The Hunger Games: Mr. Everdeen’s Death, Explained

Mr. Everdeen has a vague presence within The Hunger Games franchise. His death occurred before the events of the first Hunger Games installment, but Mr. Everdeen has a lingering presence throughout the franchise, despite only physically appearing in one brief flashback. His death had a catastrophic impact on Katniss and her family. Whilst the films do not offer much information about Mr. Everdeen’s character, the books often explore his close relationship with Katniss. He was the one who taught Katniss how to hunt, and Katniss looked up to him as a role model, which made his death even more devastating.

Because Mr. Everdeen’s death occurred before the first installment took place, many fans have questions about how Katniss’ father died. Due to the trauma of losing her father at such a young age, Katniss has flashbacks of her father’s death throughout her story. Arguably, Mr. Everdeen’s death is one of the most tragic deaths in The Hunger Games franchise, largely because of the event’s impact on the Everdeen family.

How Did Katniss’ Father Die?

Sadly, Katniss’ father died in a tragic mining accident. The fateful event is recounted by Katniss in a few times in the books. Unsurprisingly, Katniss is plagued by the memory of her father’s death. In Mockingjay, she recounts hearing the sirens while she was in school:

On the day my father died, the sirens went off during my school lunch. No one waited for dismissal, or was expected to. The response to a mine accident was something outside the control of even the Capitol.

The sirens were an indication of a major incident in the mines, but Katniss never imagined that her father would be in the firing zone. Once the sirens had sounded, families rushed to the mines as they waited in horror to find out what had happened to their loved ones. It’s revealed that a colossal explosion had gone off, resulting in the rescue operation of dozens of District 12’s miners.

Katniss remembers how her family waited in the cold for hours in nervous anticipation, praying to see her father’s face appear in one of the elevators. As the hours passed, the Everdeens began to lose hope and the elevators started to bring up fewer and fewer miners. Katniss is terrorized by her feeling of hopelessness whilst waiting for her father:

I knelt on the ground and pressed my hands into the cinders, wanting so badly to pull my father free. If there’s a more helpless feeling than trying to reach someone you love who’s trapped underground, I don’t know it.

Sadly, Katniss’ father never appeared. The explosion killed dozens of District 12’s miners, including Gale’s father. Some fans have speculated whether the explosion was caused by the Capitol, but Suzanne Collins depicts the explosion as a tragic accident. It’s implied that this happens every so often in District 12, due to the dangerous nature of coal mining.

Unsurprisingly, Katniss is traumatized by the explosion which killed her father, which is shown in the first Hunger Games film. During the 74th annual Hunger Games, Katniss is stung by the deadly Tracker Jackers, causing her to suffer powerful hallucinations. In this memorable scene, Katniss hallucinates the explosion which killed her father. In the hallucination, Katniss sees the explosion crashing through her family’s home, showing the colossal impact Mr. Everdeen’s death had on the Everdeen family.

How Did Mr. Everdeen’s Death Impact His Family?

Katniss was only eleven years old when her father died, meaning that she had to learn to cope with grief at an incredibly young age. The death of Mr. Everdeen completely broke Katniss’ mother, sending her into a deep depression. Sadly, Mrs. Everdeen’s severe depression completely incapacitated her. She was unable to feed or look after her two young children, causing them to almost starve to death.

Due to her mother’s inability to cope, Katniss was obliged to become the head of her household, which meant that she was responsible for caring for both Prim and her mother. Fortunately, Katniss’ father had taught her how to hunt, which meant that Katniss was able to feed her family by hunting in the woods of District 12.

The accident in the mines brought Katniss and Gale closer together. Both characters were struggling with the loss of their fathers, but they also had to step up to feed the rest of their respective households. Because of this, Gale would often accompany Katniss on her hunting trips, and the pair promptly became skilled hunting partners.

However, Mr. Everdeen’s death was also responsible for the rift between Katniss and her mother. On the day of the fateful explosion, Katniss didn’t just lose her father; she lost her mother too. In the first book, Katniss describes her mother as a shell of herself after the accident, hollow and ghostly:

She didn’t do anything but sit propped up in a chair or, more often, huddled under blankets on her bed, eyes fixed on some point in the distance. […] No amount of pleading from Prim seemed to affect her.

Even as her children starved, Mrs. Everdeen remained motionless. Because of this, Katniss has a deep-rooted resentment towards her mother, something which carries across when Katniss volunteers to compete in the 74th Hunger Games. Katniss is fearful at the prospect of leaving Prim alone with her mother, terrified that she might fall back into the same depression. During the pair’s farewells, Katniss bids her mother goodbye with a warning:

You can’t tune out again.

It’s clear that Mr. Everdeen’s death had a tragic impact on the Everdeen family, and was the origin of Katniss’ resentment towards her mother. The death of Mr. Everdeen was a blatant tragedy and the event undeniably shaped Katniss into the tribute fans know and love.