The Hunger Games: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

After the ceremony ends, Peeta and Katniss are marched through the front door of the Justice Building and conducted into separate rooms where they wait for their loved ones to visit and say goodbye. Katniss’s mother and Prim arrive first and wrap Katniss up in a hug. After a few moments, Katniss begins to tell them all the things they must remember to do now that Katniss won’t be there to do them for them. Katniss yells at her mother, making her promise not to go away again like she did after Katniss’s father died. Prim makes Katniss promise that she’ll try really hard to win, and then time is up, and Peacekeepers are escorting Prim and her mother out the door as they all repeat, “I love you.”

Next, Katniss is surprised to see Peeta Mellark’s father, the baker, enter the room. He doesn’t speak much, but he hands her a package of cookies, a luxury that Katniss’s family can usually never afford. As he leaves, he tells Katniss that he’ll keep an eye on Prim and make sure she’s eating.

After Peeta’s father, Madge steps into the room. She urges Katniss to accept a circular gold pin with a bird on it as her token to wear in the arena. Madge makes Katniss promise to wear it, and Katniss agrees. Madge gives her a quick kiss on the cheek before she leaves.

Finally, Gale arrives. He wraps Katniss in his arms and instructs her on what to do once she’s in the arena. He tells her she has to get a bow and arrows, or else she has to make her own. Gale says that being in the Games is just like hunting, and Katniss is the best hunter he knows. Katniss starts to protest, but she realizes that it wouldn’t be different at all if she could just forget that she’s hunting people.

As Gale is dragged out by the Peacekeepers, he promises that he won’t let Katniss’s family starve. Katniss is taken to the train station, where reporters are swarming with their cameras. Katniss notices that Peeta’s face bears visible traces of tears, and she wonders if appearing weak is part of his strategy. After a few minutes, Peeta and Katniss are allowed to board the train, and the train takes off at once.

The speed of the train takes Katniss’s breath away—it can travel at 250 miles an hour. The train is also incredibly fancy, and Katniss and Peeta both get their own chambers that include a bedroom, a dressing area, and a private bathroom with hot and cold running water. Katniss takes her first shower—like summer rain, only warmer—and gets dressed in the clothes provided in their drawers. She remembers Madge’s pin and takes a good look at it for the first time, realizing that the bird depicted on it is a mockingjay.

Mockingjays are something of a slap in the face to the Capitol. During the rebellion, the Capitol bred a series of genetically altered animals as weapons, called muttations. Among them was a bird called a jabberjay that could memorize and repeat conversations, and these were used to spy on the rebels before they realized how the conversations were being transmitted. Afterwards, the districts used the birds to feed the Capitol a bunch of lies, and the birds were abandoned to die off in the wild. Instead of dying off, however, they mated with mockingbirds, and the resulting species could replicate both bird whistles and human melodies. These are known as mockingjays.

Effie comes to collect Katniss for supper, and they walk into a dining room where Peeta sits waiting. Effie seems relieved by Haymitch’s absence. The meal arrives in courses, and Katniss stuffs herself because it’s the first time she’s had so much good food before her. Effie comments that at least Peeta and Katniss have decent table manners, unlike the pair of tributes that came before them. Katniss takes offence at this comment, since she knows—as Effie can’t—that those tributes probably never had enough to eat in their lives. Katniss decides to eat with her hands after that, pointedly wiping her fingers on the tablecloth.

After the meal, Peeta and Katniss go to another compartment to watch a recap of the reapings across Panem. A few stand out to Katniss. There’s a boy who volunteers in District 2, a fox-faced girl from District 5, and most upsettingly, a twelve-year-old girl from District 11 who reminds Katniss of Prim. No one volunteers for this girl, however. Then the recap of the reaping in District 12 arrives, and Effie comments that their mentor could learn a lot about televised behavior, a comment which strikes Peeta and Katniss as funny.

They remind Effie that Haymitch was drunk, as he always is—his behavior doesn’t just amount to rough manners. Effie snaps that their mentor is their lifeline to the world during the Games and that they should be the last ones laughing at his drunken behavior. As if on cue, Haymitch staggers into the compartment and vomits all over the carpet before falling into the mess. Effie flees the room.