Prim provides some softness and humanity to a character who might otherwise seem harsh and selfish and cold. Because, it turns out, "feminine" traits can be rather useful after all, even in war. She knows what she has to do, and she gets it done. Yet Prim, the seemingly "weaker" sister, faces injury and illness with a stoic, if caring, determination. She wants to flee the moment she sees blood. Katniss may be able to kill, something that Prim could not do, but she can't deal with injuries or gore, and she can't always sympathize with others and their motivations. Her greatest character strength is caring for others, whether helping her mother to care for dying people, or caring for animals, or listening to Katniss and offering her advice as she gets older.Īnd these are true strengths, ones that Katniss does not have. She even risks her life to ensure that the cat survives when District 13 is bombed. She heals a dying goat back to health and adores an ugly cat that her sister wanted to drown. In fact, if Katniss is "not like other girls," then Prim is like "other girls," if "other girls" are taken to be stereotypically feminine. Both are, at times, the strong, heroic figure, and both are occasionally damsel that needs the other to save them, with actions or with words. Prim is gentle where Katniss is harsh, scared where Katniss is brave, and brave where Katniss is scared. In narrative terms, Katniss and Prim are foils to one another, opposites that highlight each other's strengths and weaknesses. All she cares about is Prim.Īnd that dynamic is very compelling, considering that Katniss fails to be as "likeable" as we might expect a female protagonist to be, and Prim is exactly the sort of character we might expect an "action girl" like Katniss to dislike and dismiss.
Katniss initially does not care about revolution.
#Prim and katniss series#
The series is not just an action/war series with a female protagonist at its center, but one where sisters provide the main drive of the action. She goes along with the romance with Peeta because Snow has threatened Prim's safety if she doesn't. She fights to win because she promised Prim that she would. She volunteers to take her sister's place in the Hunger Games, because she knows Prim cannot survive. This article contains spoilers through to the end of Mockingjay.Īt it's heart, The Hunger Games is the story of a girl fighting to save her sister.Īgain and again, Katniss's story comes back to Prim.
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