Summary: Chapter 25. Katniss recognizes the strange creatures chasing Cato as muttations, hybrid animals engineered by the Capitol. These muttations look like giant wolves but can walk upright like humans. Cato runs to the Cornucopia and Katniss follows, but she realizes Peeta can't keep up because of his injured leg.
Katniss and Peeta are announced as the winners of the Hunger Games. Katniss almost does exactly what the Gamemakers want her to do—she sees Peeta, for a moment, as the enemy and prepares to kill him, making her as much of a hypocrite as the Career tributes who turn on each other when the tension becomes too much.
Katniss feels like she's watching her mother and Prim work on someone from the mines. She calls out for him and desperately wants to get to him. As she waits, she finally understands why the loved ones of the dying can't pull themselves away, why they have to watch. It's because they, like Katniss, have no choice.
Peeta pulls out his knife and Katniss instinctually points her arrow at his heart, but Peeta just tosses the knife into the lake. He tells her to kill him. Ashamed, Katniss refuses, deciding that to go back without Peeta would mean that a part of her would never escape the arena.
Katniss goes along with Caesar's suggestion but tries to keep the focus on Peeta. She finds out, too, that Peeta lost his leg and gets her first look at his prosthetic. Caesar, as expected, asks Katniss about the berries, and she struggles to get the right words out, but, afterward, Haymitch says she was perfect.
Katniss's focus on survival and her family's safety prevented her from fully considering romance, but her feelings for Peeta and Gale diverged in the end. Katniss ultimately chose Peeta because he understood her trauma and she didn't want to lose him, proving her love for him.
Peeta asks Katniss what Haymitch means and is extremely upset to discover that Katniss's feelings for him have all been an act, part of a survival strategy.
Clove figures among the favorites to win the games eventually won by Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), though the 15-year-old knife-thrower meets a grisly end at the hands of District 11's Thresh (Dayo Okeniyi) in a sequence that is both longer and more meaningful in the book.
Toward the end of the novel, Katniss realizes that Haymitch has been keeping information from her and using her to help the rebellion, causing her to feel extremely betrayed. On the other hand, his goals are generally good ones.
Why is Katniss prevented from seeing Peeta in Chapter 26?
Katniss begins to panic when she notices that Peeta isn't there, but Haymitch assures her that it's only because the Capitol wants to televise their reunion. Another unlikely relationship that's come out of the Hunger Games is the one between Katniss and Haymitch.
Katniss explains that the berries, some of which Foxface stole, are poisonous. In a way, Peeta outsmarted Foxface. They decide to hold on to the rest of the berries in case the same opportunity arises with Cato.
Summary and Analysis Part 3: Chapter 24. Katniss can tell that Peeta feels bad about unintentionally killing Foxface. As they cook their food, Katniss realizes she hasn't been very nice to Peeta all day, so when he asks to go back to the cave, Katniss aggress even though she doesn't want to make the long trek back.
Due to the horror of his Games, his grief over his family's and girlfriend's deaths, and the overwhelming guilt he felt from being obligated to participate in the Games he hated while each and every one of his mentored tributes died in them, Haymitch turned to alcoholism to cope with his issues and feelings.
"On the 25th anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that their children were dying because of their choice to initiate violence, every district was made to hold an election and vote on the tributes that who would represent it."
Cato sees his victory in the Hunger Games as the correct and natural outcome – after all, he's been preparing his whole life, and tributes from Districts 1 and 2 are most likely to be winners. But Katniss's high score in training, uncommon for District 12 tributes, earns Cato's attention and ire.
He is "broad-shouldered and strong." Part of Peeta's left leg was amputated following the 74th Hunger Games, forcing him to walk with the aid of a prosthetic leg for the rest of his life. In the 2012 film adaptation, his leg is never amputated.
Haymitch is already drinking, and Peeta gets angry with him because he's supposed to be advising them. He slaps the drink out of Haymitch's hand. Haymitch punches him, and Katniss stabs her knife into the table between his hand and the liquor bottle.
In the film, Thresh's odds of winning change from 10–1 to 11–1. Afterward, they increase from 11–1 to 8–1. In The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, Katniss states that Cato killed Thresh. However, this is not in-line with the film continuity, as Thresh was killed by the wolf mutts in the first film.
While popular ships like Katniss/Peeta and Katniss/Gale generally come to mind first when discussing romantic pairings in the world of Panem, the combinations of couples that fans have shipped are many. One of those ships, in particular, is Cato and Clove (also known by the portmanteau "Clato").
In the 74th Hunger Games, Clove was the only Career tribute who came close to killing Katniss twice — at the Bloodbath and at the Feast, and certainly seemed to have a deep hatred for her, perhaps because Katniss received a higher score than her.
Given that she is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect Peeta, it's safe to assume that the Morphling was committed to the rebel cause. Like the other victors, she knows the power that Katniss has as a lightning rod for the rebellion, and she knows that Katniss will not help without Peeta.
He has recognized all along how the Capitol uses tributes as pieces in their Game. Captured by the Capitol at the end of the Quarter Quell, Peeta gets turned into his greatest fear: a piece in the Capitol's Game to be used against Katniss.
He jokes with her, whispering that it's okay to kiss him since they're madly in love, but once Katniss begins to clean him in the stream, she can see how weak he is.
