hunger games chapter 1

• The narrator wakes up in a cold bed, and we learn that today is the day of the reaping. What is the reaping, you ask? In a daring act of suspense-building, the narrator decides not to tell us.
• In the meantime we're introduced to the other people asleep in the bedroom. There's Primrose (or Prim for short), the narrator's sister; the narrator's mother, who was once very beautiful; and Buttercup, a mouser of a cat who the narrator originally tried to drown. (Not an animal lover, this one.)
• Awake, the narrator dresses herself in hunting gear, grabs a goat cheese, and heads to the woods.
• We learn that the narrator lives in a place called District 12, nicknamed the Seam, that is home primarily to poor coal miners. The narrator's father was a coalminer, but he died in an explosion five years ago, when the narrator was only eleven.
• District 12 is enclosed by a sometimes electrified fence that's supposed to keep out the predators from the woods. Trespassing in the woods is illegal, but that doesn't stop our narrator. The narrator hunts there for food with her bow, a weapon with which she's nearly an expert.
• District 12 is located in the country of Panem and ruled by people in the far away Capitol.
• In the woods, the narrator meets with Gale, her hunting partner. The narrator reveals that her name is Katniss, though Gale sometimes calls her Catnip.
• Gale surprises Katniss with a fresh loaf of bread. Katniss pulls out the goat cheese made by Prim. The two begin to gather blackberries for their feast and begin cracking jokes about the Hunger Games. (What are the Hunger Games? We're still not sure.)
• Katniss offers more information about her family: her mother came from a family of merchants that ran an apothecary shop. She fell in love with Katniss' father, though, and left her comfortable life to live in the Seam.
• Katniss' mother was depressed after the death of her husband. Katniss blames her for being "blank and unreachable"