Katniss Everdeen is the main character of Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games trilogy. Her name comes from an edible plant called katniss. Jennifer Lawrence is set to portray Katniss in the upcoming movie The Hunger Games, directed by Gary Ross.
Katniss and her family live in District 12, the poorest and least populated district in the fictional nation of Panem, located in the former United States. District 12 is a coal-mining district, located in Appalachia. The novel The Hunger Games takes place about 74 years after the 13 districts rebelled against the Capitol and were crushed, with District 13 being utterly destroyed and the Capitol instituting an annual event called "The Hunger Games" to punish the districts. The Hunger Games are to demonstrate to the districts the futility of resisting the Capitol. In the Games, one male and one female between the ages of 12 and 18 are selected annually from each district and are designated to be tributes. The tributes are transported to an arena, where they fight to the death, with the last surviving tribute being declared the victor.
The annual selection is known as the Reaping, and the day of the annual lottery is called Reaping Day. As further punishment for the districts, Reaping Day is regarded as a national holiday and watching the Reaping and the Games themselves is mandatory. Katniss' sister Primrose, known as Prim, is chosen for the Games, but Katniss volunteers to take her place. She joins Peeta Mellark as District 12's tributes for the 74th annual Hunger Games. With her hunting and archery skills, she becomes a contender, and unintentionally becomes the symbol of rebellion when she leads Peeta in a suicide pact rather than have one kill the other to win the Games, forcing the master of the Games to crown them joint victors rather than having no winner at all. She becomes known as "The Girl on Fire." She later becomes the representative for the rebellion and is known in that position as "The Mockingjay" after the bird on a pin that she wore in the Games arena.
