I'm re-reading the Hunger Games in preparation for the new movie coming out soon. My boyfriend and I decided that we've been very caught up in running from place to place and people to people and we need to start taking some time to just hang together. Like together without the dog too. We love Yadi, but homeboy thinks his nose should be between our noses at all times. 

        We decided that each of us would create a date once a month. John knew just the perfect date to win me over by suggesting we read a similar book this month. Katniss for life. 

        Getting into the novel from the beginning again is so amazing. I've only been reading when on workout equipment, otherwise I'd have read the book in one sitting. I. Love. This. Book. Holy cow. 

        I'm not an expert on teen fantasy/distopian novels by any means, but I'm familiar with a few series. When I finished reading Harry Potter, which was heartbreaking, all the rage was over Twilight. I try to always, always be honest. Twilight is one of the worst things to happen to teenagers. Period. Actually, I think I've blogged about this before so I won't even go there. Then came the The Hunger Games. Hallelujah. A real girl heroine (I'd also argue that Hermoine is a rock solid role model). But then we get someone like Tris from Divergent. Another blah blah boy obsessed ninny. 

        Back to Katniss. The Girl on Fire. Back to something I love. Katniss is a girl I want to be like. Katniss is a girl who takes action and charge and stands for something even if she's scared. Katniss is the girl I hope all girls look up to. One could argue that Katniss is not a true heroine. That she does not set out looking to change her world but is rather thrown into being the leader of a revolution. It is true that she is unsure she even wants to lead this revolution. However, she rises to the occasion. She doesn't let herself become a victim (ahem, Bella). She put her family and her own survival first when she hunted to keep her family alive, when she volunteered for Prim.

        When I look at the women who parade in front of us as celebrities, I yearn for a Katniss. Instead we have Kim Kardashian posing naked, or Miley Cyrus doing drugs, or even Taylor Swift singing about adding to her list of boyfriends. Don't get me wrong, I love T Swift. And I admire her ability to not yet have any major discrepancies to her image, however, she's 25 years old. Isn't it time to, like, take some action and be somebody rather than an image?

        Katniss is moody and confused and scared and falls in love. She's also brave and smart. She's resourceful and can handle herself on her own, but she admits that she can't do it alone. Human beings need each other and one of the hardest things in the world can be to accept that. 

        And Katniss chooses Peeta. The boy with the bread. The nice boy. We never see that, do we? In all the silly rom coms we see girls fall again and again for the bad boy. Taylor Swift might not have anything more to sing about if she actually went for a guy who's not a player, but maybe true love isn't her goal in life. 

        Peeta isn't a weenie or a loser even if he is the nice guy. He's strong. He's smart--he's the one who could execute the game far better than Katniss who's hot headedness would've blown their strategy. 

       When the second movie came out, my mom, aunt and two cousins and I went to the movie. We got into a debate on who wanted Gayle and Katniss and who wanted Peeta and Katniss. Both my cousins Sydney and Darby and I were all about Peeta. My mom and aunt were appalled. 

       I wonder what this says about us. Loving Peeta. Maybe being younger and freshly dating, we are over the image of the hot bad boy and just want someone to tell the world he loves he loved us from the first time he saw us. The boy with the bread who just wants to maintain his humanity and protect the girl he loves rather than running off into the woods and pretending he can turn his back on the hardship at home. Gayle's a good guy too. I see this. He becomes a huge player in the revolution. I get it. But Peeta is a rock. He's dependable and there and funny and sweet. He sees in Katniss what the reader sees but she doesn't. He sees her as strong and independent but he compliments it by being funny and personable when she is not. He eases her tension. He completes her just by being who he is rather than being the same as her, like Gayle, or trying to conform to who she is (like Bella to Edward, Tobias and Tris). 

        Peeta also, in my opinion, has the best lines in the first book. He tells Katniss:

         “I don’t know how to say it exactly. Only…I want to die as myself. Does that make any sense?” he asks. I shake my head. How could he die as anyone but himself? “I don’t want them to change me in there. Turn me into some kind of monster that I’m not.”

I bite my lip, feeling inferior. While I’ve been ruminating on the availability of trees, Peeta has been struggling with how to maintain his identity. His purity of self. “Do you mean you won’t kill anyone?” I ask.

        “No, when the time comes, I’m sure I’ll kill just like everybody else. I can’t go down without a fight. Only I keep wishing I could think of a way to…to show the Capitol they don’t own me. That I’m more than just a piece in their Games,” says Peeta. (p 141)

        And he is. All the way through. And Katniss is herself too. They both put on an act to stay alive, but protecting their families and each other is essentially at the heart of all of their actions. Katniss doesn't change for Peeta or Gayle or anyone (ahem, Bella and Tris). She succeeds because of who she is and who she grows to be. She stands for something. In later books the rebels try to make her a rallying image for their cause but she only goes so far to be who they want her to be before speaking up and creating an image of her own. The image that she was all along. The Girl on Fire. Do you. Always be you. The good, the bad, and the ugly. But do it with fire.