really has a group of friends, we seem to end up together a lot at school."  This shows that Katniss is a reserved person who really doesn't have much to do with her classmates.  Gale is the only one true friend that she has.  Katniss has a hard time trusting people, page10- " It took us a long time for us to even become friends, to stop haggling over every trade and begin helping each other out."  She has been let down a lot by her mother and has had to become strong mother figure that Prim needed in her life.  Page 35-"You can't clock out and leave Prim on her own.  There's no me now to keep you both alive."  Katniss has become hostile toward her mother because Prim is the most important thing in the world to her and she can stand the thought of something bad happening to her. Katniss is a very brave and caring big sister to devote her whole life to caring for her sister and mother.  When Prim is called to be the new tribute Katniss volunteers to take her place.  Even though she knows it is probably her death sentence she is willing to take her little sisters place.