Please note this thread and post were started in August, 2010, when Mockingjay was published. For a look at Hogwarts Professor articles that discuss the whole series at length go here and for discussion leading up to and about the Lionsgate film go here. Be fore-warned: Writing on this two year old thread or any of the ‘Mockingjay Discussion’ Points will not be seen by many readers.
The Peeta story arc took a dramatic turn in Mockingjay as Ms. Collins revealed Mr. Mellark as less the Christ figure of unconditional love on whom Katniss depends (see chapter 14, p. 195) than a shattered post-traumatic shock survivor that has been used and abused by equally brutal partisans in the Panem war. That we get a “happy ending” (?) with Peeta and Katniss raising a family in District 12 is not cause of celebration but for agonizing reflection about the broken lives wars leave in their wake, most obviously in the lives of the surviving soldiers.
My question for discussion is what do you think of the several Peetas we see in Mockingjay — the heroic resistor of his hijacking that saves District 13, the mutt-tation Peeta that is rescued, the recovering Peeta who with Katniss becomes a fire-mutt phoenix at the war’s end? Is his chrysalis and transformation under torture and during his struggle to regain his memory allegorical? Political commentary? Or is he a Christ figure?
Ms. Collins closes Mockingjay with these notes that suggest he is (chapter 27, p. 380):
What I need [to survive] is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that.
Your thoughts?
I really love how the book ended. I love that she ended up with Peeta. I wanted her to end up with Peeta badly. The last paragraph of the book sums it up too well. She and Gale are too much alike and filled with a lot of hatred. Peeta gives her strength in the a different way then Gale could ever give her strength. Peeta was the only one of the three of them who votes against having another Hunger Games and putting children in an arena. Katniss and Gale vote for them right away. Its also like someone else on here was saying; when Peeta was crazy and not there to rescue her, Katniss turned more heartless. Peeta truly was a good person and he helped Katniss to be a better person. He completed her. Even in the first book when they were sitting on the roof Peeta was talking about how he didn’t want to be a part of their game and he wanted to hang onto who he was, Katniss only thinks of survival and can’t think beyond that. In that sense… maybe Peeta was the real mockingjay? Wasn’t it remembering Peeta’s words about showing the capital that they can’t change him make Katniss place flowers around Rue’s dead body? Honestly, Peeta’s only flaw in his character was that he HAD no flaws. Even when he was crazy and hated Katniss, he really didn’t hate her. It was not his fault at all that he was acting like that. He was brainwashed. People can’t help being brainwashed.
I like Katniss as a character, because she does care deeply for those around her. But she is right, she has too much anger and bitterness towards the world. I feel like she wants to be a good person, but she just needs help. Help from Peeta. Peeta just wants the world to be a better place.
I guess Peeta’s only obvious flaw in the series is that he lacks the instinctive fighting/killing skills that Katniss has.
As Katniss says, its not that Peeta is soft. But that negotiation and talking is usually his first option. Which is a bit of liability in the Games.
Truth be told, even Hijacked Peeta has a point in Movkingjay. During his first meeting with Katniss, hijacked Peeta questions exactly what his relationship with her is.
Is he her Lover, Friend, Enemy, Ally, Mutt? Was it okay for her to be kissing Gale after all the intimate moments they shared together (e.g The Train)? Katniss really comes off as a cold insensitive gal at times in the book. She was even ready to kill Peeta without hesitation despite him loving her so deeply.
What do you think?
I think that Peeta is and always will be her lover, hijacked or not, but I think being tortured, as sad as it was, made Katniss finally come to realization of that. I think kissing Gale was completey wrong. She can’t just try to hide from the real problem at stake by kissing him, the problem of Peeta’s torturing.
Katniss was very insensitive though, for example, when she first visited Peeta in the hospital, after he was hijacked, and he was asking about what there relationship had been like; he comented that he had also seen her kiss Gale and Katniss responded “He’s not a bad kisser either.” I think that was cold and one of her most insensitive moments in the whole series. If it had been the other way around, I honestly believe Peeta would be much more understanding and gentle.
However, Katniss didn’t seem too insensitive in the first book and even part of the second, is it possible that losing so many loved ones and participating in the Hunger Games did that to her? Your thoughts?
Katniss loves them both and she can’t choose between them because she doesn’t want to hurt their feeling. In MJ when she heard the conversation about her by Peeta and Gale, she told herself that she can survive without either of them.
I believe she can live and survive without them both but in what condition, that’s another story.
At the end of CF Katniss said it herself that Gale is the only one who knows how she operated. I’m certain that Gale realized that Katniss loved both of them and I think he even knew that she’d rather be alone than have to choose one.
I’m Team Peeta but I have to respect Gale’s option to step away. Yes, i believe he intended to leave it to Peeta and Katniss. Gale is capable of starting his new life without her (though of course she’ll always in his mind) but Peeta can’t because she’s his world and so does Katmiss, Peeta is her dandelion…..a source of hope and survival. For what they have been through together in the arena Peeta is the one that can understand her insanity and capable of warding off those nightmares away. Yes, Only Peeta can give her that.
I can imagine Katniss end up with Gale. They will be partner…love each other but not in love or such relationship and i don’t think they will have children nor Katniss will forget Peeta.
Katniss together with Peeta, as Collins end the story is great. They bond together with love (i don’t say what kind) and it becomes a symbiotic relationships where they both need each other to survive. Oh yes, She needs his dandelion and He needs her … as his world.
“If I win and you die, I don’t have a home to go back to. You are my life”
Peeta Mellark, Catching Fire
“What I need [to survive] is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that”
Katniss Everdeen, MockingJay
I defiantly agree with you. I am a true Team Peeta fan and believe she wouldn’t have been able to feel the connection with Gale that she felt with Peeta. For the team Gale fans out there……..I just want to ask you a question…… I know that Katniss loved Gale, but do you really think she was wrong to go with Peeta? or are you just in love with his character…not the couple?
Great point.
Gale couldn’t even face herafter Prim died, he fled to District 2. no explaination. How could katniss find love with that? Peeta, tortured, hurt, abused, everything and manages to find his way back into her heart. That’s true love for her. A different kind of love that she may have once or still shares with Gale. Katniss and peeta have true love. She was 100% right to go with peeta.
I’m not sure about if Peeta is some kind of Christ figure but I think it is part of how life experiences change people and others around them. Just like Harry Katniss needsa wake up call and I think Prim’s death is pretty like Serius’s death to Harry. For Peeta’s part…he has been tortured, abused and all to show that at the end he still come back to be himself. He is the one who stay true to his believe and live with it.
Peeta is trying and willing to cure his condition and get back to his old self though of course it is not 100% Peeta used to be but at least he is possitive and he share that to Katniss. He can be a model to Katniss that we all have power within ourself to be ourself even it’s hard but it is worth trying.
What I feel weird is that Katniss gives up on Peeta so fast. But again that might be the point to signify their diffrences on how they react like when Heymitch asks Katniss to think the other way round. If it were her that have been Hi-jacked wouldwhat would Peeta do?
I think Collins wants to show Peeta as an example of someone who accept life and ready to go on and willing to make the best out of whatever is left. He is what we need in this world….love, peace and forgiving and yes, to have courage and strength doesn’t mean you have to go to war or fight to death. A lot of Peeta will make this world a better place.
I really hated the way Katniss gave up on Peeta so easily.
After months of severe torture, having his friends and family killed. Peeta was at his lowest point. Katniss should have reached out to him, not turn her back instead.
Seriously speaking, i lost a lot of respect for her in that scene.
In the world that Katniss lives (plus her survivor character) killing is consider the best way out if Peeta/Gale or even herself have to deal with something real bad by the Capitol. She will kill Gale if he is captured. She thinks killing Peeta might even be better because Peeta is not himself and that’s , for her, something she’d rather die than suffer. She is really care about Peeta, she is broken when he can’t remember even he love or not…”No one can make Peeta forget that he loves me”…she is crashed and only way out for her is he should be dead instead of living as something he’s not.
But I also think this is a test. Peeta does get better and even willing to be cure. He portray Hope, Optimistic and Courage.
He is the light at the end of the tunnel for every sufferef soul.
I agree… If it had been the other way around Peeta would have been so much more understanding. Katniss lost hope so quickly and couldn’t pull through and be there for himm when he needed it the most. I think I lost alot of respect for her throughout that whole book, although in the end she managed to get some back.
I’m glad they ended up together. Lucky girl 🙂
Peeta also, as we have contended here, embodies a variety of Christ-like characteristics. Katniss’ difficulty in accepting him in a tainted form; her efforts to pull him back to her in the Capitol; and her eventual realization of her love for him (and his for her) reflect her journey as seeker as much as her role as troubled and emotionally damaged young woman trying to hang onto what is “real.”
I agree with Elizabeth on Katniss’s journey and struggling and hanging on wha’s real but not so sure about the Christ figure that seems too deep for Collins but anyway it is very true that this is a story of a young trouble girl, confused and wounded by her life jouney at war. She learns a lot and finally accept it and carry on.
You guys didnt read the book carefully enough. Katniss didn’t just gave up on Peeta she gave up on herself. He plan was not to forget Peeta and live happily ever after. As soon as she thought Peeta was gone from her. Her goals change from just killing snow, to killing snow and dying herself. She didnt want to live life without Peeta. The whole point of Peeta and Katniss relationship in Mockingjay is that she hates life without him.
Didn’t realise that. How do you come to that conclusion? Because Katniss seems pretty cold in her internal monologue.
Well, yeah she gave up on herself but I don’t think she is thinking about anything like living with or without peeta. Yes, she shifts her goal into killing Snow Kill Snow Kill Snow…like she is in trance. She surely hurt by evil Peeta mutt but I also believe she’s already give up on him at first encounter. She portray hope for other but she, herself doesn’t seem to believe in hope or having one herself. From her background I think she’ naturally insensitive and cold due to her survival instinct and hard experiences. I want to agree that she wouldn’t want to live without Peeta but Katniss as Katniss, a survivor, she sure does can live without anyone. The only thing that keep her thinking about death is because she think killing Snow will solve all the problems Prim will be save, things will be good and no need for her to suffer from nightmare and horrible trauma.
I feel like the whole ending was rushed. Collins spends so much time on other topics describing things in detail, and the end of MJ happens in about 5 pages. What happens to Gale, Haymitch? I could have sworn Boggs last words were a foreshadow of what was to come, but nothing was ever again mentioned about it. She never really describes finnick or prims death, or how it’s affected Katniss. Even at the end when katniss is sitting in her old house by the fire, alone..she never thinks about prim?? isnt prim the whole reason for the books??
Gale and Katniss never talk again? Yea maybe she “loves” peeta but again, i think it’s a selfish love. She loves him because he’s there, gales not, and because peeta has a positive outlook on things…he’s the dandelion, but does she actually love him? epiloge fast forwards to 20 years later yet theres no hint of what became of district 12, or panem or anything else. Katniss and Peta were HUGE players in this rebellion/ uprising. All of Panem knew their faces and loved them. Now they’re just some simpletons? Did everyone forget about the mockingjay? are things “better” now after the revolution?
Also it’s no surprise the books ends so quickly. I don’t think it’s just coincidence all the books are 390 pages give or take a few..
I agree.
It’s never really explained. Is Katniss angry with Gale?
The trilogy was absolutley amazing, just some things needs to be further explained. I think if she has switched character’s viewpoints throughout the book’s chapters it would have also helped. Then we would have known what exactly had happened to Peeta in the Capitol and Gale in District Two.
I also feel like the epilogue flashed foward too much, readers still picture Peeta and Katniss as just “kids” and now they’re 30 years old with children of their own?
Like I said, the books were all amazing. But some questions were left un-answered. But maybe it just makes for an even better book, it gives readers the oppertunity to keep guessing and make their own ending. Or who knows, maybe Collins has another book in mind! 😀
I totally think that SC wants to leave it there. Well,life goes on no matter what.
I’m pretty positive that Katniss ia actually love Peeta as himself…the boy with bread, who cares and gentle and kind to every one. I don’t think Katniss is angry with Gale … It’s too silly to blame him on Prim’s death. She just need some distance to figure it out and Gale knows her too well to realized that she’ll never choose either of them. Katniss is like her mom the way she deal with depression she will just turn her system off, yeah she didn’t mention Prim but I think it’s because she’s shock and start to withdraw until she meet with Buttercup who reminds her of Prim and it is actually the first time that Katniss really does cry out loud and full of emotion… For me that’s a way to let out your sorrow and depression. I agree that MJ is kinda short in explaining but well… I guess Collins wants to tell us that life goes on and those characters she left behind will find their own way to cope or survive no matter what.
I was sad and disappointed and frustrated when Peeta came back to Katniss, hijacked and brainwashed by stupid Snow! I don’t really understand the reason for Collins for doing this, I mean, is she trying to show us that Katniss will realize that she cannot leave Peeta? Or is something else? I find it very disturbing at the thought of Peeta forgetting his true love, Katniss and accused her of the death of his friends and family. Maybe I am just a being fussy, trying to really grasp the meaning of the author’s message about Katniss and Peeta’s relationship. I love the couple, but in MJ, I feel like the love that Peeta had for Katniss was not as strong or obvious as before, even after Peeta’s recovery….
Kylie, the message Collins wants to tell is that no one escape from war unscratched.
Peeta is always the good heart and slicker one who can manage to slip through situation with his words. But he finally ends up as scarred as Katniss. He needs to be as damaged as others; finnick, Johana etc… He need to be destroy to grow back again. This will prove his nature and instinct to survive in his way…acceptant, let go and keep being optimistic. This also show his courage and strenght @ heart to keep fighting not only with enemies but himself. There’s no greatest win than winning with yourself.
He represents “life goes on”. I think if he hadn’t been hijacked Katniss would never ever really realize her feeling and they wouldn’t have such a strong bond. It’s like 2 vet from war zone…they share painful memories and experiences together so they know each others suffering deeply than other can imagine. Plus it shows how Peeta take his awful experiences…he manage to live with it, try his best to still be himself likehe has saying since HG, to be himself rather than just a pawn. This is what help Katniss…to grow and learn to cope.
Yes Katniss gave up too easily but you have to understand why. Katniss mind was made up about Peeta in “Catching Fire”.
The whole first book, Katniss’s life ever since her fathers death was about protecting Prim. Katniss’s decision to die to protect Peeta knowing full well she would not be there for Prim, sealed the deal that she loved Peeta, it was a loved that equaled the love she had for Prim.
Katniss loves Prim more than anything in the world.
Katniss decides to die to protect Peeta knowing full well she would leave Prime behind (This was a desicion she made, not a quick judgment like the berries)
At the end of “Catching Fire” Katniss’s has made a decision she never thought she could be possible of, she loved Peeta as much as much as she loved anything in the world. And for Katniss loving something means protecting that person with your life.
Enter Mockingjay, Katniss loves Peeta but the fact that she can’t protect him is driving her insane. One of the few ways she can can show Peeta she loves him she can’t accomplish because he is being held by the capitol. It get to the point where she can’t function.
Now Peeta comes back, but its not the Peeta she loves. Katniss’s frame of mind is dominated by two thoughts.
1. I will Never get my Peeta back and its my fault, I didnt protect him.
2. More importantly why does it matter if I do get him back. The two people I love the most (Peeta and Prim) are still in danger if I don’t destroy the capitol.
What im trying to say in Katniss’s mind frame, helping and protecting Peeta who she loves, does not mean helping him get back to his old self (she thinks its her fault and she is “not a healer” she can’t do anything about it), her way of showing Peeta she loves him is once again dying for him, by protecting him from the capitol..
The love Katniss had for Peeta between “Catching fire” and “Mocking Jay” was immense and unyielding. But Katniss loves different due to her past and current circumstances.
I don’t think she made the decision to save Peeta because she loved him, but because she owed him her life, because they made the opposite decision in the previous game.
Yes, I believe that Petta represents a Christ figure despite his varied and dramatic changes of character in the last book. In the end, Petta faces his own Garden of Gethsemene He is tortured and broken in the Capital, confronting horrors with no one to witness his despair but his fellow captives. Eventually he is reborn (overcoming both mental anguish – i.e. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, as well as physical wounds/burns – i.e. nailed to a cross) only to rise again. He accomplishes this by facing the demons that have all but destroyed him, finding good where he can, creating purpose in his life and moving forward. When he and Katniss marry and have children, out of the ashes of District 12, they help create a future race that by their teachings and retelling of their history, may help future generations have a greater love and compassion for others.
I have thought much about the “Peeta as Christ” aspects of this series. I looked up dandelion and found that it means “teeth of the lion”. Teeth, as in eating, as in hunger and lion as in “Lion of Judah” or “Aslan is not a tame Lion”. Yet another example of how carefully Collins picked the plants/animals/places/names that are important.
Katniss is a great heroine. As she says herself: “I don’t need Gale’s hatred and fury. What I needed was the yellow dandelion in the spring. The dandelion that gave me hope. And only Peeta can give me that.” I agree wholeheartedly. Also, she reminds herself; Gale is probably kissing another pair of lips in District two. Plus: They are too much alike.
“And only Peeta can give me that.” Ms. Collins might as well have just quoted Scripture, “To whom else shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” as the disciples tell Jesus in the gospels. Beautiful stuff.
I just finished Mockingjay. Jennifer is on it. Peeta is Katniss’s hero. From the begining, the greatest threat was not death but a comprimise of rightousness and compassion. Peeta says in the first book “I just don’t want them to change me.” Katniss admits she wasn’t even thinking about that. Here is the central element of Peeta’s role as Christ figure: Katniss and everyone around her play by the same rules. Death, revenge, hatred, survival, conquer at all cost…..
In the arena that is the world of Katniss Everdeen everyone plays by these Darwinistic rules, Nietzsche’s rules. But, as a bright light sprining into a dark casm, Peeta walks into the games (that is, the entire world of the Hungar Games books) untainted by Darwin. Peeta is wholly ohter than the world he lives in. His message: ‘Don’t give in, Don’t let the poison of this world infect your heart, make you like them. We only loose if we surrender what is precious: compassion, love, and decencey; those things we would like to think are definitive of humanity.’ You see, Katniss didn’t need rescueing from bombs and guns or muttant woves. Katniss needed to be rescued from an inward corruption, the dark hand of the HG world threatend to overtake her heart from the begining, make her an unrecognizable monster, and she was helpless to defend herself. Peeta, as Christ (who alone is wholly other than this world of malice) calls to her, embraces her with the gosple (as the Apostle Paul says) “Be not conformed unto this world!” With Peeta asbent Katniss sinks into the abyss…weak and frail. Peeta is Katniss’s only hope. All along, it’s really brother Mallerk that’s on a rescue mission. Does he succeed? Honestly, I can’t tell.
Love your comments, Matt. Yes, I think Peeta succeeded. That’s the whole point of the final beautiful statement when he asks if she loves him. “I tell him, “Real.” In other words, she finally accepts the meaning of the bread and the pearl…the hope and life and the kingdom of God that only Peeta-Christ is capable of offering. She is finally willing to accept and act upon the fact that she is hopeless without him. “ONLY Peeta can give me that.” This is also reiterated by the fact that she does agree to have children with him in the epilogue, she is willing to step out on that faith, because “Peeta says it will be OK” i.e. “In this world you will have trouble, but fear not, for I have overcome the world.” As christians we believe this, but that doesn’t mean we don’t experience fear. It is a constant battle, a choice, not a magic, instant cure. Same with Katniss. She believes and trusts Peeta, but that doesn’t mean she never has trouble or fear again. She must continually choose to believe, “It’s like a game. Repetitive. Even a little tedious….”
From the first book,I already predicted Katniss and Peeta will end up together. That “sensation” that Katniss felt for Peeta during their stay in the cave during HG is enough indicator that in the end,she will choose Peeta.This is further heightened in Catching Fire (my personal favorite in the series), during their stay in the beach. Yes,she and Gale may have spent years together hunting and Gale has strong feelings for her, but in the end,Katniss loves Gale more as a friend and hunting partner,and it will never go beyond that. In fact, IMHO I think if they end up together, their relationship will fizzle immediately.
Part of Katniss’s ultimate choice of Peeta is intimated in her lovers’ names. Gale and Mellark, if viewed through a Romeo and Juliet prism. Romeo must leave Juliet’s bed when, despite her protests that it is the Nightingale, he knows the song of the bird of morning singing is in fact the lark. To flesh out the concept, there’s no room for your typical Romeo, the dark, Byronic Gale in a new age of of independent Juliet who has no need to rebel against over-controling parents; Katniss’s mother even mentions in that her daughter doesn’t need to ask permission in her comings and goings. Thus, the new Juliet is free to explore the viney woods of her heart to find the food of sustenance. Also, I am grappling with another Shakespeare connection: Katniss, with her constant internal conflicts over her moves and motives coupled with her petulant personality, reminds me of an amalgam of Cassius and Brutus, Caesars’ two murderous traitors who in Dante’s Inferno are eternally being devoured by Satan. If that seems like a stretch, consider this: Brutus’ wife is Portia, who gives herself a “voluntary wound” in the thigh to prove her loyalty and self-worth to her husband. Further, Portia comes from the Latin word for Pig. Is not Peeta not only associated with pigs but in fact Katniss explains that though she though merchants ate well, Peseta and his family only eat what is stale and on the verge of spoil, esencially slop? One last support of my theory of the JC connection, Peeta’s stylist’s named Portia.
Oh, I forgot to add on last Julius Caesar connection. Portia ends her life when she goes insane, Shakespeare’s terminolohy is something like falls distracted,by swallowing hot coals. When Katniss refers to Finnicks’ mental melt down she often says of him that he unable to focus / concentrate, in other words he’s distracted. Also, Peeta does go insane in a way, and though he doesn’t swallow fire as does Portia the fire/coal connection remains.
Peeta isn’t without fault. He has an explosive temper which sometimes ends with damaged property. He has a massive sulk and barely speaks to Katniss for months after she admits that what they had together in the arena was somewhat faked. Very unfair considering it was a scenario that he invented, that she thought was a ‘bluff’ (his word) on his part too, and saved his life. He joins in the laughter with the other victors about Katniss’s ‘purity’.
Yes, he does put his life on the line to save Katniss’s but it’s not without self-interest. The first time it also serves to show the gamemakers that they don’t own him by protecting rather than turning on a fellow contestant. Peeta expects to die anyway. The second time may even serve to present himself as noble and self-sacrificing despite Katniss’s lack of commitment to him and suspected interest in Gale to make her feel guilty. And it does! Sacrifice isn’t something that’s unique to Peeta either. Katniss sacrifices to save Prim, then Peeta, to kill Snow, and then to kill Coin.
He’s manipulative and a good liar (evidenced by his manipulation of the TV audience) and knows when to give physical affection and when to withdraw it to keep Katniss in a state of uncertain expectation. He must know how much Katniss likes it – she doesn’t refuse it and often initiates it even when the cameras aren’t there. She doesn’t tell him to get out of her bed, for example.
Mutt Peeta is the dark side of Peeta that’s usually hidden. The murderous rage, the resentment, the unfair evaluation of Katniss’s relationship with Gale. Of course, Katniss doesn’t respond in a helpful way but he does try to kill her (almost succeeds), she’s seventeen years old and doesn’t seem to have been given any advice on how to react to him. Not even a warning to expect hostility. No wonder it goes wrong. It sets up a situation where Katniss is constantly on the defensive. It takes a wake-up call from Haymitch to get Katniss to change direction.
So Peeta is no saint. He’s like everyone – he has his virtues and his faults. He even has Gale’s anger but it’s either sublimated (revealed in the mutt version of himself) or the energy channeled in another direction ie. his art.
I liked that Mutt Peeta made an appearance in MJ. Mutt Peeta stripped away any illusions one may have had about the other and ultimately made their relationship more authentic and honest. Katniss had taken it for granted that Peeta thought her wonderful and that his love for her was ‘undying’. Peeta’s love was based on a fantasy that began when he was five years old. He continued fantasizing in the arena in the first HG and readily believed in Katniss’s part in the scenario that he had set up. And these were the fantasies that Snow used to instill in Peeta a sense of distrust and hatred towards Katniss. Katniss also saw how her uncertainty about Gale and Peeta could look to others. What she saw as trying to be fair and considerate to both while still being true to herself and what she wanted in life, could be interpreted as ego-stroking and playing one off against the other by someone else.
So I think both sets of eyes were opened at the end of MJ but they still wanted each other which is far more romantic than what they had in HG and CF. And I also thought it was a very romantic ending. In the vote to have another HG, Peeta learns that Katniss had once again saved his life by the terms in which she agreed to become the MJ. And then he saves hers by not letting her take the nightlock pill.
As soon as he can, he follows Katniss to District 12 to share her exile. He goes into the woods (a place he doesn’t like) to dig up primroses ‘for her’, but really for Katniss. He’s the catalyst for Katniss’s recovery – she finally showers etc. destroys the rose that Snow left, and begins her mourning for District 12 and Prim. And who gets her into her bed that night but Peeta? Certainly not an old woman like Greasy Sae although she undoubtedly tells him about the effect he’s had. The boy with the bread returns the next morning with an offering of bread. A symbol of succor and hope? It was for the first time Peeta gave her bread and marked the beginning of Katniss and Peeta’s relationship for Katniss. And I think it also symbolizes the beginning of the next stage of their relationship.
And then they grow together. Organically, not forced because of a Games or to placate the Capitol or as PR for the rebellion. And Katniss has children, something she always swore she wouldn’t do out of both love for Peeta and confidence in the future.
I think when people have the opinion that Katniss gave up on Peeta too quickly they are forgetting that Peeta is her symbol of hope. She has loved Peeta, probably longer than he loved her, though she wouldn’t admit it or couldn’t recognize it. She had gone through several traumatic experiences that had left her with PTSD, including the loss of her father (and mother) at a young age. Peeta hurt her and she lashed out. She’s 17, practicly still a child, and her reaction was pretty on par with her personality.
Now Peeta’s hijacking and recovery, in my opinion, is another metaphoric representation of the crucifixion and resurrection. He is tortured for “sins” that were not his own, and then came back to his true self. Interesting that Frodo went through the same type of transformation in the Return of the King, as did Ron (from wearing the pendant) in The Deathly Hallows, (though Harry had a clearer “death” where he visited with Dumbledore at Kings Cross or “purgatory “).