#this isn't entirely thought out i was really just stuck on that passage about singing and

[iamfitzwilliamdarcy]

Katniss actually has a thought in Mockingjay that maybe the reason she doesn't sing isn't because she finds it a waste of time but because it reminds her too much of her dad. And her dad's death is really a turning point for her in who she is when we meet her in the Hunger Games-- she is very pragmatic, to the point of utilitarianism, and she's had to be to survive both her physical poverty and her grief.

This translates into the Games and how she always sees herself indebted to others who show her kindness, and later we see it reflected in how District 13 operates-- an almost imprisonment that she hates and flaunts. She doesn't see the use of the things they do.

But it's things like singing, like Buttercup the cat-- things that objectively have no use -- that help her keep her humanity-- her love and finding beauty in the world amidst the depths of tragedy and horror