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Catching Fire, a la Shmoop. Becoming a celebrity is apparently not all

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it’s cracked up to be.

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Katniss should really be enjoying her newfound fame…

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…attending exclusive parties…

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…hobnobbing with the social elite…

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…and putting out her own line of leather tote bags.

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But in Suzanne Collins’ sequel to The Hunger Games…

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…our hero finds that celebrity is… something of a mixed bag.

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Is Katniss actually better off now than before she participated in the Hunger Games?

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At a glance… heck yeah.

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She’s uber-rich. She can eat whatever she wants,

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...no more having to hunt down food in the woods .

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Which really cuts down on her monthly arrow expenses.

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Let’s check out this passage from the book and see if we can get inside her head:

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I mourn my old life here. We barely scraped by, but I knew where I fit in, I knew what

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my place was in the tightly interwoven fabric that was our life.

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I wish I could go back to it because, in retrospect, it seems so secure compared with now, when

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I am so rich and so famous and so hated by the authorities in the Capitol.

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Okay, so she lives in a nicer place now, with all of the amenities she had ever only dreamed

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about. But we have a feeling Katniss isn’t shallow.

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Now that her stomach’s full, is she content? Or is she still… hungry for something?

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While the luxuries are nice… are they keeping everyone in the other districts fed, clothed

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and safe? Katniss is also “hated by the Capitol.”

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At least when she was poor, she was unknown. And not reviled by an entire government body.

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Does it really even matter whether Katniss is better off now?

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Her friends and neighbors are certainly more well-fed these days.

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Her victory in the arena means that people in District 12 get more food for the next

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year…

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…and while there’s a rebellion a-brewin’…

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…there’s a lot less pain and suffering among those Katniss cares about.

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She has become a symbol of change and progress…

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…so the question may not be whether things are better in her world…

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…but whether things are better in the world as a whole.

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What do you think?

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Is the path to Katniss’ happiness through her stomach?

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Is something inside her still growling?

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Or is it… not all about her? Shmoop amongst yourselves.

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