FAMILY TROUBLES
SIGNIFY LARGER SOCIAL ILLS
Ryan: Keith’s
death signifies what lies outside the walls. “It can be hard to stay inside your own
community forever.”
Laura and Kaitlyn: The
loss of one person can tear a family apart. Laura: Octavia doesn’t
give us such a direct view of the world this time. She mainly focuses upon the
family and through that she shows us the world. Kaitlyn: “Lauren never really talked or got along
with Cory on a normal basis, but now that Keith is gone the talking is even
less.”
Kasey & numerous others: One family falling apart might signify a country falling apart. “I
concluded that Lauren’s family falling apart is a metaphor for their community
and possibly the rest of the country.”
VIOLENCE &
RACIAL AND SEXUAL REGRESSION
Michael: Father’s
violence, new drugs and gangs, and a son’s wish to become a man. “It is
ironic that Keith’s desire to be a grown up man was the thing that ended up
killing him.”
Britt: Self-absorbed adult generation. “… I feel that
Lauren has a realistic view of the dangerous future while other children or
teens cannot see the cold hard truth.”
Alexandra: The opposite of progress, indentured servitude, the past repeating
itself, Lauren as the new Harriet Tubman. “It is obvious
that in this dystopia that the characters live in still has problems accepting
people who are different than they are. Chapter eight starts by mentioning a
feud between families because a black woman and a hispanic man are about to be
married and are expecting a child. There are many other examples of racism and
sexism in this novel. Women seem to be getting married and getting pregnant at much
younger ages than people would get married in today’s society. This is an odd
jump backward for someone to see. We are used to progress…
On
page 85 Lauren says, ‘The best they could hope for would be to move into some
rich people’s compound as domestic servants and work for room and board. There’s
no way to save any money or ever do any better.’ I took enough American History
courses in high school to realize that this sounds exactly like indentured
servitude.”
Chad: Sadism. “The person or people who inflicted this suffering were
concerned with not merely with depriving him of material possessions and
summarily executing him, which they could easily done, but instead they sought
prolong his pain and agony.”
ECONOMIC REALITIES
Jenny: I would go to
Olivar. “Another community called Olivar becomes known and everyone jumps
at the opportunity to live in a safer area. Personally, I would go. I would
want to get as far away from Robledo, the murderers, and thieves as quickly as
I could. Lauren’s father thinks differently. He believes it is just a set up
and that they will become slaves due to their skin color. I wonder, is Lauren’s
father correct? Is Olivar just a ruse to get more people to do jobs at a very
low salary?... It is weird to think that if things were that way now, I
would have become an “adult” over three years ago. I don’t think at the age of
fifteen I would have been capable of defending myself and others in my
community. Is the way of life in Robledo morally correct?”
Nicole: Olivar is a
slave town. “The foolish people will give up their freedom to for safety. I
think that Olivar will become more of a slave town, as Lauren’s father
describes it. He says, ‘Freedom is dangerous, Cory, but it’s precious, too.’ I
love that line; it shows us readers how important his old life is to him.”
Michael W.: Debt
slavery and a return to feudalism. “The crumbling United States is now
being invested in by foreign companies. This form of investment means the
literal privatization of a city named Olivar. The deal presented by the company
is protection, water, and food for very low wages. It sounds like a good deal
when heard at first, but in a small amount of time all residents would be in
debt to the company. This binding debt is looked upon as a form of slavery by
Lauren, who I am inclined to agree with. The future is coming and from the
looks of it companies will be involved. This company involvement could easily
cause an even more depressing future within the terrible future Butler
envisions. This could also easily happen in the world today as there are some
companies that have major political pull and tons of money…This deal is in my
opinion the return of feudalism. As companies see the profits this
privatization will become more common and soon an American government will no
longer be necessary. The companies will become feudal lords offering protection
in exchange for servitude. Every town will be the equivalent of a fiefdom and
every person living within the walls will become a peasant or serf.”
FATHER ISSUES
John: Breaking free
from a father’s footprints: “Lauren realizes that she can no longer follow
in the footsteps of her father…”
Gabriella: Lauren as
the incarnation of her father: “I find it interesting that Lauren is so
much like her father, but she doesn’t seem to realize it. Lauren tells
Keith one night when he’s visiting, that he looks more and more like their
father every day, but Lauren is the one who acts like the minister. She
may have hyper-empathy that allows her to share pain with people, but when it
came to her brother being dead, she was as cold as her own father.”
Rebecca: Lauren grows
up: “Lauren is finally starting to realize that there is more in the world
then what is in her walled community.”
HYPEREMPATHY
Dana: Hyperempathy in
the reader: “While reading this section of the book, I realized that my own
emotions were caught up into the story. When I realized that was happening, I thought of
Laura and how her syndrome causes her to empathize with others. I felt myself doing this when reading the scene
between Keith and his father.”
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