Haymitch Abernathy

Haymitch Abernathy is the District 12 victor assigned to mentor Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark in Suzanne Collins’s *The Hunger Games*. By the time they are chosen for the 74th Hunger Games, he is District 12’s only living victor. His public drunkenness initially makes Katniss doubt that he can help them survive, but he understands the Capitol’s audience, its sponsors, and the dangers of defying the Gamemakers.

Haymitch won the 50th Hunger Games, the second Quarter Quell, when he was sixteen. That year’s Games doubled the usual number of tributes, sending forty-eight children into the arena. Haymitch briefly allied with another District 12 tribute, Maysilee Donner, before they separated. Near the arena’s edge, he discovered that its force field could send objects back the way they had come. In the final confrontation, a District 1 tribute threw an axe at him. Haymitch ducked, and the axe rebounded from the force field, killing her. He became the victor, but the Capitol treated his use of the arena’s design as an act of defiance. After the Games, his mother, younger brother, and girlfriend were killed.

As Katniss and Peeta’s mentor, Haymitch decides how to use the gifts that sponsors send into the arena. He recognizes that Peeta’s televised declaration of love for Katniss can attract support, and he presses Katniss to play along with their apparent romance. When Katniss suffers severe burns, a sponsor gift of medicine reaches her. Haymitch also sends food at moments that reinforce the story the audience is watching. His advice is practical because sponsor attention can mean the difference between treatment and death.

In *Catching Fire*, Haymitch’s past victory becomes newly important: the 75th Games draw tributes from the existing pool of victors. His name is selected for District 12, but Peeta volunteers to take his place. Haymitch then works with other victors and the rebellion on a plan to get Katniss out of the arena. He does not tell her the full plan beforehand. When the arena is destroyed, rebels rescue Katniss, while the Capitol captures Peeta.

In *Mockingjay*, Haymitch is in District 13 as Katniss becomes the rebellion’s Mockingjay. Their relationship remains strained by his secrecy over Peeta’s capture, yet he continues to advise her. Across the novels, his victory explains both why he can guide District 12’s tributes and why he distrusts the Capitol’s Games.