Katniss’s Negative and Positive Influences in The Hunger Games Essay Sample

Katniss had positive and negative influences growing up, but her influences lead her to succeeding throughout the Hunger Games. Katniss had a rough time growing up like having her father die. Her father taught her basically everything she needed to know like shooting a bow. Throughout the story you will see how much the bow has an impact on her life like hunting for food and surviving the hunger games. The positive influences led her to survive when her mom wasn’t there. “I was terrified. I suppose now that my mother was locked in some dark world of sadness, but at the time, all I knew was that I had lost not only a father, but a mother as well.” This quote shows that Katniss had a negative influence on her life but led to her success because she learned how to hunt, and cook after her mother zoned out. 

Katniss had a lot of tough times in her life but every single one gave her a positive impact. When she had to take care of Prim it taught her a lot of medical and parental things she needed to know. So when she was taking care of Peeta throughout the games she had a bit of experience. Since Peeta’s condition was so bad though she knew she could only do so little of what she learned. “I don’t know what to do. Leave him in the bag and hope the excessive heat breaks his fever? Take him out and hope the night air cools him off?” This quote shows that Katniss didn’t know what to do since her influences were not that severe when had to take care of Prim. So her influences were just too little to take care of him but she knew there was a way.

Katniss’s positive influences had a deep impact on her also. Like Gale teaching her how to set traps and be a better hunter. Gale played a big part in Katniss’s life by helping her take care of Prim and her mom and getting food. Prim also really liked Gale and so did Katniss. “I think of Gale without me. Both of us can hunt alone, but we’re better as a pair. Particularly if we’re trying for a bigger game. But also in the more little things, having a partner lightened the load, could even make the arduous task of filling my family’s table enjoyable.” This quote shows that Gale is a huge aspect of Katniss’s life and they are best when they hunt together since Gale taught her things. So Gale being there and helping Katniss was a big influence on her hunting skills in the game. 

Katniss had one positive influence that was unlike the others and it was with Peeta. Peeta was a huge impact in Katniss’s life. He was basically like life or death in Katniss’s experience. When Katniss couldn’t get any food for her family for a couple of days she knew she was gonna die. So Peeta saw her there and gave her bread which saved her life. Peeta also taught her things in the arena like camouflaging and how to seek shelter. Those were big parts of her experience in the hunger games. So since she learned about those things she took care of Peeta with the advice he gave her.

With all the influences she got throughout the entire story Katniss was able to make her way through the games and win. While going through bad influences which led her to good impacts, or good influences that led her to gold impacts. She had so many things that she learned that helped her. Like Peeta, Prim, Gale, her mom and her dad. So Katniss’s negative and positive influences led her to succeeding throughout the hunger games.