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Rue is a tribute from District 11. At only twelve years old, she is the youngest of the tributes. Though not a fighter, Rue is nimble, clever, and resourceful. She saves Katniss from the Careers by guiding her to drop the tracker jacker nest on their camp and then nurses Katniss's wounds. Rue is "very hard to catch," has a comprehensive knowledge of the nutritional and medicinal values of plants, and is able to spy on other tributes undetected. She is otherwise ill-suited for the arena.
By mirroring both Katniss and Prim, Rue's character allows the reader to further understand Katniss. Like Katniss, Rue is "fiercely protective of her siblings" and endangers her own life by illegally foraging for food in order to feed her family. Her innocent, childlike nature also reminds Katniss of Prim. Like Prim, Rue is named after a flower, symbolizing a delicacy and gentleness that Katniss is desperate to protect. Katniss's lifelong devotion to protecting Prim is mirrored in Katniss's decision to take Rue under her wing in the arena. Rue's youth and gentleness underscore the evil of the Hunger Games, and render her death extremely jarring.
Rue's death is a turning point for Katniss. She immediately shoots and kills the boy from District 1 who murdered Rue, marking the first time Katniss has ever taken a human life. Rue's death also drives Katniss forward and fuels her hatred for the Capitol. Katniss reflects, "Rue’s death has forced me to confront my own fury against the cruelty, the injustice they inflict upon us." Katniss feels hopeless, but for the first time, she also questions whether there is a way to confront the Capitol. In her first act of true defiance, she resolutely decides that "Rue was more than a piece in their Games." Refusing to allow Rue to die as just another number, Katniss sings to Rue as she dies and buries her in flowers. Katniss's dissent plants the seed for her transformation into the leader of the resistance movement against the Capitol later in the trilogy. When Katniss later becomes the symbol of the rebellion, she becomes known as the Mockingjay due to the pin she wore in the arena. The Mockingjay is the defining imagery of the series and a symbol of rebellion against the Capitol. For Katniss, it is Rue who first infuses mockingjays with meaning with the stories she tells Katniss about the birds in District 11.
