A
moment that stood out to me in the final section of reading was when Thresh
spared Katniss’s life because he felt he owed her for her protection of his
fellow district member, Rue: “Conflicting emotions cross Thresh’s face. He
lowers the rock and points at me, almost accusingly. ‘Just this one time, I let
you go. For the little girl. You and me, we’re even then. No more owed’” (288).
This concept of ‘being even’ with someone is taken so seriously that Thresh
allows one of his competitors in a killing game to run free when he had an easy
opportunity to kill her. He knows that Katniss will be looking to murder him in
the future, but feels so strongly that he owes her something that he spares her
life. Katniss understands why he feels this way. She narrates, “I nod because I
understand. About owing. About hating it. I understand that if Thresh wins, he’ll
have to go back and face a district that has already broken all the rules to
thank me, and he is breaking the rules to thank me, too” (288). She understands
that he is being kind to her because she was so kind to a child from his
district. They would both feel a certain guilt about not repaying a debt, and
that is the part they hate. They hate the feeling of being done a favor and not
returning it – the feeling of owing somebody something.
Katniss
and Thresh have a mutual understanding about the internal need to repay favors.
However, through Katniss’s conversation with Peeta, she declares that his
upbringing and home life hinders him from understanding: “I don’t expect you to
understand it. You’ve always had enough. But if you lived in the Seam, I wouldn’t
have to explain” (292). Peeta responds by saying, “And don’t try. Obviously I’m
too dim to get it” (292). Peeta’s sarcastic tone about being too stupid to
understand shows his distaste for how Katniss is acting like they are on
different intellectual levels. He doesn’t want to feel like he is privileged and
can’t relate to Katniss’s feelings and experiences. This concept of class and
social structure is something we have discussed in class and something that I
think about often. It’s hard to understand what somebody else is feeling when
you haven’t experienced anything like it yourself. Our personal experiences directly
influence they way we think, and it is important to consider that when trying
to understand another person’s motivations or actions.
I really like the connection you draw between these two scenes. Thresh sparing Katniss is definitely one of the most striking moments of the novel, and encompasses a couple different motifs of the novel, such as the idea of debt repayment, like you spoke of, and rebellion, since this could be interpreted as another early example of rebellion against the Capitol and their rules. I think it is interesting how Katniss’s drive to repay others manifests itself in different places of the novel. Another example of her repaying a debt is when she nurses Peeta’s leg wound after finding him on the side of the river. When Claudius announces a feast containing something that each tribute desperately needs, Peeta tells her not to go, reminding her how dangerous it will be to engage with the other tributes at the risk of being killed. Katniss replies, “I am going, and you can’t stop me!” (274). Even though this feast will gain her nothing, she doesn’t hesitate to risk her life to save Peeta, as a repayment of when he once was kind to her. Katniss’s inability to leave debts unpaid has a large impact on the story.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the second passage you referenced, I think it is worth noting the scale at which Katniss and Peeta are comparing themselves. It’s interesting how Katniss sees Peeta as unable to relate to her level of poverty, while Peeta’s wealth difference to her was negligible when compared to citizens of Career districts or the Capitol. I would argue that the reason Peeta doesn’t see Thresh’s release of Katniss the same way she does isn’t because of his upbringing; it’s just his personality. Peeta is someone who gives without expecting anything in return. When Katniss brings up the bread incident as a debt she feels she has to repay, Peeta replies, “The bread? What? From when we were kids?... I think we can let that go” (293). I believe that Peeta and Katniss simply have fundamentally different views on the idea of debt repayment, since their upbringings were so similar in their poverty level.