District 11

"*Known for its bountiful orchards, District 11's workers spend their days among rustling fruit trees and sizeable farms.*"
―Description from *The Hunger Games: Tribute Guide*[src]
**District 11** is one of the thirteen districts of Panem. Its main industry is agriculture, and the land is covered with orchards, fields, and herds of dairy cattle. District 11 also seems to be one of the poorer districts; the citizens are not allowed to eat any of the crops- presumably because nearly everything is reserved for the Capitol- and Katniss Everdeen describes the local housing as poor, even compared to the Seam in District 12. Despite their near-starvation, if any citizen of District 11 is caught eating any of the crops, they are whipped in public. The inhabitants typically have dark brown skin, as exemplified by Rue, Thresh, and Chaff (Seeder, who is described in the novels as having olive skin, is a notable exception).

## Government and Security

"*Hearing this, District 12 feels like some kind of safe haven. Of course, people keel over from starvation all the time, but I can't imagine the peacekeepers murdering a simple-minded child.*"
―Katniss[src]   The Capitol's control over District 11 is extremely strict, due to the district's importance as a major food supplier. The fence surrounding the district is thirty feet high and topped with razor wire. It has metal ground plates to prevent anyone digging beneath, and guard towers evenly spaced along it. The fence is always electrified so the citizens cannot escape, unlike District 12, where their fence is almost never turned on.
District 11 is divided in an unknown number of zones separated by sky walls and razor sharp fences. In the Hunger Games and Catching Fire films, the Hall of Justice is shown to be in Zone B. The riot that took place in the first film is also shown to have occurred in Zone B.

In addition to the heavily guarded fence, the local government is known for being harsh and cruel; when Katniss and Peeta visited the district on their Victory Tour, they witnessed an old man being executed by Peacekeepers simply for whistling Rue's four note tune - though this may have been brought on by the fact that he instigated a public salute to the two victors, who had blatantly defied the Capitol to so that they could both win the Hunger Games. Two more gunshots were heard afterward, suggesting that the Peacekeepers then turned on the crowd.

Execution also seems to be a punishment for even minor offences: Rue mentioned that a boy named Martin was once killed for trying to keep a pair of night-vision goggles in order to play with them, even though he "wasn't right in the head" and didn't mentally understand what he was doing. If any worker was caught stealing crops, they were whipped in public, a common occurrence that Rue described the Mayor as being very strict on. In general, the Capitol tried to keep a tighter grip on District 11 because its industry and products were vital to the Capitol's existence.

## Uprising

In the films and books, District 11 is shown to be one of the most rebellious districts. Considering that its citizens are amongst the most oppressed and impoverished in Panem, this should come as no surprise. In the film, District 11 had a huge riot following the death of Rue in the Games, after saluting Katniss Everdeen for her kindness and friendship. Near the end of *Catching Fire,* District 11 is one of the mentioned districts to have begun rebelling against the Capitol, and its transportation networks were seized by rebels.After Katniss' speech in District 8, rebel forces in District 11 rallied and took control of the entire district.

## Location and geography

According to the map of Panem featured in *The Hunger Games Adventures,* District 11 is located in the far southeast of the continent, near the Gulf Coast. This positioning makes sense, as its weather was comfortably warm while the snow was falling in District 12 (located in the Appalachian mountains). This warm weather would also lengthen District 11's growing season and provide an ideal climate for crops. It is apparently a very large district- when Katniss and Peeta arrived for their Victory Tour, the train had to travel a great distance to get from the border of the district to the main square. Given that agriculture requires a great deal of open space for cultivation, this is not surprising.

## Known Tributes

    Since the inhabitants of District 11 are typically poor and underfed, tributes for the Hunger Games face significant disadvantages. However, some have occupational skills that are useful in the arena; due to her small size, Rue was often sent to pick fruit from the highest branches in the orchards, and thus could easily move between tall trees without attracting attention. Others, like Thresh and Chaff, were extremely large, muscular, and strong because their jobs involve great physical labor. Both Rue and Thresh were able to recognize edible plants that other tributes might not have noticed, and Rue could also identify and use medicinal plants (these last abilities would likely be shared by many District 11 tributes).

* Autumn Simmons - Victor of the 4th Hunger Games.
* Reaper Ash - Placed 2nd in the 10th Hunger Games.
* Dill - Placed 14th in the 10th Hunger Games.
* Summer Bronze - Victor of the 16th Hunger Games.
* Seeder - Victor of the 30th Hunger Games. Died during the bloodbath of the 75th Hunger Games.
* Soya Dayheart - Victor of the 35th Hunger Games.
* Chaff - Killed by Brutus in the 75th Hunger Games, Victor of the 45th Hunger Games. He placed 8th out of 24th.
* Mariana - Female tribute in the 52nd Hunger Games. Placed 2nd out of 24.
* Mai - Female tribute in the 69th hunger Games. Placed 6th out of 24.
* District 12 Male (69th HG) - Male tribute in the 69th Hunger Games. Placed 24th out of 24.
* Rue - Placed 7th in the 74th Hunger Games. Killed by Marvel.
* Thresh - Placed 5th (book), 4th (film) in the 74th Hunger Games.
* Summer Spencer - Victor of the 87th Hunger Games.

## Way of Life

District 11 specializes in agriculture. There are many tracker jacker nests in the district, causing workers to keep medical leaves on hand. In the orchards small children are sent to high branches to pick the highest fruits. They work long hours: from sunrise to sunset, the people work the fields to send food off to the Capitol. The signature bread from this district is a dark, crescent-shaped roll dotted with seeds.

During the harvest they often work until well after dark, using torchlight and night vision goggles. District 11 is many times larger than District 12. The citizens of District 11 live in small shacks. The people of this district are described as having "dark hair and dark skin". Due to this, they may be of African American, Latin American, Native American, or South Asian descent. However, due to the location of District 11 being confirmed by Suzanne Collins as "the Deep South" it is likely that they are mostly of African American decent.

## Trivia

* In the 74th Hunger Games, District 11 has both the tallest tribute (Thresh), and the smallest and youngest tribute (Rue).
* All known tributes from District 11 have names related to plants/agriculture: Rue is the name of an herb with a small yellow flower; Thresh is a reference to "threshing", part of processing harvested grain; Seeder could be a reference to "seeding" (i.e. planting a field), Chaff is the outer hull of grain that is often removed during the refining process, Dill is the name of a herb; and Reaper refers to "reaping", cutting grain for harvest.
* After being the 2nd - 4th districts (eventually the 2nd) to pry from the Capitol's rule, communications went out in Districts 1, 3, 4, and 7 to rebel. Afterwards, District 11 sends food to rebelling districts in hopes of winning the war.
* According to the Capitol.PN, District 11 has a cultivated acreage of 12 with a population of 138,546, making it the fourth largest district, in terms of population.
* According to the Capitol.PN, District 11 claims 822,568 in tesserae, making it the second most impoverished district.
	+ If the population is 138,546 and they claim 822,568 tesserae, it would equal to 5.937 tesserae per person, making it the 10th richest District.
* As shown in *Mockingjay Part 1,* District 11's citizens are dressed in physical attire resembling that of the Antebellum South.

## References

1. ↑ *The Hunger Games*, Chapter 5
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 *Catching Fire*, Chapter 4
3. ↑ *The Hunger Games*, Chapter 15
4. ↑ The Hunger Games (film), Catching Fire (film)