The Capitol knows best. We are superior. Don't you want to follow us? It will be good for you. Translation: Do what we tell you to, and perhaps we won't obliterate your District as we did to 13...
This is what the citizens of the Districts of Panem must feel like on a daily basis. The Capitol tries to make them think they are good rulers. The boundaries (such as the fence between the fence separating District 12 from the woods, or not letting citizens of the Districts visit other Districts) are for their own good. They say they give them a choice, but how is it a choice if they give them only one option? The Capitol holds the annual Hunger Games to reinforce the idea that they are in charge. Except all the Hunger Games do is hate the Capitol more.
When Katniss and Peeta are in their chariot, wearing nearly the same outfit, their stylists tell them to hold each other's hand. I believe Haymitch then says something along the lines of that being the perfect touch of rebellion.I had to read that sentence a few times to really unpack what it meant. There's a lot more to it than meets the eye. I think Haymitch meant that while all the other tributes were separated, just reinforcing the idea that they were ultimately going to have to kill the other if they wanted to hold on to their own lives. Katniss and Peeta were together. At that point, they were a team. They were solid. They didn't do the normal thing that the Capitol established-they did the unexpected. And they continued to do the unexpected throughout the entire book.
The double suicide Katniss thought of was the ultimate act of rebellion and revolution. The Capitol needs to show the people of Panem their victor, or else the whole idea behind the Games is lost. The Capitol uses the Games as just another way to show the citizens of Panem that they are in control. They can do whatever they want. They can take away their kids, and have them killed by other kids who they have taken away from their parents. If there was no victor, well...they lost. They were not in control. They don't have proof to go around and flaunt off to people. She simply outsmarted them.
Katniss is a lot like Haymitch in that aspect. Peeta was right. Both of them don't like the Capitol, both of them outsmarted the Capitol, and both of them know exactly what the other was thinking. The first person Katniss ran to when she was out of the arena was Haymitch, after all. Both of them have the will to survive. They understand what the arena is. They know what the Games are all about. Keep the audience entertained, get sponsors, stay live. The Game Makers want to see action. The phony people in the Capitol live for the bloodshed that is the Hunger Games. They need some excitement in their plastic lives. So many times, Katniss could, "just hear Haymitch's voice, telling her" something or another. Whether it was that water was near, or to keep kissing Peeta. Katniss was like an actress in a movie, taking cues from Haymitch, who is her director, who has to do exactly as the producer (who is the Capitol) wants.
Katniss mentions early on in the book that she thinks bad things about the Capitol, but keeps her mouth shut in case someone is watching. When she was on her way to training, an Avox (capitol slave/ servant if you forgot) with red hair. Katniss couldn't shake the feeling that she knew her from somewhere, but she couldn't quite place her. Then Haymitch and Effie told her she couldn't possibly know an avox, as if avoxes were in a lower cast system than them, which to the Capitol, they were. Haymitch said, "She's probably a traitor of some sort." ( pg 77) Katniss thought, a traitor to whom? but it was clear that they meant to the Capitol. That is just what the Capitol does to people who disobey them. Today, treason is a federal crime, in some states punishable by death. If you think about it, out world is not that different from Katniss'. The Hunger Games are similar to reality television, and treason in both places is very bad for you. We may not live in such a dystopia as Katniss does, but our world certainly isn't perfect. I think that in a perfect world, people would have all the rights they want to, until it inflicts upon the rights of others. The People would have power, but the government would still keep everyone in check.
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