when katniss first gets to know peeta in the games, she is constantly surprised by him. by his gentleness (thg, 291). his kindness (thg, 49). and even his flirtiness (thg, 264).
and always in contrast to his mother. "the witch" (thg, 37; 264) who seemed, at least to katniss, to be nothing but cruel (thg, 37). throwing biting remarks toward anyone who could hear them (thg, 90). a woman who embodied a special kind of selfishness required in panem.
a woman who was nothing like katniss's boy with the bread. a boy with an innate goodness (cf, 96). a goodness that seemed a mystery. yet one so obvious that anyone could see (cf, 78).
yet, when hijacked peeta enters the picture, that boy is gone. and all that remains is the shadow of his mother.
a boy devoid of his previous warmth and steadiness (mj, 168). constantly throwing insults and cruel remarks. all directed toward katniss (mj, 199).
and as her angel of a boy falls down to earth, katniss is convinced that this cannot be her peeta (mj, 168). this boy who yells insults at her cannot be the same one who threw her the bread (mj, 165). surely this is not the same boy who loved her so much he would rather die than live in a world without her.
but he is. the peeta whose face resembles his mother's more and more with each passing minute is still the same one from before.
because despite the way that katniss frames it to try to make sense of it, snow did not change peeta into a completely new person. rather, he simply tried to turn him into a boy whom the cruelty of the world had tarnished. a boy who realized that kindness was merely a way for people to exploit him. a weakness.
he wanted to turn peeta into a boy like snow.
and so, in district two, when a distraught katniss fully appreciates what she considers the "real peeta," part of that is because of the softness, the warmth, the kindness that he brought to her.
but with that realization, she also recognizes that the goodness peeta carried with him was a choice. he was not made to be a god walking the earth. but instead he had it in him to be as cruel as his mother the entire time. but instead chose to be kind anyway.
and maybe that is kind of the whole point.
titsay
dailybridgerton
annaxmalina
yousharknotpass
izzy806
gummygunk
