Catching Fire - Chapter 16 Summary

• Everyone is very upset by what has happened to Darius, but Katniss knows she can’t make communicate with Darius or it will result in his punishment. Katniss blames herself for what has happened to Darius.

• At dinner, Katniss makes a distraction, so that she can touch Darius’s hand. They feel a special bond without speaking which conveys their feelings.

• They then all watch the video of the Opening Ceremonies. Katniss tries to stay away from Peeta. She goes to bed after this and has horrible nightmares.

• Katniss feels like she isn’t able to go to breakfast the next morning, as she dislikes discussing strategies for the new games.

• When she does meet with Haymitch and Peeta, Haymitch informs them that their strategy should be to pick allies, as that will be the only way to make it through. Haymitch also says they need to keep up the act of being in love.

• Katniss isn’t a fan of the idea of allies, but Haymitch insists. Peeta and Katniss then head to the training center; they begin training and meeting other tributes.

• They start to train in different areas so that they can learn new skills. Katniss meets Finnick again while practicing her knot tying technique.

                       

• Katniss then starts to practice starting a fire without matches. She meets Wiress and Beetee in this area, they are both from District 3 and she decides to try and befriend them. On the way to lunch, Beetee and Wiress show Katniss that the Gamemakers are watching the tributes and that there is an invisible force field around them for their protection. Beetee and Wiress say that all of these fields have a weak spot somewhere.

• Over lunch Peeta and Katniss talk about who they want as allies. They disagree over who they want and they still feel slightly awkward around each other after their disagreement earlier.

• After lunch, Katniss goes to meet more tributes. She doesn’t want to pick obvious tributes. Katniss meets Mags, who is a very old woman, and has no chance in the arena but understands the idea of sacrificing oneself.

• After making fish hooks with Mags, Katniss goes to the archery range, and shows everyone how good she is at shooting. This makes everyone want to be her ally, but she has her own ideas. On the last day, each of the tributes has to face the Gamemakers by themselves, so that they can get a rating before the Games begins. As Peeta and Katniss are in District 12 they are last. Peeta enters to see the Gamemakers first and takes a long time. When Katniss goes in afterwards, the Gamemakers are very upset and a large amount of the floor has been hidden.

• Katniss decides that she will protect Peeta by making the Gamemakers even more upset. Katniss makes a noose with a rope and hangs one of the stuffed dummies in it. She then writes Seneca Crane on the dummy with berry juice and shows it to the Gamemakers – Seneca Crane was the previous Head Gamemaker who was executed by the Capitol.