The Loss

          Mockingjay, the third book in Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games series, has many different plots and ideas.  But there is one very important one that really stands out to me when I think about this book.  It is about Peeta, Katniss' "star-crossed lover".

         When the book starts, Peeta has been captured by the capital.  From the TV episodes that Katniss watches, you can tell that Peeta is being abused and harmed intensely by the capital, but when District 13 captures Peeta and brings him back, you realize that it has been more than physical abuse inflicted upon Peeta.  All of his memories have been altered so he does not know what is real and what is not.  And in addition, the capital has made it so Peeta thinks that Katniss is a horrible "mutt" who demolished District 12 and his family.  When Peeta saw Katniss for the first time after coming from the Capitol, he tried to kill her.  

          This situation is terrible on Katniss.  Even though she knows Peeta has just been "hi-jacked" by the capitol, she still feels like Peeta is telling the truth.  Katniss feels like Peeta is just truly just saying how she is, and believes that he used to just not see the really her.  In addition, Katniss has lost Peeta.  Peeta was her on-again, off-again love, and more so one of her closest friends.  Peeta was the person she could relate to, and the person who cared about her more than anything else.  Peeta was the person who was willing to risk his life for her.  And now he is just some Capitol-altered, confused, hating person.  Katniss has lost him.  It is really hard for Katniss to deal with loss and grief.  She keeps re-convincing herself that she is over Peeta, only to be thinking about him and worrying about him the next day.  She doesn't know what to do.  While Peeta was in the Capitol, Katniss knew he was being harmed, but she at least knew he was alive, and she would be able to get him back.  And she still knew he cared about her.  But now she realizes he is lost forever.  Peeta is never coming back to her, or at least not the Peeta she used to know and love.  I think the hardest part is the fact that Peeta is somehow within reach, yet just too far away to grasp.