From the very beginning, The Hunger Games is about survival and the hard choices required to ensure it. Katniss Everdeen is repeatedly shown making these uncomfortable and often risky decisions. She faces starvation after her father’s death before turning to poaching and foraging to feed her family. This involves great risk and personal sacrifice, as she will be publicly flogged if caught. She continues to risk her safety to ensure her family’s survival by putting her name in the Hunger Games lottery additional times in exchange for food rations. Though she eventually relents, Katniss also makes the difficult decision of killing a potential family pet to avoid the burden of another mouth to feed, not out of cruelty but of genuine concern for her existing dependents.

After she risks her life to ensure Prim’s survival, Katniss finds herself faced with many more difficult choices. She nearly dies—and watches a peer die—to get a backpack of supplies. She then runs from the provisions she needs to avoid being murdered. Later, she makes the decision to drop a tracker jacker nest on the Careers and Peeta, sacrificing part of her innocence and, possibly, the life of a friend. Later in the games, Katniss directly kills another tribute, then loses her hearing in a bid to weaken the Careers’ position and improve her odds of survival.