He is portrayed by actor Josh Hutcherson in The Hunger Games film series.

Peeta is the male tribute representing District 12 in the 74th annual Hunger Games, alongside

female tribute Katniss Everdeen. Together, they defy the rule that the Games may only

have one victor, unintentionally inciting a rebellion against the authoritarian government

of Panem.

Appearances The Hunger Games

Peeta is first introduced at the reaping for the 74th Hunger Games, when he is selected

as the male tribute representing District 12 alongside female tribute Katniss Everdeen.

Prior to the reaping, Katniss and Peeta had only interacted once: at age eleven, when

Peeta deliberately burned two loaves of bread and took a beating to feed a starving Katniss.

Katniss had always felt indebted to him for this kindness, but never worked up the courage

to thank him. During an interview preceding the Games, Peeta

admits on national television to having a long-standing crush on Katniss. She assumes

this is merely part of his strategy to win favor from wealthy Capitol sponsors.

Once inside the arena, Peeta allies himself with the "Career" tributes and tricks them

into believing he will lead them to Katniss. However, after Katniss knocks down a hive

of Tracker Jackers on her pursuers, she herself is stung with the insects' venom, rendering

her disoriented and vulnerable. Peeta urges Katniss to run and stays to fight fellow tribute

Cato while she escapes. He survives the encounter with Cato, but suffers a stab wound in his

leg. He camouflages himself into the rocks and fauna alongside a riverbank, slowly dying

of blood poisoning until Katniss finds him days later.

Due to an announcement proclaiming that there can be two winners if both originate from

the same district, Katniss and Peeta now find themselves allies. Katniss realizes that if

they play up the love story, she may gain viewers' affections. Later on, a 'feast' is

announced, in which items that each tribute needs will be placed on a table for them to

take, organized by district. Peeta strongly suggests that Katniss does not go, as he knows

that she will be in danger. She agrees to stay with him, but receives a bottle of sleep

syrup from her mentor that allows her to put him into a drug induced sleep, which she uses

as an opportunity to sneak off to the "feast". The medicine gifted to them by the Capitol

is strong enough to heal both of their wounds by morning.

After killing the final tribute, a Career from District 2 named Cato, Katniss and Peeta

are the last three alive. Instead of being crowned joint victors, an announcement is

made revoking the previous revision and allowing for only one victor. Peeta suggests that Katniss

go on and kill him to allow herself to return home. Katniss then suggests they commit suicide

by consuming deadly berries known as "nightlock." Before the two are able to get the berries

into their mouths, a final announcement is made pleading for the two to stop, informing

them and the audience that Katniss and Peeta have been named the official winners of the

74th Hunger Games. Later, the two learn that President Snow found their actions as an act

of rebellion against the Capitol. After their last interview where the two continue on the

act of being madly in love, Peeta comes to the realization that Katniss had staged her

love for him. Catching Fire

Peeta and Katniss embark on the Victory Tour, an event strategically timed in-between each

Hunger Games, where the victors visit the other 11 districts as a reminder about the

Games and for the Capitol to reinforce its power over the Districts. Peeta and Katniss

have barely interacted since the Games; Peeta is disappointed with Katniss for faking affection

for him and Katniss is confused about her feelings and is uncomfortable to be with him

because of her close friendship with Gale Hawthorne, who also has strong feelings for

her. During the victory tour Peeta apologizes for his behavior and jokes that both would

be willing to die for each other, but don't know each other's favorite color. Before the

Victory Tour, President Snow visits Katniss and tells her he is aware that she was faking

the affection towards Peeta, and that her actions in the arena have sparked a rebellion

- one that can only be averted if she presents her and Peeta’s attempt at joined suicide

in the arena as an act of love-crazed teenagers rather than as defiance.

Katniss and Peeta think they are going to become mentors for the Quarter Quell, a special

Hunger Games that occurs every 25 years and comes with a change in rules, usually to make

them more gruesome than the normal Games. The new twist for the 75th Games is that the

tributes will be chosen from living victors. District 12 has only 3 living victors: Katniss,

Peeta, and Haymitch Abernathy. Haymitch is their constantly drunken mentor who won the

50th Hunger Games. It's clear Katniss will be the girl tribute, as she is the only living

female District 12 victor. Peeta makes Haymitch promise to work to save Katniss, not him.

He also vows that if Haymitch is chosen, he will volunteer in his place. Katniss makes

Haymitch promise that if Peeta is the male tribute, she and Haymitch will work together

to keep Peeta alive, even at the expense of Katniss's life. It is a torn alliance for

Haymitch. When Haymitch is drawn as the male tribute, Peeta automatically volunteers to

take his place. Many of the other returning tributes are friends with each other, but

Katniss and Peeta have a disadvantage. They have met none of them, as they are the newest

victors. Peeta hopes to play on their sympathies to gain protection from others in the arena,

and support from sponsors for Katniss. To this end he lies to everybody on national

television, saying Katniss and he had secretly got married before the Quell was announced,

and that Katniss is pregnant. This shocks both Katniss and the whole of Panem.

During the Quell, Peeta comes in contact with a force field and his heart stops. Katniss

and Peeta’s efficient ally, Finnick Odair, succeeds in reviving him with CPR. Finnick

Odair is the District 4 male victor tribute and a stunningly good-looking young man. The

three soon band together with a few other tributes: Mags from District 4, Beetee and

Wiress from District 3, and Johanna Mason from District 7. Eventually, they find out

that the arena is shaped like a clock, with 12 sections, and each section is triggered

at the same times each day. Different hours indicated different tortures such as blood

rain, acid fog, killer monkeys, and so on. As they formulate a plan to kill the remaining

tributes, Wiress is killed and Katniss is attacked by Johanna. However, Katniss is completely

unaware that Johanna is just following through with a rebellious plan. Once Katniss regains

consciousness she realizes that Beetee had designed a way to destroy the force field

surrounding the arena. She triggers it and destroys the field, setting off a chain of

events. A rebel-controlled hovercraft arrives and rescues Katniss, Finnick, and Beetee.

However, Peeta, Johanna and Enobaria have been captured by the Capitol. Finnick, Beetee,

Haymitch, Johanna and a few other tributes were part of a plan to safely retrieve Katniss

and Peeta from the arena with hopes that they would take on roles to start a revolution

against the Capitol. Mockingjay

Peeta is captured by the Capitol and is tortured physically, emotionally, and mentally. His

feelings and memories are distorted with hallucinogenic tracker jacker venom, a mind-control technique.

The Capitol uses this method to turn Peeta against Katniss, making him believe that she

is not only responsible for the death of his family, friends and the destruction of District

12, but also that she tried to kill him numerous times and that she is not even human, but

rather an evil "mutt". This leads him to try and strangle Katniss when he is reunited with

her in District 13. The doctors of District 13 try to undo his hijacking, but the process

is slow and turns his terror into confusion, where he is unable to differentiate what is

real and what is not, especially when it came to his relationship with Katniss.

When the rest of the victors journey to the Capitol to fight, Peeta is initially kept

behind because he is considered too unstable to be sent into combat. However, President

Coin changes her mind and sends him not only into combat, but assigns him to Katniss's

squadron. Katniss theorizes that Coin has sent Peeta to remove her as an obstacle to

Coin's future as President. Despite the fact that the members of the squadron do not trust

him, they help with his recovery by creating a game called "Real or Not Real" in which

Peeta will ask them a question about something he believes may be true and the members will

confirm whether they are real or a hijacked memory. The squadron eventually comes to the

conclusion that President Coin had deliberately sent Peeta to Katniss' squad in hopes that

he will go mad and kill her because Coin sees Katniss as a political rival. Unfortunately,

during a surprise attack of "pods", Peeta actually does lose his sanity temporarily

in the midst of the chaos and tries to kill Katniss once again, but she rolls out of the

way of his gun in an attempt to crush her skull. He becomes responsible at least in

part for the death of one of their team members, who he accidentally throws into a barbed-wire

net pod during the attack. The squadron repeatedly debate whether or not they should kill Peeta,

and even Peeta himself asks to be killed to stop endangering them, but Katniss refuses

to when realizing she cannot bring herself to let him die. She even kisses him for a

period of time, which actually makes him stable. Realizing he cannot convince anyone to kill

him or leave him to die, Peeta insists on remaining cuffed instead since the pain in

his wrists helps him stay focused in reality instead of succumbing to madness. Further

on in the Capitol, the nightmares in Peeta's mind become so intense that he is on the brink

of losing his sanity, but Katniss manages to reach him. After the rebels win the war,

Katniss is driven to depression and mental instability due to the death of her sister,

Prim. Peeta's hijacking is soon mostly recovered by several doctors and he is considered mentally

stable and finally back to his former self. Upon returning home, he plants primroses,

the flower which Prim was named after, in memory of her.

In the epilogue, Katniss and Peeta have two children together. It is implied by Katniss

that Peeta wanted to have children first and took around 10–15 years to persuade Katniss

to start a family. He still has moments where his hijacking will try to take over again,

causing Peeta to clench onto something until the attempt passes.

Characterization Peeta is sixteen years old in The Hunger Games

and seventeen in Catching Fire and Mockingjay. Medium height and stocky, he possesses the

same blue eyes and blond hair typical of District 12's merchant class. Part of Peeta's left

leg was amputated following the 74th Hunger Games. He walks with the aid of a prosthetic

leg for the rest of his life. Peeta's name, like the more common given name

"Peter", is derived from the Greek word πέτρος meaning "stone" or "rock". His name is also

a homophone of pita bread, which is derived from the Greek πηκτός, meaning "solid".

Author Suzanne Collins may have selected this name for Peeta because Katniss associates

him with both steadiness and the life-sustaining bread he makes for a living:

"His hands are as solid and warm as those loaves of bread. Peeta looks at me right in

the eye and gives my hand what I think is meant to be a reassuring squeeze."

"I’m glad now I have Peeta to clutch for balance, he is so steady, solid as a rock."

"I wrap my arms around his neck, feel his arms hesitate before they embrace me. Not

as steady as they once were, but still warm and strong."

Many of the talents Peeta exhibits in the arena are a byproduct of his work in the family

bakery and time spent on the school wrestling team. An accomplished baker and painter, he

is also particularly skilled at hand-to-hand combat, camouflage, wielding knives, and starting

fires. Peeta also has a remarkable talent for speaking to crowds. Not only is he initially

responsible for making the Capitol crowds fall in love with Katniss, Katniss herself

mentions that Peeta would be invaluable to the revolution because of his ability "to

turn his pain into words that will transform people."

Quotes describing Peeta "What about you? I’ve seen you in the market.

You can lift hundred pound bags of flour," I snap at him. "Tell him that. That’s not

nothing." - Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games "I may have been a catalyst for rebellion,

but a leader should be someone with conviction, and I'm barely a convert myself. Someone with

unflinching courage, and I'm still working hard at even finding mine. Someone with clear

and persuasive words, and I'm so easily tongue-tied. Words. I think of words and I think of Peeta.

How people embrace everything he says. He could move a crowd to action, I bet, if he

chose to. Would find the things to say. But I'm sure the idea has never crossed his mind."

- Katniss Everdeen, Catching Fire "Peeta would be more valuable alive, and tragic,

because he will be able to turn his pain into words that will transform people." - Katniss

Everdeen, Catching Fire "Peeta’s a whiz with fires, coaxing a blaze

out of damp wood." - Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games

Critical reception Entertainment Weekly said that Peeta, as well

as Gale Hawthorne, were "thinly imagined". MTV listed five reasons why Peeta is "badass",

and that "Peeta gives [Katniss] a run for her money in the coolness category".

Film On March 23, 2011, Lionsgate began casting

the role of Peeta for the film of The Hunger Games. According to The Hollywood Reporter,

contenders for the role included Josh Hutcherson, Alexander Ludwig, Hunter Parrish, Lucas Till,

and Evan Peters. On April 4, 2011, Lionsgate announced that Hutcherson would play the role.

References

External links Peeta Mellark at the Internet Movie Database