In the movie The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Katniss and Peeta initially ally with Finnick and the old lady Mags, who never speaks but instead communicates in gestures.
Why does Mags never talk?
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Sign up to join this communityKatniss believes that it is due to a stroke, in the book she muses:
Finnick appears again when I'm picking up fishing tips, but mostly just to introduce me to Mags, the elderly woman who's also from District 4. Between her district accent and her garbled speech — possibly she's had a stroke — I can't make out more than one in four words.
Catching Fire - Chapter 16
I assume the film has taken the view that total loss of speech was easier to portray on film.
Nobody really knows why Mags never speaks but I think it's due to fright or dementia. Maybe she got dementia and forgot how to speak? Maybe she didn't. Maybe she's too frightened to speak in case she says something bad? Who knows?