Chapter 6

TL;DR: A silent red-haired servant in the tributes' tower stirs a guilty memory in Katniss of a girl she once watched the Capitol hunt down.

Spoilers through Chapter 6.

Chapter in one sentence

Katniss recognizes an Avox — a Capitol servant punished by having her tongue cut out — and confronts the guilt of having once done nothing to help her.

What happens

Settled into the lavish twelfth-floor apartment of the Training Center, Katniss explores Capitol marvels — instant food, programmable showers — but freezes when a red-haired servant girl arrives.

Katniss recognizes her. Two years earlier, in the woods, she and Gale watched this girl and a boy flee a Capitol hovercraft; the boy was killed and the girl captured. She is now an Avox — a person punished for treason by having her tongue cut out and being made a silent servant.

At dinner Katniss blurts that she knows the girl. Peeta smoothly covers for her, claiming the Avox merely resembles a District 12 girl named Delly Cartwright. Afterward Katniss and Peeta climb to the tower's rooftop garden, where wind chimes and a glass force field enclose the gleaming nighttime Capitol. There Katniss confides the truth — and the guilt of having watched the girl be taken and done nothing.

Key moments

• The twelfth-floor apartment — Capitol luxury, automated and absurd, surrounds the tributes.
• The Avox girl — Katniss recognizes the silent servant from a terrible day in the woods.
• Peeta's cover — He smooths over Katniss's slip with the "Delly Cartwright" lie.
• The rooftop confession — Katniss tells Peeta the truth, and her guilt, beneath the wind chimes.

Character shifts

• Katniss — Carries a new, sharp guilt, and begins — reluctantly — to trust Peeta with something true.
• Peeta — Quietly proves himself an ally by protecting Katniss without being asked.

Why this chapter matters

The Avox makes the Capitol's cruelty personal and permanent. The Games are loud and televised; an Avox is the quiet version of the same power — and Katniss's memory of failing to help one girl plants a guilt the series will keep pressing on.

Themes to notice

• Power and punishment — The Capitol silences as easily as it kills.
• Guilt and complicity — Katniss's worst memory is of watching and doing nothing.

Book club questions

1. Why does the book give the Capitol's cruelty a quiet form — a silenced servant — alongside the loud spectacle of the Games?
2. Katniss feels guilt for not helping the girl in the woods. Was there anything she realistically could have done?
3. Peeta covers for Katniss instantly. What is he showing her about himself?

Visual memory hook

A silent red-haired servant lowering her eyes as a guilty Katniss recognizes a face from the woods.

What's next

Training begins, and Katniss must decide how much of her real skill to let her rivals see.