Describe Katniss and the members of her family. What does Katniss do on a regular basis to support her family?
The 16 year old narrator and protagonist of the novel. Katniss is an outsider to her country of Panem. As a member of the poorest class in the poorest District (District 12), Katniss is forced to scrounge and hunt for her family's survival. She takes care of her younger sister Prim and her mother by hunting with Gale, her closest friend. She is a professional hunter with great survival skills, and her best weapon is her bow and arrow. In order to stay successful, Katniss has developed a tough stoic attitude to life, which comes in handy once she is chosen to compete as District 12 representative in the Hunger Games. Deep down, Katniss has a deep compassion for others, and thrives on taking care of the helpless. She learns more about this part of herself during the Games.
Katniss's younger sister, 12 years old. She goes by "Prim." Prim is much more innocent and child-like than Katniss, and not just because she lacks the hunting aptitude of her older sister. Katniss makes it her life's priority to protect Prim from the hardness of life, and Prim thus serves as a personification of Katniss's deferred innocence. Prim has a pet goat named Lady, and works sometimes to help their mother with her duties as a healer.
Katniss's mother is never named in the novel, but she is an important part of Katniss's life. After her husband's death, the mother was paralyzed by her grief, so much so that she did not provide for her daughters. This helplessness is what caused Katniss to begin hunting and gathering to protect the family. The mother has since recovered and works as an apothecary (which in Panem means a non-traditional "healer"), but Katniss has never forgiven her for having disappeared as she did. The mother was from a middle-class family, and married beneath her station when she married Katniss's miner father.
Katniss's father is never named in the novel, nor is he seen in the narrative. He was a miner who was killed in a mining explosion before the narrative begins. He was a very close to Katniss, and his death devastated her. Following his death, Katniss adopted a stoic attitude to life so as to provide for her family. Her father was also a wonderful singer.
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Katniss hunts to support her family.
http://www.gradesaver.com/the-hunger-games/study-guide/character-list/
Katniss hunts to support her family because they're in hard times.
