Given Peeta’s worst fear comes true, does this make him a tragic character?
His worst fear is dying as someone other than himself. Given that he recovers from the hijacking before he dies, I’m gonna argue that he’s not a tragic character the way you’re suggesting he is. What happens to him is tragic and upsetting, yes, but so is what happens to Katniss and almost every other character in the series. The whole point of Peeta’s arc is to instill a kind of radical hope in extreme circumstances.
The dystopia genre is based on taking something or several things we see in our current society and extrapolating it out to a believable worst case scenario. That serves as the basis for a dystopia story which is why so many thg knockoffs fail. Because the extrapolation is hard to buy into so the characters often fall flat and the plot crumbles.
Peeta is a “worst case” scenario of torture and having the self twisted almost beyond recognition. Which was part of his greatest fear. The fact that he comes back from that to lead a healthy, mostly happy, and fulfilling life is what makes his arc hopeful rather than fully tragic.
I’d actually argue that Katniss has more of a tragic character arc here because she fails to save Prim from the Games in a way, and that was one of her primary motivations from page 1, chapter 1, book 1. And once Prim is dead, there is no bringing her back.
However, even here, the genre is upended because she is able to love and live onwards, to find a healthy, mostly happy, and fulfilling life after the war.
That’s the point of the books. To show the damage that can be done by war, by a society that exists on the exploitation of its most powerless and vulnerable citizens, yes, but also to show that thee can be life beyond that damage. A good life.
❤️ kdnfb
