Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games.
A/n: Alright, from now on, things get uncertain. I go back to uni tomorrow so updates may be irregular. Review replies almost certainly will be. I'll try to keep updates as one a day and will attempt to reply as often as i can (this seems to be once every two weeks at 3am in the morning...). Sorry about that. Also, someone explain why there are two entries for Effie in the character list? I haven't done two, because that's ridiculous, but why? Hope you enjoy!
15) Effie Trinket – Confusion
The one, curious thing about Effie Trinket is that, instead of the genuine stupidity and non-understanding which most people like her have, Effie actually chose to be this way. Because, as anyone who grew up in the Captiol knew, the best way to stay alive is to know nothing at all about anything.
It worked too. Effie Trinket lived a very long life. One might argue that a life of complete confusion is no life at all but, it seemed to Effie that the people who knew everything which was going on were the people who were most unhappy. Given a choice between knowledge and unhappiness or confusion but a shot at being happy, she knew which one she wanted.
There were a few times when it seemed like the wrong choice. When she was arrested after Katniss escaped the Quarter Quell arena. Effie endured torture and she had no idea why. She didn't know the Capitol would torture people (she did know, deep down, but that was the sort of knowledge which led to an unhappy life), she didn't know anything about the Quell and she didn't know why Haymitch – her supposed partner – would leave her to this if he knew about it. It made her wish she'd taken the effort to learn more so she could understand why everything was happening. Indeed, for years afterwards, her mind would flashback to this time, leaving her unsettled and shaking. But she learnt to deal with that by repressing the memory. People often commented on the vacant look in her eyes. To Effie, vacant was better than remembering.
As for other times, well, they were relatively minor in the long run. She occasionally wished she knew why people referred to her as some kind of rebel. Sometimes, she wondered why she hadn't told Katniss how proud she had been to be her Escort. Small things like that. Things which could dampen her mood but had no real relevance to her life.
So, overall, she definitely preferred a life of confusion. Oh, sure, there were probably people who mocked her for her peppy attitude and her cluelessness. They probably looked down on her and took the opportunity to feel superior. But this wasn't important. These people could never see that it was because of her cluelessness that she could be so peppy. Even in the years after the rebellion, she never tried to learn more about the world than was absolutely necessary. She was given no more than the usual responsibilities and lived, in many ways, a simpler but similar life.
Maybe she wasn't the type of hero Katniss was or the intelligent thinker like Haymitch. Maybe she was someone to be scorned and mocked. But, at the end of the day, it didn't matter. She was happy. And that was more than could be said for most.