Peeta Mellark and why love condemns a character
Before reading this review I just want to make three things clear:
1-It is not a hate post about Peeta Mellark. I love Peeta Mellark. It's the complete opposite of a hate post.
2-It is not a hate post towards Katniss either. She doesn't write herself.
3-Everything that has upset us about the dynamics of this couple is not the fault of either of these two. It's by Suzanne Collins.
When I was 15 years old I read the Hunger Games saga for the first time, I remember that the romance between the baker and the huntress did not leave me with a good feeling when I finished reading, part of it is that I completely disliked Katniss. She couldn't handle her violent, selfish, unfriendly attitude towards Peeta, while he stood there devoted and haggard for her.
But it's not that simple, Katniss isn't really to blame.
One of the truths that I couldn't accept at the time is that Peeta Mellark exists in the plot for and by Katniss, no matter how she chews him up and spits him out, Peeta is written to love, and not think about him or anyone else. His life doesn't really matter, he sacrifices himself locally for a girl he never interacts with. He creates a plan to put on a fake show and does whatever it takes to get the sympathy of the spectators, for Katniss not for him. Since he enters the train he only wants to save her and uses himself, and forces his mentor to abandon him and only think about Katniss. Peeta is the unrequited dreamy lover, but despite that: His eyes are only on Katniss, no one sends him anything in the games. No one really thanks him for what he did and like that show he started helping change everything. Not even Katniss herself.
Peeta loses a leg, his family is murdered, he is mentally damaged for life. And no one really cares about her safety more than Katniss and only because she feels guilt because the author creates this environment where Peeta sacrifices himself and Katniss suffocates. Not even his only friend Delly is on his side. The boy was alone and mentally ruined. He has no self-respect, nor does his family care, he has no real friends because no one asks about him, he is completely alone. To tell the truth Katniss wasn't the only one who chews it and escapes in the book. Reading the book again, the entire structure of Peeta's character is even ridiculous, the writer isolates him, and his only happiness depends on another person who does not tolerate him either. It's a circle of felt pain that that boy lives without.
No one comes up to you and tells you that you are doing things wrong and you should think about your safety. That's the structure of Peeta Mellark's character.
Peeta has those memories when he was a baby of 6 or 11 years old and he clings to her in a way that is too intense and unreal for his age and the situation. We can all say, well, he's with his girlfriend and they're about to die and he wants to give everything for her. And it's still ridiculous.
There was a moment of reflection where I thought Peeta would say that he was crazy about Katniss because he didn't want to end up like her father, and that's why he put up with everything related to Gale. But beyond that, ironically he ended up just like his father. And his behavior is not an excuse either, in fact nothing excuses how he is sacrificing himself.
He is only 16 years old. It is said that he had friends, but it is all Katniss's speculation, we know that his family was not the most united, that his mother beat him, his father did not seem like a bad person and we know nothing about his brothers. Peeta's pain at losing his family is never told in the books or talked about, his life only seems to revolve around a girl he loves. When he comes to his senses in Mockingjay, he doesn't have good memories of his father, but he does remember Katniss' father, which is too surreal. Peeta Mellark has no self-esteem, no family, no friends, he lives off a girl's scraps and for years we pined for it. But this is depressing.
This is too much, he never cares about the repercussions that happen to his family or friends for the decisions they made in the games to save a stranger's neck. How the fuck is this romance?
That boy is not even twenty years old when the saga ends, I think he is barely eighteen, the situation is very trite, I know that the Hunger Games presents you with a society that hypersexualizes its adolescents, apart from killing them. But it's still too much, as he clings so much to a person who doesn't even know what he wants and who, to be honest, isn't the place for a love story either. And the truth is very degrading.
I recently read an article that said that Peeta Mellark was the representation of the sexism that female characters usually experience in youth romance books. I get the point, and they are right. We see characters like Nora Grey, Hermione Granger and many more, who seem to exist only to love someone else and care for them, that their desires and their own person or life do not matter. However, it's no excuse, and Suzanne Collins is still wrong, she wrote Peeta with the full intention of him being that depressing, and she gave Katniss that power to control her life.
And I don't tolerate it on either side. It is degrading to see Peeta lose humanity and become Katniss' shadow, like any female protagonist. That character archetype is horrible. I don't understand why the need to create this dynamic of "I adore you madly, but you just watch, I don't need anything in return" this is not healthy, and it is not love.
The gender roles and machismo that is presented in the reading when a heterosexual couple is shown is always there, as in real life. Apparently it is very difficult to write a female character who does not have aggressive behaviors, and the same as toxic male characters, when the protagonist is a woman.
Katniss could lead the war, and she doesn't need to have a shitty personality. Nor play with the hearts of two boys.
I think that characters like Peeta serve to fill the void that leaves you reading such imbecile male characters that are much more normal to see, but it is unfortunate that they only bring him in when they do it to show protagonists like Katniss who are rare to see, because they don't They can break that dynamic, one has to hit the other. It's unhealthy behavior in heterosexual youth romance that is too noticeable and I hope it dies soon. It's part of the toxic romance.
Peeta Mellark could have been developed for more, he could have been a Finnick but with such a dark background, he was charming, intelligent, and very attentive to his surroundings, he was also a great artist but he never changes and the writer does it with all her might. . the intention, it takes away humanity and is only a shadow for the protagonist. Katniss never matures or gives in, but it doesn't matter because Peeta is designed to endure and endure. And that's their dynamic. We see it a lot in romance stories but it is usually women who sacrifice and are like Peeta.
Romance should not be a sentence for anyone. And love is not worth it if you are going to live as badly as Peeta Mellark did. It's not healthy.
