Imaginative Essay- Amanda Sharpe

Amanda Sharpe

Imaginative essay

What if Katniss was never born?

Imagine you live in Panem, the rebels lead by Katniss Everdeen have just defeated the Capitol. The whole country is celebrating, new leaders, new rights, new freedom. Now rewind about 17 years. Imagine Katniss Everdeen was never born. Suddenly the future doesn't seem so bright does it?

With Katniss non existant Prim is left an only child, her father dead in the mines, her mother too sick to work. Prim is starving and on the verge of being sent to the community home where they would be able to feed her. But reaping day is fast approaching and that one slip with her name on it could change everything.

I jolt awake when I hear my mother screaming. I crawl over to her and shake her awake. “What's wrong?” I ask sleepily. “He's dead” my mother replies with the same emptiness in her voice as in her haunting stare. I can feel the rumbling in my stomach but I fight to ignore it. “Prim, he's dead” she mutters. “I know, go to sleep now” I say stroking her clammy hand. When she finally starts to drift back off I get up and stumble to our kitchen cabinets. I rummage through empty boxes and wrappings and finally find a small load of bread and some peppermint tea. I make us a small breakfast and draw a bath for my mother. We both eat, bathe, then dress in nice clothes and head to the square for the reaping. I see Posy, a little girl who's father also died in the mines, her mother Hazelle and her brother Gale. She had two other brothers but after their father died they both died of starvation, one of the most common causes of death here in District 12. I sign in and go stand with the other girls my age waiting for the names to be called. The next few minutes pass by in a blur and the next thing I know I hear my name called, my mother crying in the crowd and I'm up on stage being congratulated on my death sentence. Then I hear the boy's name called in Effie Trinket's Capitol accent, “Gale Hawthorne”.

A lot of different what if's go with what if Katniss Everdeen was never born. What if Katniss and Gale had never teamed up as hunting partners? What if Prim had to feed herself? What if Prim had no one to volunteer for her when her name was called at the reaping? Gale wouldn't be able to feed his family, Prim wouldn't be able to keep herself fed, and the biggest change of all Prim would be sent into the arena to fight to the death. On person wasn't born and it affected the whole country of Panem. The change killed and saved some people, but was this change for the best?

The next few days are training, public appearances, costumes, crying and trying to avoid looking at Gale's cold grey eyes that remind me so much of my home in the seam. Our mentor Haymitch drinks, Effie, our escort, looks at us in disgust as we stuff our faces with delicious Capitol food and Gale and I quietly go about our business. I recieve a 6 in training because it turns out I'm not too bad at climbing trees and throwing knives and Gale pulls up a 10, how? I don't know. The first day in the arena arrives and the metal plate lifts me up into the mysterious place where I will surely die. The sun is blinding and it takes me a couple seconds to regain my vision. I see the golden cornucopia in the center of a grassy field. On one side long grass spreads out as far as I can see and on the other there is a forest just like the one beyond the fence in 12. There is also a lake off to one side of the cornucopia but I'm sure it won't be of any use to me. Sixty seconds is up before I know it. I turn and run towards the forest. I'm almost there when I feel a sharp pain in my elbow and fight the urge to check what it was. I just keep running until I reach the edge of the forest. After I've been running for a while I climb a tree and examine my wound. There is a knife lodged in my elbow. I pull it out and wrap the deep gash in a leaf. That's when I notice someone standing on a branch about two feet above me.

In my view of the story if Katniss was never born Prim goes through very similar challenges while Gale loses much more than he ever did with Katniss alive. Prim learns that all those years when she was struggling to feed herself she could have been using her natural abilities, such as climbing tree and throwing knives, to hunt and feed herself and her mother. Too bad she didn't find that out until she was forced to accept that her life was over.

1. I glance up and see a small girl, very similar to me in stature. Rue from district 11. I reach up to shake her branch and knock her to the ground but she suddenly disappears. Then I see that she has jumped to the next tree. So that's how she got her 7 in training. As night begins to fall I see a figure moving through the forest. I draw the knife that injured my elbow and prepare to run. I just make out Gale's face as something hits me on the back of the head and I fall to the ground. I lie still in the dirt, vision blurry, a ringing in my ears. I see the District one and two tributes closing in on me with Gale standing by a tree in front of me. Then Gale starts walking towards me too and I see the knife in his hand. As hard as I try to get up my legs just refuse to move. I know this is the end, in a second Gale's knife will pierce my heart and a cannon will go off announcing my death. That's exactly what happens next except I don't hear the cannon go off, instead I am pulled into never ending darkness.

Katniss' lack of life affects so many people around her. The districts didn't rebel, Peeta wasn't chosen for the Hunger Games, Gale was chosen and joined the career pack in the arena. The one thing that didn't change is that Prim died. Prim's death is an event in the history of Panem that from my point of view is unchanging.