What would you do if you were in the position of one of the characters?
Anna is in a situation where she has been indoctrinated to believe that she is a burden on society and that she is the product of her parents committing a crime. While this is technically true, there is the question of whether the law is morally sound. I think that if I were in her position I would be indignant and believe that my parents were not in the wrong. At the same time, I think that it would be hard to pull away from what the people at Grange Hall have led me to believe. I'm sure that the outcome would not be much different, as I am assuming that Anna is going to eventually rebel. It wouldn't be much of a story if she didn't. I probably wouldn't rebel, but I would not be one of the good kids that gets put into a good home as a house keeper.
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ReplyDeleteI went back and read your posts from the beginning. It is definitely shocking the first time you experience incarcerated, handcuffed, and shackled teenagers in concrete rooms with no furniture and only a 4” x 10” slot in the door to even look through. There is something about cruelty and violence towards young people that seems worse than the same behavior given to adults. Sadly, after a very short time at DJJ, or any other juvenile prison I imagine, I became used to it and hardly even noticed. Boot Camp sounds like a sad story; I would help my daughter make a prison break rather than let her go to one of those places, no matter how wrong she was. What made you pick this book? Did something like this happen to any of your friends growing up?
DeleteI see a common theme of cruelty towards youth in the two books you talked about. The cover and title of The Declaration caught my attention in class Monday. Is the declaration a legal document, like the Declaration of Independence, that makes having children, or too many children, illegal? This sounds familiar; doesn’t China outlaw some children now? While western society does criminalize childhood, it has long accused them with words like “illegitimate”. What a difference point of view makes, the notion that someone is not a legitimate human being! I agree on how difficult it is to overcome long periods of education/brainwashing. We generally believe what people tell us, and in the west are we not told that we are hopelessly doomed (by our ancestors) from before our own birth? This sounds like a book I would like; do you normally read science fiction/dystopia? I can relate to the part where you say you would view your parents as not being wrong. I think as children we view our parents as the way all parents are supposed to be, and then years later sometimes realize that things could/should have been much different. In the book, what other choices could you make besides rebel or housekeeper?
Whether or not I would rebel or not--such an interesting idea for us all to contemplate--especially high school students--this is making me think about dystopian YA and its rebellious theme--fight against conformity--no wonder it resonates so well with high school students--but did you know the fastest growing market for YA is middle aged white women? Hmmm--guess the rebel lives within us for quote some time.
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