Why Haymitch Never Told Katniss He Was Friends With Her Father In The Hunger Games

Warning: This list contains SPOILERS for Suzanne Collins’ novel Sunrise on the Reaping.Sunrise on the Reaping includes many surprises for Hunger Games fans, showing the life of teenage Haymitch Abernathy and how it is ruined when he is chosen for the 50th Hunger Games. Katniss and Peeta’s mentor was always something of a mystery, who, understandably, never talked about his own Hunger Games and only revealed in pᴀssing to Katniss that his loved ones were killed by the Capitol because of his rebellious acts in the arena. While Katniss and Peeta watch a heavily edited version of Haymitch’s Games, they know even less about his life before this.

The early chapters of Sunrise on the Reaping give us some sense of Haymitch’s routine in District 12, including helping with a bootlegging business and dealing with his girlfriend’s adoptive father’s disapproval of him. It also quickly solves a 17-year-old Everdeen family mystery with the reveal of Katniss’ parents’ names, as they also appear among the residents of District 12. Haymitch has a full life, with family, friends, and a girl he is madly in love with, speaking more about his character in the original trilogy when he revealed so little of this Katniss, even the parts that might have concerned her.

Sunrise On The Reaping Reveals Haymitch & Katniss’ Father Were Pretty Good Friends Once

Burdock Seems To Be One Of Haymitch’s Best Friends

A framed picture of Katniss' father sitting on a mantle in The Hunger Games.

Katniss is fairly closed off as a person when she is a teenager, but Sunrise on the Reaping depicts Haymitch having a different relationship with other kids who live in the Seam. He adores Louella McCoy and her family and is good friends with Burdock Everdeen and another boy named Blair. It is through Burdock that Haymitch meets Lenore Dove, as the two are distant cousins on Burdock’s mother’s side. This also happens when, as young children, Burdock finally convinces Haymitch to venture into the woods outside District 12.

Burdock and Blair are standing with Haymitch during the reaping, wishing him a happy birthday and discussing Burdock’s possible relationship with Asterid March. Burdock also sings at the funeral for Haymitch’s family and the other tributes, which it seems as though most of District 12 attends. By the time of The Hunger Games, Haymitch is only known to Katniss as the alcoholic victor of a past Games, and seems to be somewhat unpopular in the district. Sunrise on the Reaping adds to his story by showing him as a well-liked member of this community, especially by Burdock, one of Katniss’ loved ones.

Haymitch Intentionally Destroys His Relationship With Katniss’ Parents After The Hunger Games

Burdock & Asterid Kept Trying To Help Haymitch Long After Others Gave Up

After his mother and brother’s funeral, Haymitch’s friends stay around to take care of him until they hear news about Lenore Dove, who is in custody for singing a few subversive songs in public as an act of protest. However, when Lenore Dove is also killed, Haymitch starts drinking heavily and pushes away everyone else in his life, including his former boss Hattie, and his friends from the Seam. Burdock and Blair fight this longer than most, and Blair is the first of the two to accept it and leave. However, Burdock keeps coming to see Haymitch, sometimes with Asterid, Katniss’ mother.

In addition to Burdock showing Haymitch sympathy at this moment, Haymitch still takes note of Burdock coming to the Hob as a proud new father, illustrating how they still cared for each other in some way despite their fallout.

The last time that Burdock and Asterid come to try to speak with him, Haymitch resorts to throwing rocks and hits Asterid’s head, which ends his friendship with them. Haymitch runs into Burdock again when he is searching the woods for Lenore Dove’s grave, and Burdock simply shows him the way to the Covey’s small cemetery. In addition to Burdock showing Haymitch sympathy at this moment, Haymitch still takes note of Burdock coming to the Hob as a proud new father, illustrating how they still cared for each other in some way despite their fallout.

Haymitch Doesn’t Want Close Relationships After President Snow Gets His Revenge

Haymitch Justified His Behavior, Thinking He Was Protecting People

Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Hunger Games franchise

Haymitch took his mother, Sid, and Lenore Dove’s deaths as a clear message that everyone he loved would die, and cut people out of his life as a kind of protection both for them and himself. He certainly felt terrible about hurting Asterid, but started throwing rocks in the first place because he was so desperate to keep his friends away from him. To a degree, this resolution extends to never talking about his friendship with Burdock, though he had few people to talk to about it. He probably thought having to mentor Burdock’s daughter was just another cruel twist of fate for him.

There is a pattern of the adults involved having buried much of what happened because of the painful memories it brought up.

At this point, Katniss has a low opinion of Haymitch and Haymitch probably doesn’t think appealing to this connection between them will improve her opinion of him or help her in the Games. He might have seen Katniss in pᴀssing before but wasn’t going to reach out to her when it might endanger her. During the events of the main trilogy, Haymitch still has no desire to talk about his Hunger Games, and, possibly out of habit, keeps Katniss and Peeta at arms’ length despite the fact that the Capitol certainly knows they are all important to each other.

Notably, Asterid tells her daughters almost nothing about this period in her and Burdock’s lives either. When President Snow is announcing the terms of the third Quarter Quell is when Asterid reveals to Katniss and Prim, for the first time, that she had a friend who went to the 50th Hunger Games. There is a pattern of the adults involved having buried much of what happened because of the painful memories it brought up, probably just thinking there was no reason they had to tell the next generation about their past friendships when it wouldn’t help them in any practical way.

Haymitch Finally Tells Katniss & Peeta His Full Story In Sunrise On The Reaping’s Epilogue

Haymitch’s Epilogue Shows His Changing Relationship With Katniss & Peeta When They Are No Longer In Danger

Sunrise on the Reaping‘s epilogue implies that Haymitch recounts the story we have just read to Katniss and Peeta in the years after the Capitol’s fall. He starts talking about his past specifically because of Burdock, as Katniss and Peeta are creating their memorial book and are working on a page for her father, and Haymitch thinks he should mention the kindness Burdock showed to him even after he destroyed their friendship. Presumably, this is the first time Katniss is hearing that Haymitch ever met her father more than in pᴀssing, as her mother does not seem to have ever told her either.

Possibly, this brought Katniss and Haymitch closer together, when he felt safe enough to have such relationships. He also mentions in the epilogue that he tried to keep Katniss and Peeta away but ultimately came to care for them, kicking off his storyline in the original Hunger Games trilogy. Sunrise on the Reaping is the most information we’ve ever gotten about Haymitch, and while it includes a few retcons, it fits nicely into the overall story and his individual arc of allowing himself to have loved ones again.