Why is peeta with the career tributes

The Hunger Games Related Clubs. Cookies help us bring you Fanpop. By using Fanpop, you agree to our use of cookies. Learn More Got It! Josh Hutcherson. Jennifer Lawrence. Peeta Mellark. Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen. He also still appears to feel a sense of loyalty to Katniss, which is evident in him not telling the Career Tributes about her ability with a bow. He seems to be doing what he feels is necessary to stay alive but does not want to betray Katniss, even if doing so would benefit him by eliminating her as a competitor.

Most of the tributes are not Career Tributes, and if Katniss and Peeta are any indication, they are predominantly ordinary teenagers who are horrified at the idea of having to kill another person. The Capitol, however, has put them in a position where they must kill or possibly be killed themselves. Peeta says he wants to preserve his identity, but he acknowledges that he will essentially be doing what the Capitol wants him to.

He wonders how he can preserve his identity in such a position, when he is no longer in full control of his fate, and at this point he has no clear answer. The Hunger Games officially begin in this section with a quick flurry of brutality, but Katniss is notably not distraught at the deaths of the other tributes. Just after the Games begin, for instance, Katniss sees a boy die right in front of her and is splattered across the face with his blood, yet only a few moments later she grins and jokes to herself after a knife lodges in her backpack.

This reaction demonstrates a sense of ease rather than terror or horror. Neither does the sight of several dead tributes at the Cornucopia seem to startle her, nor the death of the girl who starts the fire near her on the first night.

As earlier chapters have hinted, Katniss appears to be generally desensitized to death. No reason is ever stated explicitly, but her upbringing offers clues. Katniss straps herself into a tree and plans to rest near the pond the next day and regain her strength.

The Gamemakers, though, have a different idea. She wakes before dawn to the sound of stampeding feet and a wall of fire. Throughout this chapter, Katniss struggles to interpret the actions of both Peeta and Haymitch. She vacillates, first deciding that Peeta is two-faced and that he is now showing his true colors.

He has betrayed her and is betraying all of District 12 by buddying up with the Careers, whom she calls the "Capitol's lapdogs. Then, she wonders why Peeta hasn't told them about her bow and arrow skills yet. She wonders what he's up to and considers that maybe there's more to his actions than meets the eye. Regardless of what Peeta's plan is, Katniss understands how important it is for her to pretend that she's colluding with Peeta so she can win over sponsors and the audience.

Not wanting to lose support from those sponsors — who are really helping the "star-crossed lovers" they believe Peeta and Katniss to be — she smiles at the camera, once again masking her true emotions in order to protect herself. She also wonders if Haymitch is withholding water from her on purpose, if perhaps he is sending most of the supplies to Peeta instead, and that now, when she needs him most, he is trying to get revenge on her.

She questions Haymitch's character in much the same way she question Peeta's. The question of identity and trust is symbolized in the berries Katniss finds.

Although they look like blueberries from the outside, their insides are blood-red, and Katniss worries that they are poisonous. Just as Katniss must question the truth in Peeta and Haymitch, she must also be suspicious of the food sources around her. Birds remain an important and recurring symbol in the novel, reminding Katniss of various people in her life. She notices the birdcall that arises, almost in warning, just before the hovercraft comes to take away the dead tribute's body.

This recalls the same bird cry that Katniss and Gale heard in the woods just before the red-headed Avox girl was taken.