Mockingjay

Fire is another recurring symbol across the trilogy. It is first introduced in The Hunger Games when Katniss is stylized as “the girl who was on fire,” wearing a dress covered in synthetic flames. The moniker sticks, and after her subversive actions in the first games, it symbolizes resistance against the Capitol. In Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins deepens the symbol by exploring how the fire of a resistance fueled by vengeance burns not only the Capitol but also Katniss and her loved ones.

In Chapter 1, Katniss recalls how Snow told her, “Katniss Everdeen, the girl who was on fire, you have provided a spark that, left unattended, may grow to an inferno that destroys Panem” (7). As she walks through the rubble of District 12, she worries that she has “set something in motion that [she has] no ability to control” (7). Though Katniss’s personal rebellion was only a “spark,” it has grown into a full-scale resistance that poses a real threat to the Capitol. Already, Katniss she senses that the rebellion will have consequences beyond her control.

After the attack on District 8, Katniss shouts out a warning to Snow: “Fire is catching, and if we burn, you burn with us” (89). Her words convey the idea that the atrocities perpetuated by the Capitol only fuel the rebels’ determination to make them pay. Yet she unwittingly captures the danger of this vengeful dynamic. In the fight against the Capitol, the districts will suffer heavy casualties as well.

The symbolic fire takes on a literal dimension when Katniss suffers severe burns in the attack that kills Prim. As she recovers, she is plagued by dreams of catching on fire, embodying her moniker from the Hunger Games. Katniss rightly predicted her inability to control the consequences of the rebellion sparked by her actions in The Hunger Games. The war has not spared good people, and Katniss has been consumed by a fire she unwittingly started.

In the novel’s epilogue, Katniss rejects a desire for “fire kindled with rage and hatred” (329). She has seen too much of what actions fueled by these emotions can do. Though the symbolic fire of the rebellion has burned down the Capitol, the battle has left her with lifelong physical and mental scars.