Primrose Everdeen

Primrose "Prim" Everdeen was Katniss Everdeen's younger sister. Very much unlike her older sibling, Prim had a heart full of compassion and for healing like her mother.

Work
Prim had a goat, named Lady, whose cheeses and milk she sold at the Hob to help support her family. Katniss rescued the goat and gave it to Prim on her birthday. She also has household chores and helps to take care of patients that people bring to her mother. She also has a cat that she cares about very much, and while in district 13, risks her life to save him. Katniss refuses to have her take any tesserae. She becomes a very skilled doctor while in district 13; she works with her mother in the hospital and then goes to war front.

Early life
Not much is known about Prim's early life, but we do know bits and pieces that Katniss Everdeen, her sister, tells of in her narration.

She was born in late May, although the exact date is not said. It is quite obvious from the beginning that Prim loves all living creatures. Right in the first chapter of The Hunger Games, you met one of her hideous pets. Katniss explains quite convincingly that the cat—named Buttercup—is definitely a creature you would not want to come across on a dark night. When Primrose brought the poor cat home, Katniss tried to drown him right away. Of course, Prim would not hear of it. She refused to let the cat be drowned, and became his faithful guardian throughout the book. It would take only a devout lover of life to care for him. Her love of creatures is also shown when Katniss remembers when she tries to teach Prim how to hunt. When Katniss shot an animal, Prim started to tear up and said they should take the animal home and try to heal it.

Prim's talent for healing showed quite strong a few years before The Hunger Games. It was night, and Prim, Katniss, and their mother were asked to care for a sick relative of another Seam family. The doctor responsible for treating the miners had written him off, saying that he was sure to die. The man they where caring for had no hope, and was gruesomely ill and feverish. Katniss admits that the sight of the dying man lying their on the table frightened her, and she ran into the woods and hunted all day. But Prim faithfully stayed by her mother's side, mixing medicines and potions together, adding herbs to wounds, fervently trying to heal him. However, the man died.

The Hunger Games
Prim is a minor character in The Hunger Games, and she mostly appears in Katniss's thoughts and memories.

At the reaping, it was not Katniss's but Prim's name that was pulled out of the girls' reaping ball. Katniss desperately volunteered for Prim, for she was so protective of her sister that she would die for her. She had not allowed Prim to take any tesserae and did everything she could to prevent Prim being thrown into the 74th Hunger Games, as she knew her little sister would not have lasted long in the competition, but in the end it hadn't mattered. In the hour of farewells before travelling to the Capitol, Prim fiercely makes Katniss promise to win the Games and return home.

Catching Fire
Prim is a more prominent character in this sequel, helping her mother with patients and keeping off the Capitol's toes. She does her best to comfort Katniss when she is reaped for the 75th Hunger Games. When District Twelve is bombed, Gale saves her and her mother.

Mockingjay
Prim is a larger character in Mockingjay than any of the two previous books. She lives in District 13 with her mother, sister, and Buttercup in Compartment E for most of the book. Like before, Katniss is always trying to protect her and Prim finally gets enough, asking Katniss to just tell her the truth. Prim is happy to surprise Katniss by being helpful and strong. Also, she has dreams of becoming a doctor and helps the injured during her time in District 13. She is allowed to go to the Capitol during the final battle as a nurse, which Katniss doesn't know until she sees Prim in the barricade in front of Snow's mansion with the children being used as a guard. Before Katniss can reach her and bring her to safety, Prim is killed by the double-exploding parachutes dropped by Coin's forces (according to Snow). After the war, Peeta brings a series of Evening Primrose bushes to Katniss and they plant them around their home in District 12 as a memorial to her.

Physical description
Prim had fair skin, blond hair and blue eyes, unlike the majority of the residents of the Seam in District 12, and looked very much like her mother. Katniss takes her appearance more after their father. Needless to say, this made Prim stick out in a crowd. She had a small stature, partly due to being underfed for the majority of her life. Katniss describes her as having a face "as fresh as a raindrop, as lovely as the primrose for which she was named".

Personality
Prim had a love for living things. She loved animals of all kinds, even the ugliest ones. Not only does she have a pet goat that Katniss gave her, but a gruesome, ugly cat she named Buttercup. Starving and swarming with parasites, Prim brought the wretched creature home. Katniss intended to drown him, but Prim begged so hard for Katniss to let him live that she decided to allow the cat to stay. She has a passion for healing. She doesn't care how ugly a person looks on the outside, and is willing to do her best to heal them. She is also very caring and stays at her mother's side with even the most horrid cases, even though she is "scared of her own shadow".

Prim's goat, Lady, was first adopted into her family when Katniss was browsing and trading in the Hob on Prim's birthday. An old goat herder had a sick nanny goat, mauled by a dog, the wound swollen with infections, and after much haggling and bargaining, Katniss bought the goat and a pink ribbon for her neck. Upon presenting the weak, near-dead nanny to Prim, medical attention was given to her immediately. Eventually, Lady healed well. Though purchasing the goat on a whim, Katniss does not regret her decision, for Lady pays her stay well with goat's milk and cheese to eat and to sell. Lady dies in the bombings of District 12 but Buttercup manages to survive, much to Katniss's disappointment.

Family
Prim was the youngest of the Everdeen family, her sister being Katniss. Her father, Mr. Everdeen, died in a mine explosion four years before, leaving her mother, sister, and herself alone. The three of them lived in the Seam with Lady the goat and Buttercup the cat.