The Unofficial Hunger Games Companion (37 page)

True survivors can adapt to unusual environments, immerse themselves in their surroundings. They constantly protect and analyze their resources, the hazards around them, and the patterns of their new environments. They look for clues that may help them remain alive. For example, survivors seek food, water, shelter, any way to use natural objects to their advantage. When confronted with hazards that spell certain death, or with resources that don’t suffice to keep them alive, they navigate to better locations, if at all possible.

These are all techniques that Katniss uses well. She’s indeed a true survivor in the classic sense.

In the first Hunger Games book, Katniss must survive in an environment similar to District 12. That is, the arena resembles a pine forest with trees where she can sleep at night and hide, with foods she knows how to procure, with terrain she can manage to navigate. We’re told that District 12 is located in former Appalachia, which gives us a clue about the terrain and wildlife.

The Appalachian Mountains actually range from Quebec to the southernmost Alabama and Mississippi foothills. However, the area specifically known as
Appalachia
is much smaller; though it’s still a huge region, including parts of thirteen states with a total of more than four hundred counties. Appalachia encompasses portions of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Maryland, as well as portions of Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee, plus all of West Virginia.

Okay, so where does Katniss come from, just where
is
District 12?

At minimum, we know she hails from somewhere in the eastern part of North America.

We have a few more clues: pine trees, the types of animals and plants she eats, and possibly most important, the fact that District 12 relies on coal mining. This last tidbit narrows Katniss’s region of Appalachia to either western Pennsylvania, or down south: West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, southwest Virginia, eastern Tennessee, Alabama. In Pennsylvania, the mines produce anthracite, which is hard coal containing a lot of carbon. But in the more southern areas, the mines yield bituminous coal, which is softer. Unfortunately for those of us who are trying to figure out where in Appalachia we might find District 12, our clues are dwindling: pine trees are found all over the Appalachian region, not just in one part, say, western Pennsylvania.

We have a few other clues about District 12’s location. For example, District 12 has a small population of approximately 8,000 people, implying it’s a tiny district. It could be geographically large, with the 8,000 people spread all over a lot of former states. A good guess is that the people are
not
spread widely, however, because the people in District 12 basically know each other, everyone can cram into the public square for the reapings, and we never hear about civilization beyond the Justice house, the public square, and the mayor’s home. It’s possible that everyone lives in a small area of District 12, yet the district itself encompasses a vast space—all or most of current Appalachia—which is now unoccupied due to the apocalyptic event that triggered the carving of North America in the first place. We do know that District 12 is the “end of the line,” according to Katniss (
The Hunger Games,
83).

There’s been much debate among fans about the location of all the districts. But nobody knows for sure except Suzanne Collins, the author.

The most we might be able to state about District 12’s pine forest is that it’s a
temperate forest
much like the one in Katniss’s first Hunger Games.

Temperature varies quite a bit in most temperate forests, requiring heavy clothes, layers of clothing to peel off as temperatures warm, boots for hiking. Katniss doesn’t wear heavy coats, though she does wear traditional hiking clothes and boots. Her mother uses snow to heal bad wounds, so we do know that it gets cold in the District 12 mountains. In the first book, Peeta wraps his jacket around Katniss to keep her warm (
The Hunger Games,
83). Edible plants and animals in temperate forests include birds, eggs, freshwater fish, and pine needles, from which tea can be made—remember the steam rising from the old house in the woods—as well as acorns, dandelions, maple sap, and berries. All of these items are stock fare in Katniss’s world.

In the first Games, Katniss wears a jacket that has special material to reflect her body heat so she won’t get cold at night (
The Hunger Games,
145). She also wears boots with rubber soles to help her run quickly.

In
Catching Fire,
the environment of the Quarter Quell, the seventy-fifth Games, is much more difficult for Katniss. Here, her survival skills are stretched to the limit. She’s in an arena concocted by Gamemakers to resemble a giant clock, with each section devoted to a different hazardous environment.

When first placed into the Quarter Quell arena, she’s confronted with a circle of saltwater. Equipped with a flotation device, her belt, she must make it to a beach, and from there, to an outlying jungle.

This is a much more elaborate and difficult combat experience for Katniss. She really has to use her wits now because she’s not used to the environment.

In reality, jungles vary quite a bit, with the vegetation strongly dependent on both climate and human interference. Clearly, in
Catching Fire,
human interference is anything but lacking.

Unlike the jungle in
Catching Fire,
real-world jungles can have tropical trees that mature after a hundred years. Some of these trees only attain their full height and breadth in primeval virgin forests that man has yet to destroy. The canopy of dense top growth of these old trees can be as high as a hundred feet from the jungle floor. Both light and underbrush are scarce beneath the canopy. Monkeys, birds, and bees live in the treetops.

Most jungles are similar to the one in
Catching Fire,
but there are differences. In reality, men clear the primeval jungles, cultivate the earth or use it for other reasons, and then let the land remain idle. When the underbrush creeps over the idle land, it forms thick, high mats covered in dense vines. In
Catching Fire,
Katniss is confronted with trees that have very few branches, with soil that is so rich and black that one would think centuries of vegetation has rotted here. Vines are everywhere, it’s humid as hell, and the sun is “hot and bright” (
Catching Fire,
275). Katniss’s jungle merges the conditions of a primary jungle with those of a secondary jungle. She has the horrible sun of a secondary jungle that’s without one-hundred-foot trees and their knitted canopies. Yet she also has the vines and underbrush of a primary jungle. The killer muttation monkeys, were they real rather than man made, might live high in the tops of primary jungle trees.

Speaking of, isn’t it enough to be thrust into a jungle with no water and death at every turn without adding killer muttation monkeys to the nightmare? Thankfully—though it’s not much—the tributes don’t have to contend with some aspects of real jungles, such as swarms of mosquitoes and thousands of leeches.

Before traveling to jungles, people are warned to gear up to the climate and conditions. For one thing, it’s wise to be fairly athletic, but experts tell us that even the most athletic people must exercise in scorching, humid climates for a minimum of four days before hiking through a jungle. And even after preparing for the trip, experts tell hikers to allow at least four to six additional days—in the actual jungle—to acclimate to the conditions. Unfortunately for Katniss and the other children in the Games, they aren’t given the chance to prepare for, much less become accustomed to, the harsh environment.

In addition to the jungle, Katniss must cope with various man-made environmental hazards, including a bizarre burning gas-poison fog that causes body seizures; an enormous wave that thunders down a hill and crashes into the saltwater in the center of the arena; and even blood rain. The clock wedges contain plagues such as lightning, killer muttation monkeys, gas-poison fog, the insanely huge wave, and the blood rain. (
Catching Fire,
326). In fact, the environment inflicts so many plagues on the tributes that it almost feels as if they’re confronting something akin to the ten plagues in Exodus.