The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Factors to keep in mind: PTSD.
Dominant Si: Katniss relates everything to past experiences. Katniss remembers various details that her father told her many years before, and uses those things to help her survive. She has an extremely difficult time overcoming the hardships of her childhood and the games. She frequently lapses into flashbacks of her father’s death and constantly relives the terror of the games. She relies on skills that she is already familiar with in the arena, rather than focusing on trying to learn something new. Obviously he won, so his strategy will work for her too, right? Even so, she looks at what has worked for other people in the past and tries to adopt their methods as much as she can into her strategy, trusting Haymitch’s advice despite his reputation as a drunk. She is often so detail-oriented that she fails to see the bigger picture, but at times it can also be to her benefit. For instance, she refuses to run away and live in the woods with Gale because she is more aware of such a feat’s feasibility than he is. She dislikes the unfamiliar, and has a hard time adjusting to the capitol clothes and food because she is familiar with a much poorer lifestyle.
Auxiliary Te: Katniss is a take-action type of person. In the games, she analyses situations quickly, finds the most immediate rational solution and jumps into action. Outside of the games, where her emotions are crowding in on her, her rationality falls apart a bit (it does in the arena/war too once her PTSD starts to get worse and worse) and she often acts without thinking. She pushes Peeta into a vase for making her “look weak” and doesn’t consider his perspective before doing so. After her father’s death, Katniss becomes her family’s provider. She is able to find ways to survive without the help of her depressed mother, and saves their lives as a result. She speaks her mind very bluntly and puts aside her emotions when in survival mode (they come crashing down on her the moment survival mode shuts off).
Tertiary Fi: Katniss’s emotions start to make her irrational in stressful situations, but she rarely expresses her emotions to others through words. Instead, her emotions burst through in her actions. She is reluctant to talk about Rue, but shows her feelings by giving her a beautiful “funeral” in the arena. Katniss dislikes feeling controlled, but loves her family more, and so is willing to allow herself to be shattered for their sakes. She resents the authority over the districts and rebells almost unconsciously against it. She has an extremely difficult time understanding other people’s motives and because she isn’t overly intuitive, Haymitch and Peeta (Ns) don’t include her arena plans (that is, once her PTSD really starts to get the better of her).
Inferior Ne: Katniss’s intuitions about people are not always correct, and are even less so the more her PTSD develops. Her opinions of almost everyone are inaccurate, and she often has to be told by others what is truly going on. Ideas come to her seemingly out of nowhere in the arena, and these instincts are almost never wrong (though they rarely end up working out just the way she plans them). Katniss cannot see anything good in her future, and she is inevitably afraid of it. When she dwells on it, she starts catastrophizing, rather than thinking positively. She doesn’t think it’s possible to have a good future with either Peeta or Gale, and though she desperately does everything she can to win the games, she doesn’t necessarily think positively about the likelihood of her survival.
The Book Addict's Guide to MBTI: 
ISTJs are extremely analytical as well. It’s silly misconceptions like this that lead to lots of ISTJs mistyping as INTJs. If you want to argue that Katniss is the latter, find actual evidence of her using Ni. You won’t find much, because she isn’t an INTJ.
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Wrong. INTJ.
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[…] she cares about and her reliance on past experience (her’s and others’) for guidance. Like many TJ types, she’s more comfortable expressing decisive, rational thoughts rather than with sharing her […]
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Dude, no offense, but you got the details wrong about Katniss. She clearly is an INTJ… If you were to do your research, you would know that she has way too many analytical traits to be considered an ISTJ. Hell, the author herself even said that she’s the kind of character that “thinks outside the box.”
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To suggest Katniss is too idealistic is to completely ignore the evidence in front of you. While I imagine you can tell me about the using the berries to end the her first Hunger Games and being the Mockingjay shows her true idealistic nature, you’re missing the obvious:
First off, there is a difference in wanting a better world and actually seeing potential for said better world; for some this difference is subtle, but it is there.The only people who aren’t hoping for a better world are the ones in the Capital who aren’t suffering and a scattered few in Districts 1 and 2, who usually win the games and benefit heavily from ththe Capital. Everyone else is hoping for a better world. That hope isn’t idealism; its realizing your life sucks. It’s a survival skill.
Secondly, open the first book. The evidence is within the first five chapters. Or hell, watch the first 10 minutes of the movie. There you’ll see conversation between Gale and Katniss in the woods. Somehow, their conversation turns to having children. Katniss says she’ll never have kids; Gale confesses that he’s open to the idea of children, if things were different. Katniss straight up says, “But they aren’t.” Gale combats this with, “But what if they were?” This just frustrates Katniss because things aren’t different. Katniss can’t even see the potential for a future where they could be different. Even when Gale starts talking about wanting to take on the Capital, Katniss doesn’t say much. To her, Gale is just running his mouth; no one will take on Snow and nothing will ever change. Gale is the idealistic one, not Katniss.
Third, if Katniss were even the slightest bit idealistic, she would have been more gung ho about becoming the Mockingjay. An idealistic person would have loved to be the face of change, of making the world a better place. Even with Gale, Haymitch, Plutarch, and Prsident Coin (among others) trying to encourage her to become the Mockingjay, Katniss isn’t remotely interested until she’s manipulated into it. Her emotions are compromised, and she sees it as the only way to both save and avenge Peeta. Had Peeta never been left behind in thier second Hunger Games and hijacked by Snow, it is unlikely Katniss would have ever agreed. Katniss is the reluctant hero by the pure fact that she’s not idealistic.
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No way she’s an ISTJ. I would lean towards INFJ or INTJ. She’s too idealistic to be an ISTJ…
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Idealistic? Huh.
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I’d say that she’s a survivor. Katniss is practical, (mostly) grounded, and very down-to-earth. Idealistic? Not really. She dreams of/wishes for a better, freer Panem, but when a situation is as bad as hers who wouldn’t wish for better?
No, ISTJ makes perfect sense to me.
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To suggest Katniss is too idealistic is to completely ignore the evidence in front of you. While I imagine you can tell me about the using the berries to end the her first Hunger Games and being the Mockingjay shows her true idealistic nature, you’re missing the obvious:
First off, there is a difference in wanting a better world and actually seeing potential for said better world; for some this difference is subtle, but it is there.The only people who aren’t hoping for a better world are the ones in the Capital who aren’t suffering and a scattered few in Districts 1 and 2, who usually win the games and benefit heavily from ththe Capital. Everyone else is hoping for a better world. That hope isn’t idealism; its realizing your life sucks. It’s a survival skill.
Secondly, open the first book. The evidence is within the first five chapters. Or hell, watch the first 10 minutes of the movie. There you’ll see conversation between Gale and Katniss in the woods. Somehow, their conversation turns to having children. Katniss says she’ll never have kids; Gale confesses that he’s open to the idea of children, if things were different. Katniss straight up says, “But they aren’t.” Gale combats this with, “But what if they were?” This just frustrates Katniss because things aren’t different. Katniss can’t even see the potential for a future where they could be different. Even when Gale starts talking about wanting to take on the Capital, Katniss doesn’t say much. To her, Gale is just running his mouth; no one will take on Snow and nothing will ever change. Gale is the idealistic one, not Katniss.
Third, if Katniss were even the slightest bit idealistic, she would have been more gung ho about becoming the Mockingjay. An idealistic person would have loved to be the face of change, of making the world a better place. Even with Gale, Haymitch, Plutarch, and Prsident Coin (among others) trying to encourage her to become the Mockingjay, Katniss isn’t remotely interested until she’s manipulated into it. Her emotions are compromised, and she sees it as the only way to both save and avenge Peeta. Had Peeta never been left behind in thier second Hunger Games and hijacked by Snow, it is unlikely Katniss would have ever agreed. Katniss is the reluctant hero by the pure fact that she’s not idealistic.
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Thanks for expanding on this! I wanted to point these things out, but didn’t have the brainpower at the time to do it in a way that wasn’t a full-on Ti babble fest.
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My pleasure.
It annoys me when people can’t see what’s right in front of their faces.
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I don’t think Gale is idealistic, he’s just stubborn/rebellious. He doesn’t want to conform to the way things are and he sees injustice and wants to change it.i think an idealistic person would be more ENFP/optimistic. Gale is not optimistic. He’s common sense and anger seems to drive him more than the hope of something better.
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