Katniss Everdeen plant can be eaten, as Katniss does in the book. Her father once said: "As long as you can find yourself, you'll never starve." The plant also shares its name with a constellation in the Zodiac called Sagittarius, or "The Archer", which may also reference Katniss's skills in archery. Her last name comes from Bathsheba Everdene, the central female character in "Far from the Madding Crowd" by Thomas Hardy. According to Collins, "The two are very different, but both struggle with knowing their hearts". "The Hunger Games" takes place in the ruins of North America: a country called Panem (in
Katniss Everdeen District 12, Katniss's home, the coal-mining district. District 12, in the Appalachian Mountains, is the poorest of the districts, and Katniss lives with her mother and sister in the poorest part of town, known as the Seam. Katniss's father, a coal miner, was killed in a mine explosion when Katniss was 11. After his death, Katniss's mother went into a deep depression and was unable to take care of her children. On the brink of starvation a few weeks before her twelfth birthday Katniss wandered into the richer part of town, hoping to steal some scraps from the garbage bins