Katniss absolutely wanted kids....just not at the moment considering what she was going through. I think people tend to forget that she is a teenager when having these thoughts, and she’s going through ultimate trauma and horrible things so...like people’s minds can change?
The only qualm I have with SC’s writing of that change is the “but Peeta wanted them so badly” which even with the background of the story does and can at first glance read “Peeta pestered her into having children”. I think a cleaner line might have been something like her affirming her constant love and trust in Peeta and his thoughts, especially with something so intense. I mean we’ve gotten it throughout the series I don’t think one more time would have hurt anyone
Oh, for sure. And I think it shows how deeply she loves her not-yet children, because she won’t subject them to the horrors of the world that is already so awful to her, a child. She’s not remotely in the space for that, and good on her for being aware of it. But even she says if the fear and defenses weren’t there (and please don’t hear me say that her aversion was invalid: far from it), she could envision a future like that for herself.
I understand why the “Peeta wanted them” line sometimes rubs people the wrong way, because, I confess, on very first glance, it rubbed me the wrong way too.
I don’t know why, though. Genuinely, I’m curious. 🤔 I also don’t know why that read on Peeta is so prevalent, because the man hardly talks about children at all, much less indicates he’s desperate for a family (outside of Katniss). It’s Katniss who walks us through her thoughts on family and children, Katniss who says what a good father Peeta would be ... except for the baby bomb before the Quell, it’s all Katniss.
I get you, Nonny. I get why the line reads funny — but even I have a hard time figuring out why. I think on one hand it may have to do with this idea that Katniss can only fall into one concept of empowered womanhood (broadly speaking, it’s often some variation on the Strong Female Character™ trope) and when she doesn’t fall into cookie cutter place in the pursuit of what she wants, people assume there must have been some coercion involved. So maybe it really has to do more with expectations placed on the characters than it does with the actual actions of the characters. Katniss making the choices that she wants to make after all the manipulation she endures is really important to me, on an in-text and meta-textual level.
That said, it’s not my favorite line ever. Alas, but such is literature.
