Catching Fire

Collins, S. (2009).  Catching Fire.  New York: Scholastic Press.

 This book was on the New York Times Bestseller List for more than a year.

Exposition:  The sequel to Hunger Games brings back our hero Peeta and heroine Katniss who are still reeling from the first games and are back at District 12.  

Conflict:  Katniss is threatened by President Snow to quelch the rebellion that has begun since she and Peeta won the games 9 months ago.  She stops a Peacekeeper from flogging Gale to death and gets hit on the face with the whip.

Rising Action:  Katniss fights her real love for Gale and her undesired love for Peeta as she is pulled into the game yet again.  She decides to help Peeta come out on top this time.  They train and watch films of the other players, some of them are champions from up to 50 years ago. They realize that most of these champions are too old to really be competition.

Climax:  During the games they realize that they are in a dome with an electrified force field surrounding it.  They also find that each spoke of the wheel that they were on when  they started, was actually the face of a clock.  If you were in a section during a certain time you could end up dead.

Falling Action: After a while, Katniss realizes that everyone in their party wants to keep Peeta alive.  She teams up with those who are on the same page as she is.  When things go wrong she shoots an arrow with the electrical wire through the force field flaw and that ends the game.  A hovercraft picks her up and takes her hurting bleeding body away.  She hopes Peeta got away.

Resolution:  Katniss has been asked to be the Mockingjay, the spokesperson for District 13, that will help the other districts to take down the Capital.  She will only do it if those captured by the Capital are freed and given their freedom.  She is obsessed with her hatred for President Snow.

Literary Elements:  The imagery is masterfully inserted into the writing element.

Point of view - third person limited omniscient - We only know what is going on with Kat through the entire story.