Ally Condie's Matched is a novel with the focus on Cassia Reyes, a young girl who lives in a futuristic world governed by a faction entitled The Society. The plot opens with seventeen-year-olds from across the nation, including the protagonist Cassia, traveling to City hall in order to be matched. Matching is a process in which individuals are paired with their future spouse based on predictions made by the Society to ensure a perfect marriage and healthy offspring. However, Cassia discovers that she matched with two different people, her best friend and an aberration; she begins to distrust the Society and recognizes that her world isn't as perfect as it appears to be.
"The maple trees have become too much of a problem. The leaves get too …show more content…
For example, ours grew too big. Em's is too small. And some of them have diseases, so they all need to be chopped down." (Condie, 252)
This passage demonstrates two of the main imperfections Cassia eventually discovers about the Society; their lust and obsession for order and power in order to maintain its governing position.
The aforementioned passage provides a brief insight to the Society's desire for order; however, its cravings delve much deeper than maple trees. The Society has also eradicated cottonwood groves and redesigned roses so that they are "hardy, showy, bred for durability" (Condie, 143), and is willing "to clear and pave a path on the hill" (Condie, 209). By doing so, the Society is trying to keep everything orderly by remove or replace variables that cannot be controlled such as nature. Furthermore, the Society's desire for order is also demonstrated by the destruction of everything other than one hundred poems, songs, paintings and stories under the disguise that it's "For the best...How can we appreciate …show more content…
One way the Society expresses its power by oppressing its lower class or individuals it feels threatened by exploiting them to work long hours and "wear us down with work; they don't beat us or hurt us. They simply want to make us tired" (Condie, 363). Moreover, the Society also enforces its citizens by pacifying the use of red pills which cause short-term memory loss, and "the threat of Reclassification is enough to keep almost everyone in line" (235). By exploiting the lower class citizens and threatening to reclassify the middle class, the society protects its interests and assures its power over the region. Another way the Society expresses its desire for power is by controlling its nation's food supply since "They control the food; they control us…We could never survive on our own" (Condie, 297). Simultaneously the Society uses their power over the food network to enforce its beliefs and rules and to punish rule breakers. This is accomplished by providing meals that "have to be given to the right person" (Condie, 145), as some meals are poison and employing aberrations in nutrition disposal centers so they are exposed to the poison. As the old saying goes, knowledge is power; and because the Society is the only group that knows how to produce and prepare food
"The maple trees have become too much of a problem. The leaves get too …show more content…
For example, ours grew too big. Em's is too small. And some of them have diseases, so they all need to be chopped down." (Condie, 252)
This passage demonstrates two of the main imperfections Cassia eventually discovers about the Society; their lust and obsession for order and power in order to maintain its governing position.
The aforementioned passage provides a brief insight to the Society's desire for order; however, its cravings delve much deeper than maple trees. The Society has also eradicated cottonwood groves and redesigned roses so that they are "hardy, showy, bred for durability" (Condie, 143), and is willing "to clear and pave a path on the hill" (Condie, 209). By doing so, the Society is trying to keep everything orderly by remove or replace variables that cannot be controlled such as nature. Furthermore, the Society's desire for order is also demonstrated by the destruction of everything other than one hundred poems, songs, paintings and stories under the disguise that it's "For the best...How can we appreciate …show more content…
One way the Society expresses its power by oppressing its lower class or individuals it feels threatened by exploiting them to work long hours and "wear us down with work; they don't beat us or hurt us. They simply want to make us tired" (Condie, 363). Moreover, the Society also enforces its citizens by pacifying the use of red pills which cause short-term memory loss, and "the threat of Reclassification is enough to keep almost everyone in line" (235). By exploiting the lower class citizens and threatening to reclassify the middle class, the society protects its interests and assures its power over the region. Another way the Society expresses its desire for power is by controlling its nation's food supply since "They control the food; they control us…We could never survive on our own" (Condie, 297). Simultaneously the Society uses their power over the food network to enforce its beliefs and rules and to punish rule breakers. This is accomplished by providing meals that "have to be given to the right person" (Condie, 145), as some meals are poison and employing aberrations in nutrition disposal centers so they are exposed to the poison. As the old saying goes, knowledge is power; and because the Society is the only group that knows how to produce and prepare food