Appearances Quotes in Catching Fire
How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
There will be others waiting, too. A staff to cater to my every need on the long train trip. A prep team to beautify me for public appearances. My stylist and friend, Cinna, who designed the gorgeous outfits that first made the audience take notice of me in the Hunger Games. (1.2)
From the first page of Catching Fire, appearances are important for keeping characters alive and maintaining the manipulative system set up by the Capitol. In order to survive in that system, you have to look the part and pretend that everything is okay.
Quote #2
"I didn't mean to start any uprisings," I tell him.
"I believe you. It doesn't matter. Your stylist turned out to be prophetic in his wardrobe choice. Katniss Everdeen, the girl who was on fire, you have provided a spark that, left unattended, may grow to an inferno that destroys Panem," he says. (2.30-31)
Snow says it's appearances that matter, not intentions. Katniss "didn't mean" to inspire a rebellion, but she did, and she'll get blamed for it. Snow calls her the "spark" that could explode their world and says that Cinna knew she had it in her.
Quote #3
"Even if you pull if off, they'll be back in another few months to take us all to the Games. You and Peeta, you'll be mentors now, every year from here on out. And every year they'll revisit the romance and broadcast the details of your private life, and you'll never, ever be able to do anything but live happily ever after with that boy." (3.73)
Here Haymitch helps Katniss realize exactly what she sentenced herself to with her Games strategy. Sure, pretending to be in love got her and Peeta through the Games – that was kind of a miracle in itself. But in order for the strategy to continue to work, they have to keep up the charade for as long as the Capitol watches over them. In other words, forever.
Quote #4
Haymitch ignores him and pulls me to my feet roughly. "Oh, excellent." His hand locks under my chin, lifting it. "She's got a photo shoot next week modeling wedding dresses. What am I supposed to tell her stylist?" (8.5)
Here Haymitch uses the importance of Katniss' appearance as an argument for why the new Head Peacekeeper should stop beating her. The way Haymitch explains it, it doesn't matter what Katniss has done or not done to deserve a beating. What matters is her presence at "a photo shoot next week" where she has to look the part "modeling wedding dresses." Of course, Haymitch is using appearances as an excuse to save Katniss, but in a way, her life does depend on her looking the part.
Quote #5
They recognize me. Of course they recognize me. My face is uncovered and I'm standing here outside of District 12 pointing an arrow at them. Who else would I be? (10.10)
As a Games victor, Katniss is both more protected and more endangered than a normal person. People throughout Panem know what she looks like, and if she's "pointing an arrow" it's even more obvious who she is. Hunting by arrow is one of her defining skills as a victor.
Quote #6
He turns me toward a mirror so that I can take in the entire effect. I do not see a girl, or even a woman, but some unearthly being who looks like she might make her home in the volcano that destroyed so many in Haymitch's Quell. The black crown, which now appears red-hot, casts strange shadows on my dramatically made-up face. Katniss, the girl on fire, has left behind her flickering flames and bejeweled gowns and soft candlelight frocks. She is as deadly as fire itself. (15.15)
You know the saying "clothes make the man"? Well here, a new outfit has made Katniss feel like a whole new person: dangerous, lethal, and maybe a little more ready to go back into the arena.
Quote #7
It's only when Cinna shows up to approve me and dismiss her that she takes my hands, looks me straight in the eye, and says, "We would all like you to know what a . . . privilege it has been to make you look your best." Then she hastens from the room.
My prep team. My foolish, shallow, affectionate pets, with their obsessions with feathers and parties, nearly break my heart with their good-bye. (17.74-75)
Katniss' prep team has always seemed shallow and superficial to her. Yet now it seems like they had deeper feelings all along, that Katniss has somehow touched them on a more profound level. The prep team isn't just about the surface; they actually care about Katniss.
Quote #8
Really, the combination of the scabs and the ointment looks hideous. I can't help enjoying his distress.
"Poor Finnick. Is this the first time in your life you haven't looked pretty?" I say.
"It must be. The sensation's completely new. How have you managed it all these years?" he asks. (22.33-35)
Outside the arena Finnick is defined by his extreme, almost unearthly beauty. He's a great-looking guy, but he isn't just that. In this moment, when Katniss thinks he "looks hideous," he still has his sense of humor, even though he's also shaken by the fact that he doesn't look his best.
Quote #9
His reference to the baby signals that our time-out from the Games is over. That he knows the audience will be wondering why he hasn't used the most persuasive argument in his arsenal. That sponsors must be manipulated. (24.90)
Peeta and Katniss always have to think of their audience. In what should be the most private times of anyone's life, finding love or facing death, they have to perform like actors on a stage. Everything has to be done with an eye to pleasing the public.
Quote #10
"We had to save you because you're the mockingjay, Katniss," says Plutarch. "While you live, the revolution lives."
The bird, the pin, the song, the berries, the watch, the cracker, the dress that burst into flames. I am the mockingjay. The one that survived despite the Capitol's plans. The symbol of the rebellion. (27.41-42)
Katniss is the embodiment of the revolution, which needs her in order to "live." Even though she doesn't strategize with them or even realize what the revolutionaries are capable of, she's more valuable to their movement than anyone else. She provides the focal point around which the rebels can gather and grow stronger.