i feel like i keep seeing people talk about how peeta failed to not become "some kind of monster that [he's] not" (thg, 141-142) when the capitol hijacked him and transformed him into mutt peeta. and then they conclude that this means that he failed in his one goal to remain himself.
i get where people are coming from. peeta himself thinks he failed as he begs for death because he is "the monster… the one snow has turned into a weapon" (mj, 247). tears stain his face as he comes to this realization. he is devastated. so, it makes sense that people would come to this same conclusion as well.
i just don't agree with it at all.
the whole point of mockingjay is that he didn't fail. peeta ultimately did not fail in his resolve to preserve his humanity in the face of both the hunger games and the war. despite everything, he was still peeta.
and there are hints throughout all of mockingjay that point to this. when katniss offers to turn herself in to lure snow out of his mansion, peeta immediately refuses. for peeta, this plan has too many alternatives that result in katniss's death and/or torture (mj, 278). gale, aligning with his role in the narrative, weighs the benefits with the risks and concludes that it is too risky at the moment while not ruling the plan out if "all else fails" (mj, 278). in this situation, peeta firmly positions himself in a stance where he doesn't want to takes risks with someone's life, even if it might lead to a desired outcome. very much like pre-hijacked peeta.
and, while i don't think that suzanne was thinking about a young coryo killing bobbin in the arena when she wrote about peeta killing mitchell, i think that there are parallels that point to how people react to killing unintentionally. for while snow worked quickly to justify killing bobbin in self-defense, peeta could not be convinced of his innocence. for peeta, he had killed someone, and just because he wasn't in control did not justify his actions. because, regardless, mitchell was dead. and nothing would change that.
for peeta, mitchell's death, just like brutus's death, "costs everything you are" (mj, 23). and although peeta feels the furthest from his pre-hijacked self at this point, his humanity is still intact. because he still understands the value of human life. and he is unwilling to absolve himself from mitchell's death.
and, whereas gale responded to prim's death in an awkward, callous manner (mj, 312), peeta responded with grief and sympathy. just like catching fire peeta, mockingjay peeta refuses to let the death of a child deemed disposable by the war go unnoticed (mj, 325).
and, when presented with the plan for a hunger games with the capitol's children, peeta firmly opposed. because no amount of vengeance would ever be enough justification to condone the murder of innocent children, even the enemy. and in this way, suzanne again points to peeta maintaining his humanity.
because this is the same boy who gave up the arrow in his tourniquet to end the suffering of cato, his enemy and the one whose blade almost killed him. this is the same boy who didn't want to forget his trauma and instead memorialized discarded children. this is the boy who emerged from the war. and while he was not able to go through the games without spilling blood and temporarily losing his sense of self, peeta never did lose his humanity.
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