- "Do you like seafood? Shrimp and crabmeat? Often overlooked, District 4 plays an essential role, bringing us the bounty of the sea. These citizens are adept with nets and tridents, and can swim like fish themselves."
- —Description from The Hunger Games: Tribute Guide[src]
District 4 is one of the wealthiest districts of Panem. Its major industry is fishing, and children are apparently trained for jobs in this industry at a young age. This training is also useful for tributes in the Hunger Games, as they have experience in swimming, using nets and tridents, making fishhooks from scratch, and identifying edible sea life. In Catching Fire, Katniss notices on her Victory Tour that District 4, along with 3 and 8, seemed quite happy to see her, implying that District 4 is a rebellious district. The victors from this district also pledged loyalty to the rebellion and to Katniss Everdeen.
Being one of the wealthiest districts, District 4 tends to produce Career Tributes, who volunteer to participate in the Hunger Games. This is also the case for districts 1 and 2. Although illegal, these children are raised and trained to win the Games, making them stronger and much more capable of winning than the average tribute. However, in the films, nothing was mentioned about tributes from District 4 being Careers. The bread from District 4 is a salty, fish-shaped loaf, tinted green by seaweed. According to The Hunger Games Adventures, District 4 is located on the west coast of Panem just to the southeast of District 7. In the Catching Fire film, a young District 4 girl with blonde hair and brown eyes looks up at Katniss and tells her "One day, I'm going to volunteer. Just like you did."; this could imply that District 4 citizens are in favor of the Hunger Games, similar to districts 1 and 2, or that the girl was simply a fan of Katniss Everdeen and wanted to be like her.
Jobs
District 4's square during Katniss and Peeta's Victory Tour.
The following jobs are offered in District 4:
- Longliner
- Trawler
- Canner
- Ship Captain
- Deckhand
- Fisherman
While preparing for the 3rd Quarter Quell in the Training Center, Katniss encounters difficulty at the knot-tying station and is helped by another tribute, and she realizes that "Of course it's Finnick, who seems to have spent his childhood doing nothing but wielding tridents and manipulating ropes into fancy knots for nets, I guess".[1] This shows that unlike the children of District 12 (and just like the children in the other districts), the children in District 4 begin to learn their district's industry from an early age.
Everyday life
Not much is known about District 4's way of living, aside from their specialization in fishing. Even their bread is tinted green because of the seaweed it contains. In Catching Fire, it is mentioned that District 4 is by the sea, of course. Its rebellious tendencies, expressed during Katniss and Peeta's Victory Tour, were described as "more of a cry for vengeance" and it was said that the crowd did not have "the weary cattle feel". This suggests that the citizens of District 4 faced severe oppression but were healthy enough (not battling starvation and poverty) to fight.
Known tributes
District 4 tributes, 74th Hunger Games
- District 4 female (74th HG) - Killed by tracker jackers (book). Died after the initial bloodbath (film). She placed 11th in the book and 13th in the film.
- District 4 male (74th HG) - Died in the initial bloodbath. He placed 14th.
- Mags - Tribute in the 3rd Quarter Quell, Victor of the 11th Hunger Games - Killed by the poisonous fog. She placed 15th.
- Finnick Odair - Tribute in the 3rd Quarter Quell, Victor of the 65th Hunger Games.
- Annie Cresta - Victor of the 70th Hunger Games.
- District 4 male (70th HG) - Survived the bloodbath but was later beheaded.
Trivia
- Being one of the first districts to rebel and as well as having the production of career tributes, it can be inferred that District 4 was probably one of the first districts to pry from the Capitol's grasp, as well as Districts 1, 3, 8, and 11, during the 2nd rebellion. Although, it didn't fight one of the first four battles of the war which means it was the 5th - 10th district to do so.
- In Catching Fire, Katniss mentions an accent that many from District 4 speak with when describing Mags.
- According to the Capitol.PN, District 4 has 12 fisheries in operation with a population of 111,453, making it the seventh largest district, in terms of population.
- According to the Capitol.PN, District 4 claims 26,357 in tesserae, making it the fourth richest district.
- If the population is 111,453 and they claim 26,357 tesserae, it would equal to 0.236 tesserae per person, making it the 5th richest District.
References
- ↑ Catching Fire, Chapter 16