The Matching Ceremony

Matched by Ally Condie is a young adult novel about how a 17 year old girl named Cassia, breaks the rules and goes against what she has always been taught. Cassia lives in a society where she is constantly being told what to do, where to go, what to wear, she is even told who she will marry, where she will work, and the day she will die. She rarely gets to make her own decisions, and she is consistently being told what to do. But when it comes to love she is taking that aspect of her life into her own hands.
First off, during the beginning of the book the Matching Ceremony is explained; the Matching Ceremony is when a group of boys and girls over the age of 17 will be matched with a boy or girl from another society. Once matched they are each …show more content…
One day when Cassia arrives at work she is told that she will be practicing sorting and matching fake matches as practice, she is also told the officials will be giving her, her final test to see how she works under pressure and they may be considering her for an optimal sorting position. While she is sorting the fake matches she makes her first error in months when she lets her mind wander to thinking about Ky. That night she then makes a promise to herself that she will forget about Ky and focus on her life with Xander no matter how hard it is for her to accomplish. However, a few nights later Cassia, Xander and a bunch of their friends are planting flowers during their free-rec hours and Cassia can not seem to get her mind off of Ky so she tries to talk to Xander as a distraction. Later on everyone that planted flowers was given ice cream; Xander and Cassia are alone when he playfully feeds her his last bit of ice cream then the two share their very first kiss. After an hour of planting flowers, Cassia, Xander and their friend Em go to the music hall where they then meet up with Ky. they next day officials arrive at Cassia’s work to give her, her final test. The Officials are pleased with her results and congratulate her on an excellent job. As they leave, the oldest official says that they’ll be keeping an eye on her now. That night Cassia has a nightmare about giving her friend Em the red pill in hopes of it calming her down but as soon as she takes it she drops dead. Cassia then takes her microchip with the hope of Xander’s picture calming her down. The next day Cassia goes to school for extra study hours, she also searches for poems by two poets Tennyson and Thomas, the poets that wrote two of the forbidden poems that Cassia’s grandfather gave her before