Young uses cultural surroundings to shape Sloane morals to want to run from the handlers who claim teens are suicidal and are taken into The Program where their memories are erased. In this present-day society created by Young, the teen suicide rate is continuing to climb, "Teen suicide was declared a national epidemic-killing one in three teens- nearly four years ago."(9) To prevent the spread of "the psychologists say that suicide is a behavioral contagion"(9) those who are deemed sick are taken by handlers to The Program, where their memories are erased. Sloane knows if she is …show more content…
In this society littered with handlers and the sick who become returners with the condition they are no longer themselves and essentially braindead of who they were. While the government is trying to be the "cure", they end up being the disease. Sloane doesn’t believe in the wishes of The Program, she knows it is wrong and she fights for what is right, until she too becomes a patient. Sloane must make the decision on whether to fight for herself, her lost friends, and beloved boyfriend James or to conform and let her memories be taken and never remember who she really is. Will she choose to be apart of the disease or part of the