Kill or Be Killed

The first person narrative is an extremely effective technique to use when positioning the reader. The first person perspective is so direct and informal in tone that the speaker’s thoughts and the reader’s thoughts are collapsed into one. It dissolves the wall that typically separates character and reader. The omission of this traditional distance is helpful when forcing the reader to take a side. Because the reader has access into Katniss’ innermost thoughts, the reader is naturally positioned to align with her. The changes in how the reader relates to Peeta in The Hunger Games is largely due to the use of first person narration since the reader’s view of Peeta changes as Katniss’ does.

Initially, Peeta is depicted as the kind, gentle, thoughtful boy who saved Katniss’ life by giving her bread. Because the reader has access into the most personal aspects of Katniss, the reader sees how during the darkest time in the heroine’s life, inches from complete detriment, Peeta pulled her up from the depression and gave her hope. Katniss reflects, “It didn’t occur to me until the next morning that the boy might have burned the bread on purpose. Might have dropped the loaves into the flames, knowing it meant being punished, and then delivered them to me.” At this point in the book, I felt a great deal of conflict. With Katniss narrating the story I, naturally, feel obligated to hope for her success. However, her success means death for the sweet, compassionate boy who helped her realize that her life as well as her family’s life is not over. I feared the upcoming chapters that would surely approach a heartbreaking ending. I could not bear to think of either character losing the games.

However, as I hesitantly continued reading, I became more comfortable with the idea of Katniss killing Peeta since it became clear that his mission was exactly the same and he had fully embraced it. Katniss realizes, “Which also means that kind Peeta Mellark, the boy who gave me the bread is fighting hard to kill me.” Here it is believed that Peeta is putting on an act—a way to lure Katniss into her own death. Jean-Jacques Rousseau states, “It now became the interest of men to appear what they really were not. To be and to seem became two totally different things; and from this distinction sprang insolent pomp and cheating trickery.” This epitomizes how the reader now views Peeta through Katniss’ thoughts. At this moment I immediately labeled Peeta as Katniss’ biggest adversary. He knows her abilities and he may be able to hinder her. As I read this and Katniss’ realization became internalized in me, my body filled with animosity toward Peeta as he became the enemy. This rage intensified later in the game when it becomes clear that Peeta has aligned himself with the Careers.

Overhearing the careers strategizing, Katniss realizes, “The voice belongs to Peeta.” Since he knows Katniss’ strengths, I became livid as I assumed he must have exploited Katniss in order to save himself. Somehow I felt he betrayed Katniss. This assumption I had about Peeta is very Hobbesean. I assumed, without considering other possibilities, that Peeta had exploited Katniss’ strengths—the only things keeping her alive in the game. In this way, I assumed that Peeta’s human nature is evil. I began hoping that Katniss would seize any opportunity she encountered to kill Peeta. To me, he was no longer the sweet, kind, bakery boy who helped the heroine of the story. Like Rousseau says, he was just pretending. To me, he was just another obstacle in Katniss’ way back home to Prim.

My loathing for Peeta was immediately halted, however, when he saved Katniss from Cato, risking his own life. Katniss thinks, “Sick and disoriented, I am able to form only one thought: Peeta Mellark just saved my life.” It is at this moment that I realize Peeta was just pretending, but it was not his kindness and friendship to Katniss that he was feigning; it was his alliance with the Careers. At this point I began to realize how Peeta never did betray Katniss and that when he had the chance to hill Katniss, he saved her instead. He was never her adversary. I immediately stopped hating him and my anger toward him subsided. When it’s announced that there could be two winners this year, Katniss seeks Peeta out and finds him camouflaged so well that, if he shits his eyes, she cannot even see him. Katniss notes, “His face and arms are so artfully disguised as to be invisible.” Though, in the beginning of the book, Peeta made it seems as though he had no useful skills and was essentially hopeless, the reader now sees that Peeta is not quite the invalid he was initially perceived to be. As Katniss continues talking to Peeta, she realizes that his family is not much wealthier than hers; they, too, struggle. She ponders, “Huh. I always assumed the shopkeepers live a soft life.” Here, Katniss recognizes how she bought into stereotypes, which is a topic that Stuart Hall discusses. Hall asserts that these stereotypes arise when classification comes together with power. Peeta’s family is classified as shopkeepers but with this term comes the association of greater wealth and power resulting in an easier life. Peeta just demonstrated that this stereotype is completely unfounded and shows how he and Katniss seem to have more in common regarding their lifestyles than was originally thought. Because the book is written in first person from Katniss’ point of view, the reader is meant to identify with her character. However, since Peeta seems to share similarities with Katniss, I started to identify with Peeta, too. By the end of the book, Katniss says, “The next thing I know we’ve landed back on the roof of the Training Center and they’re taking Peeta but leaving me behind the door. I start hurling myself against the glass, shrieking.” At his moment in the book I am on the edge of my seat, fearing that Peeta will not make it and scared that Katniss will never see him again. I’ve grown to love Peeta as Katniss does and I know I would not be able to bear it if Peeta died.

The first person narration works to closely align the feelings of the reader toward Peeta with those of Katniss. As Katniss distrusts Peeta, the reader, too, is forced to oppose Peeta. As Katniss realizes that he was never against her and that they both can understand each other’s struggles, the reader grows to love Peeta just as Katniss does. In this way, the way the reader is positioned to relate to Peeta is largely due to the first person narration.