The Hunger Games takes place in an unidentified future time period after the destruction of North America, in a nation known as Panem. Panem consists of a wealthy Capitol and twelve surrounding, poorer districts. District 12, where the book begins, is located in the coal-rich region that was formerly Appalachia.
As punishment for a previous rebellion against the Capitol, every year, one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each district are selected by lottery and forced to participate in the Hunger Games, a televised event in which the participants, or "tributes," must fight to the death in a dangerous, outdoor arena, controlled by the Capitol, until only one remains. The story follows 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, a girl from District 12, who volunteers for the 74th Games in place of her younger sister, Primrose. Also participating from District 12 is Peeta Mellark, a baker's son whom Katniss knows from school and who once gave her bread when her family was starving.
Katniss and Peeta are taken to the Capitol, where their mentor, Haymitch Abernathy, a former Hunger Games victor, instructs them to learn about the other tributes. They are then publicly displayed to the Capitol audience. During this time, Peeta reveals on-air his long-time unrequited love for Katniss. Katniss believes this to be a ploy to gain audience support for the Games, which can be crucial for survival, as audience members are encouraged to send gifts like food, medicine, and tools to favored tributes during the Games. The Games begin with eleven of the 24 tributes dying in the first day, while Katniss relies on her well-practiced hunting and outdoor skills to survive. As the games continue, the tribute death toll increases. Days later, Katniss develops a short alliance with a twelve year-old girl from District 11, Rue, who reminds Katniss of her sister Prim. When Rue is killed by another tribute, Katniss shoots him through the side of the neck with one of her arrows and comforts dying Rue. She sings to her, and then spreads flowers all over her body as a sign of disgust towards the Capitol.
Supposedly due to Katniss and Peeta's beloved image in the minds of the audience as "star-crossed lovers," a rule change is announced midway through the games, stating that two tributes from the same district can win the Hunger Games as a pair. Upon hearing this, Katniss searches for Peeta and finds him wounded. She nurses him back to health and acts the part of a young girl falling in love to gain more favor with the audience and, consequently, gifts from her sponsors. When the couple are finally the last two tributes, the Gamemakers suddenly reverse the rule change and try to force them into a dramatic finale, where one must kill the other to win. Katniss, in the hopes that the Gamemakers would rather have two victors than none, retrieves the poison berries called “nightlock” from her pouch and offers some to Peeta. Upon realising that Katniss and Peeta mean to commit suicide, the Gamemakers announce that both will be the victors of the 74th Hunger Games.
Though she survives the ordeal in the arena and is treated to a hero's welcome in the Capitol, Katniss is warned by Haymitch that she has now become a political target after defying her society's authoritarian leaders so publicly. Afterwards, Peeta is heartbroken to learn that their relationship was at least partially a calculated ploy to earn sympathy from the audience, although Katniss remains unsure of her own feelings.
Here I will discuss the 12 Districts, the Capitol and District 13.
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| The Capitol's Seal |
The city of the Capitol, seat of Panem's totalitarian government, is located in the northwestern Rocky Mountains of the former United States & Canada and is the home of dictator President Coriolanus Snow. The Hunger Games were conceived by Panem's government in the aftermath of a rebellion known only as the Dark Days.
Capitol citizens are shown to be mostly preoccupied with fashion, food, and entertainment. Dyes, tattoos, wigs, and costumes of myriad style and vivid colors are all the rage. Plastic surgery and other extreme makeovers are commonplace. A prime example is Tigris, a character in Mockingjay, a former stylist who has had plastic surgery to make her look like a cat, including whiskers and a very small nose. At parties, the selection of dishes is commonly far greater than would allow a single person to try everything. Guests often drink an emetic to vomit the food they have consumed in order to enjoy more. The entire population of the Capitol eagerly anticipates the annual Hunger Games as the highlight of the year's entertainment. Capitol citizens manifest almost no concern for or even awareness of the desperate, starvation-level poverty conditions in which most district citizens live, or the tremendous injustice and tragedy of the Hunger Games. It appears that most of the citizens from the Capitol have names taken from ancient Rome and ancient Greece.
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| The District One Seal |
District 1 makes luxury items for the Capitol. It appears that all the people from District 1 are named for an attribute of some luxury item. Children there take pride in competing in the Games, and are among the group of tributes nicknamed "Careers", who train for the Games (illegally) from a young age and then volunteer to compete. Once the Games begin, the tributes from the Careers districts tend to band together until they are forced to fight among themselves, and a disproportionate number of Hunger Games winners are Careers.
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| The District Two Seal |
It is a large district set in the Rocky Mountains not far from the Capitol itself. The district is made up of many small villages, each based around a mine. In the midst of District 2 is a central mountain (referred to as "The Nut" by Katniss) which contains the command and control apparatus for the Capitol's defenses. Originally District 2 specialized only in mining and stone cutting, but after the Dark Days war it was also tasked with production of weapons.
During the Dark Days, District 2 was the Capitol's staunchest ally and after that rebellion was over, it received preferential treatment from the Capitol. Its citizens have better living conditions.
In the third book, during the second rebellion, District 2 once again supported the Capitol and was the last district to fall to the rebels. It was one of the few districts whose citizens did not attempt to revolt against the Capitol. Many of the Peacekeepers and a disproportionate number of Victors have come from District 2.
The District specializes in electronics. Most of its inhabitants work in factories and are very adept with engineering. Some people think of District 3 as weak, but their intelligence provides many benefits. Its tributes tend to use this to their advantage. In the 74th Hunger Games, the District 3 tribute managed to create a mine field cobbled together from the starting plates. One of previous victors to come from District 3, Beetee, won his games by setting a trap that electrocuted many of the other tributes. He was chosen as a Victor to compete in the 75th Hunger Games, where he attempted to use the wire that came from the Cornucopia to destroy the force field surrounding the arena using the lightning that came in a certain hour. It was Katniss, however, who finished the job before being collected by the hovercraft. Their district bread is a small, square roll.
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| The District Three Seal |
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| The District Four Seal |
This District fishes for the Capitol, and is another wealthy district from which Careers hail. In the 74th Hunger games, Katniss kills the girl from 4 by dropping a Tracker Jacker nest on her. Katniss finds important allies in the 75th Hunger Games in the Victors from District 4, Mags and Finnick. Mags was an elderly woman and could make a fishing hook "out of anything," and Finnick's weapon of choice is a trident. Mags was Finnick's mentor in the Hunger Games. Annie Cresta, who later becomes Finnick's wife, also comes from District 4 and is a Victor who won by her swimming skill. It is said that District 4 has the most "decent-looking" people. Its bread is a salty, fish-shaped loaf tinted green by seaweed.
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| The District Five Seal |
The District's industry is power. The girl tribute from District 5 in the 74th Hunger Games is known as "Foxface" because she looks similar to a fox, with a slim face and sleek red hair; her real name is never mentioned. She was one of the last to die because she was very clever. No description or name was given to the boy from District 5, except he was one of the eleven that died on the first day. In the 75th Hunger Games, Finnick killed the male tribute with his trident at the cornucopia on the first day.
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| The District Six Seal |
The District's industry is Transportation. Not much else is known about this district other than both tributes in the 75th Games protected Katniss and Peeta. They were both addicted to "morphling" a morphine-like pain relief medication, the book suggesting that morphling addiction may have been a district-wide issue. During the 74th Hunger Games both male and female tributes were killed during the first day.
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| The District Seven Seal |
District 7 specializes in lumber and paper. One of Katniss' allies in the 75th Hunger Games was Johanna Mason, who was very good with an axe. Apparently a large portion of District 7's forest is pine, as Mason comments that pine needles "smell like home."
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| The District Eight Seal |
District 8 specializes in textiles and has at least one factory where Peacekeeper uniforms are made. Two people from District 8, Bonnie and Twill, escaped during one of the uprisings and informed Katniss of the theory that District 13 still existed. It is implied that security is strict in 8, and the citizens are desperate for hope. District 8 was also one of the first districts to rebel, as Katniss saw on Mayor Undersee's television. In the third book, Katniss visits a hospital in District 8, which is later bombed by the Capitol. The leader of District 8, Paylor, becomes President of Panem after President Snow has died and Katniss has assassinated President Coin. Even before she became president, Paylor's soldiers were apparently loyal to her, ignoring Coin's orders when she commanded. None of District 8's Tributes are mentioned much in the 74th and 75th Hunger Games other than Peeta finished off the female tribute in the 74th Hunger Games.
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| The District Nine Seal |
The industry of District 9 is grain. It is mentioned once that District 9 has many factories. The District 9 boy tribute in the 74th Hunger Games is described as having hazel eyes, but whether that is a trait of his region is not stated. He died in the bloodbath after fighting with Katniss over a backpack when he was knifed in the back by Clove, the District 2 tribute.
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| The District Ten Seal |
District 10 specializes in livestock. Katniss meets a man named Dalton when she arrives in District 13, who is a District 10 cattle farmer. His task is to implant frozen cow embryos to increase the diversity of the herd. He seems cynical, and is distrustful of District 13. Katniss does not note any major tributes from District 10, except one boy with a crippled leg who is mentioned several times. At the 75th Hunger Games, Katniss notes that the District 10 tributes, who are dressed as cows, have flaming belts on as if they are broiling themselves, in poor imitation of Cinna's techniques to showcase Katniss at the Games.
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| The District Eleven Seal |
District 11 specializes in agriculture. It is located somewhere in the south and is very large. The people are housed in small shacks and there is a harsh peace-keeping force. Common traits are dark skin and brown eyes. According to Rue, many tracker jacker nests were left there, leading the workers to keep medicinal leaves on hand. In the orchards small children were sent into the branches to pick the highest fruit. Sometimes during the height of the harvest they were given night-vision goggles to allow them to work after dark. The district also contained fields of grain and vegetables. The inhabitants apparently had extensive knowledge of herbs.
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| The District Twelve Seal |
District 12 mines coal for the Capitol. Katniss, Peeta, and other major characters come from District 12. It is located in the Appalachian Mountains, and the district itself is split into two areas housing two distinct social classes. "The Seam" is a slum where those who work in the coal mines live, whereas the mercantile class lives in the town. Both classes are easy to distinguish physically: those from the Seam generally have dark hair, grey eyes and olive skin, and those from merchant families usually have blond hair and blue eyes.
District 12 is very poor, and starvation is a major issue for the citizens. Due the lack of food, the local Capitol authority figures — the Mayor and Peacekeepers — often bend the extremely strict Panem laws. The fence surrounding the district and preventing access to the woods is often not electrified, and Katniss and her friend Gale often hunt there for food for their families or to raise money by selling their catches in the local black market. The black market, located at an old coal warehouse named the Hob, was where many of the citizens made their money. The Hob was destroyed by the Peacekeepers in Catching Fire. This was followed by the bombing of the whole district after the escape of the tributes during the 75th Hunger Games. However, Gale managed to evacuate about 10% of the population—"a little under 900 people"—to District 13.
District 12 has only won two Hunger Games prior to the events of the first book; its only living victor, Haymitch Abernathy, survived the second Quarter Quell, where there were twice as many tributes as usual.
After the war, it is hinted in Mockingjay that District 12 will produce medicine and start growing some food for Panem instead of producing coal.
The District 13
Prior to the Dark Days war, District 13 worked in nuclear technology and mined graphite. During the Dark Days they were one of the major forces of the rebellion. Near the end of the Dark Days they managed to take control of the nuclear arsenal. District 13 was supposedly bombed and destroyed before the first annual Hunger Games at the end of the Dark Days war, but it is hinted and later confirmed in Catching Fire that they have survived, and in Mockingjay it's confirmed that District 13 literally became an underground district when the population retreated to bunkers. The Capitol has spread the story that District 13 was destroyed after the Capitol and District 13 agreed to leave each other alone since District 13 made nuclear weapons and the Capitol didn't want a nuclear war. Also, this underground district has its own farms that they survive on after the Capitol destroyed everything above ground so as not to arouse suspicion. This was something that, according to Katniss, that Capitol had underestimated.
In Mockingjay, District 13 is the center of the new rebellion. The lifestyle in 13 is very strict due to their circumstances. When a citizen wakes up, he or she acquires a temporary tattoo of their personalized schedule for the day. They are also very thrifty and ration food carefully—even a small thing wasted is heavily frowned on, and minor theft is punished by cruel detention. Everyone over the age of 14 is addressed respectfully as "Soldier", since almost everyone in District 13 around the time of the novels is being raised for a military rebellion against the Capitol. The leader of District 13 is President Alma Coin, who aspires to succeed Snow as President of Panem and has orchestrated the events of books two and three to circumvent District 13's truce with the Capitol. Coin is later assassinated by Katniss.
Photo credits to the Official Hunger Games Capitol Website.
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