Katniss Everdeen

Katniss has strong and independent survivalist instincts due to her difficult past and is good at thinking outside the box. She is not socially adept and has a hard time making friends due to the emotional strain on her life which has made her hard and cold. She is more concerned about feeding her family than being social, making her awkward around people. Though Katniss can be rather blunt, misanthropic, sarcastic, bitingly cynical, and cold, she has a very vulnerable side which she only shows around her family, and she has a natural maternal instinct as showed when she comforted Prim and helped Rue. She is not very good at acting for the camera and comes across best when she is herself. She is usually very logical except for times when her emotions get in the way. Katniss has a habit of biting her nails when she is nervous or anxious and must consciously stop herself from doing so when around others. After she became a victor she could not think of a good reason to break the habit However, after joining the rebellion she appears to have stopped biting her nails as she does not mention doing so. Katniss is very strong, stubborn, and determined. Often, she will react first and ask questions later. She will do anything to survive. Even when she allied with Rue, she said she hoped that she didn't have to be the one to kill her. Yet when it came to Peeta, she tried her best to figure a way for them both to survive. This independent streak did not go well in the regimented confines of District 13and Katniss largely did what she wanted and ignored her daily schedule. She had to discipline herself to undergo military training in order to prove that she could be sent into combat, and her unwillingness to take orders was perceived as her greatest weakness. This was targeted during her individual exam, but she was able to realize this and pass Even though she can sometimes be a bit self-centered and self-reliant, she does have noble traits, protecting those she loves. For example, caring for Prim, looking out for Rue, and ending Cato's life mercifully even though he caused her so much pain or when she shields Gale to keep him from being whipped, even when it means a lash for herself. Katniss has an instinct to protect those who are weak such as Rue, Wiress, and her prep team. Unlike her younger sister, she is not a natural born healer. She once ran from the house in fright while Prim and her mother cared for a dying man. She even had trouble healing Peeta, being squeamish, and reluctant to care for him unclothed. Instead, she is more like her father, being skilled at hunting and gathering.Similar to her father, Katniss had a rebellious streak. She was a fiercely determined and resourceful fighter and was reasonably easy to underestimate. Due to this, she was almost always in disagreement with authority figures and liked to use her own resources when it came to survival (the instincts of a true survivor). Katniss was loyal to no one and had issues when it came to trusting others, but this grew to be her one of her greatest strengths. In Mockingjay, it is shown that Katniss dislikes being a "pawn" and hates having the weight of Panem on her shoulders. Katniss suffers from PTSD from her experiences in the Hunger Games throughout the series. This includes frequent nightmares and night terrors of those she killed and tried to kill her, avoidance of others/isolation, irritability, and favoring the wilds of the forest over human contact

The protagonist of the novel and its narrator, Katniss Everdeen is a strong, resourceful teen who is far more mature than her age would suggest. Katniss is the main provider in her family, which consists of Katniss, her mother, and her younger sister, Prim. Katniss is fiercely protective of her younger sister, and she volunteers to take Prim’s place in the Hunger Games to protect her. In fact, Katniss is more responsible than anyone else for her family’s wellbeing. Notably, she is responsible for feeding her family, which she does by hunting and foraging, skills she learned from her father before his death in a mine explosion years earlier. Hunting, however, is illegal and punishable by death. Katniss does it anyway, indicating a rebellious streak in her. Moreover, what she catches or collects that her family doesn’t need to eat, she sells in the district’s black market, again implying a disregard for rules. This disregard, however, developed out of necessity rather than an inherent defiance. After Katniss’s father died, her mother sank into a depression, leaving Katniss to take care of the family despite her young age. Katniss realized that, without her hunting, her family wouldn’t have enough to eat, a serious problem in District 12, where starvation is common. As a result of these conditions, Katniss has grown into a tough, unsentimental, and practical girl. Ironically, the hardships she faced as a result of her impoverished upbringing wind up working to her advantage once she’s in the arena. The skills and qualities she developed to cope with the everyday challenges of being poor, including her ability to hunt, her toughness, and her resourcefulness, turn out to be what keeps her alive through the Games. During the weeks over which the Games occur, Katniss’s character does not fundamentally change. What changes are her circumstances, and most of the novel watches her dealing with the situations she encounters. She does not begin to seek attention once she becomes a celebrity and begins doing television interviews. Rather, she always tries to figure out how to get through the interviews so she can go back to her life. The Hunger Games similarly do not turn her into an unfeeling killer, and the only times she kills she does so out of necessity, and to some degree in Cato’s case, pity. That her sense of compassion remains intact is clear through the way she treats Rue. Furthermore, before the Games, she has little interest in boys and is instead focused on her responsibilities, and though she develops feelings for Peeta and becomes aware of feelings for Gale during the Games, romance remains a peripheral interest for her at the end of the novel. This lack of change, however, can be seen as a victory for Katniss. She maintains her sense of identity and integrity, just as Peeta at one point says he would like to, despite the horrible ordeals she faces in the Games.