I’m going to drop in on the Hunger Games fandom real quick on share what my prediction was half-way through the Mockingjay.

SPOILER ALERT!

I thought that Suzanne Collins was going to make Peeta Mellark the leader of Post-Revolutionary Panem. 

We learn in Mockingjay that the nation of Panem is named for the Latin word for “Bread”.  ”Panem” being the direct Latin translation for the word “Bread”.

When I read this, I thought instantly of the titles that are given to both Katniss and Peeta.  The Capitol dubs Katniss “The Girl on Fire” right from her entrance in the Hunger Games in the first book.  But only the reader ever finds out what Katniss name, or rather phrase, for Peeta is… “The Boy with the Bread”.

Furthermore, throughout the entire series we hear Katniss describe Peeta’s strengths on camera, as a public speaker and as a politician.  She often says that these are the strengths that Peeta has that Katniss herself does not have.

When I read that “Panem” was Latin for Mockingjay, I thought that Collins had been foreshadowing Peeta’s role in Panem after the Capitol is defeated, and subliminally setting Peeta up to be the Leader that Rises from the Ashes of the Broken Nation.

Katniss, the symbol of revolution, the Mockingjay, the Revolutionary Leader, “The Girl on Fire” delivers the freed nation to the new leader: Peeta, the politician, the people pleaser, the charismatic, “The Boy with the Bread”

“The Boy with ‘Panem’”