Now That I Have Finished Tbosas, I Have Started To Reread The Trilogy With My Husband And I Came Across

now that i have finished tbosas, i have started to reread the trilogy with my husband and i came across an interesting structural parallel for katniss’s first interaction with peeta when she was eleven and her first interaction with peeta after he returns to district twelve in mockingjay.

when the reader is first introduced to peeta, we are immediately drawn into katniss’s flashback to the bread scene where peeta takes a beating from his mother in order to give katniss the bread. the part that i want to center on is how peeta specifically gives the bread to katniss as an offering.

katniss first hears feet slosh towards her and her immediate thoughts turn to peeta’s abusive mother, thinking that she is coming to attack katniss as well. Yet, when katniss looks up, expecting to see a threat, she is surprised that it is peeta instead, bearing two loaves of bread that he intended to give to her. these loaves act as a sort of selfless offering that peeta is giving to katniss, allowing her the substance she needs to continue to the next day, giving her life and a means to hope for the future.

fast forward to mockingjay, after prim has died and katniss has returned to district twelve, depressed and hopeless. when katniss first reunites with peeta, similar to just how katniss’s thoughts immediately thought that a threat was coming to harm her, she mistakes the scraping of Peeta’s shovel for that of the people in her nightmare using shovels to bury her alive. (although she is in no threat of physically dying, her grief is threatening to bury her alive). however, when she runs at the sound of the scraping, convinced that it is the same one from her dream, she is surprised that the sound actually comes from peeta’s shovel as he plants primrose. just as eleven-year-old peeta gave katniss the bread as an offering of life and hope, peeta gives katniss the primrose as an offering of condolences and remembrance. in many ways, peeta’s offering of the primrose gives katniss an avenue to keep living, finding a way to remember the dead and memorialize them, giving their deaths meaning. in this simple act, peeta was able to help remind katniss that there is a path forward.

the parallels between the two experiences demonstrate to the reader what katniss soon realizes later in the chapter: that peeta, the boy with the bread, is a gifter of a hope that life can go on and can give her the strength she needs to continue. she truly needs him. and just as katniss was never able to “shake the connection” between peeta and dandelions and hope, she couldn’t let go of peeta throughout all of mockingjay, even when he was made to be a threat to her. because to let go of peeta would mean to let go of her hope for a better tomorrow and if katniss doesn’t have that, what does the entire revolution even mean to her? for there would never be a girl on fire to flame the rebellion, a mockingjay to take flight against the capital if there was not a small boy with bread promising a better future through his courageous selflessness and goodness.