31 The bread Juvenal is referring to is a grain dole, handed out to voters, who were adult male citizens of Rome. Women couldn’t vote, so they had nothing to sell for grain; they needed a man in the family to qualify. This is essentially the condition in which Katniss finds herself growing up. Her father is dead, her mother paralysed with shock and grief. In order to keep her remaining family alive, Katniss must become the hunter-gatherer they need. There are times when she is so close to failure that only charity from the boy who works at the nearby bakery prevents their starvation.
