Government Control
By: Austin Witthun
This is a 5-paragraph essay about how the theme” government control” is in several novels and, how it affects these novels.
There is a theme that, unlike others, is a sinister theme. One that when in a story, makes the setting a terrible place and the people do dreadful things to survive. It doesn’t really teach a lesson but instead makes the reader realize, that the little bit of control their government has on them and their lives, isn’t so bad. This theme is “Government Control” and it is in the novels: The Giver, the Tunnels series, and April Morning.
The first story that this theme is in is The Giver by Lois Lowry. In the community that the main character Jonas lives in, the government controls everything from what the peoples jobs are to how they act (that is done by these pills that everyone in the community and they are taken to “control the stirrings” as Jonas’ parents said). The only people that realize that the government is doing this are Jonas and he Giver. They even try to have these things in all of the people called Sameness. Most people look alike, the weather is always the same, they can’t see colors and, they do the same things forever. Those are just a few different examples of what the sameness does to these people who have no idea that any of this is happening.
Another story that this theme is in is April Morning by Howard Fast. In April Morning, the rebels are fighting against the invading British army because the Brits are trying to make sure that the colonists don’t break off from England and make a new country so that the British country would be twice as powerful. That is exactly what the colonists are trying to do. The government of England is trying to get the colonists back under control by use of deadly force. Obviously the control that government had wasn’t that powerful because; the United States is an independent country today.
My last example of a story that has this theme in it is the Tunnels series by Roderick Gordon. In the first book Tunnels, the main characters Will and Chester go looking for Will’s dad underground and they find an underground city. This city is just like a normal city except for two things. It is underground and, the evil people who control it. These people are called The Styx. They do not only control the government, but their religious views control the public. Later in the series, Will and Chester learn that the Styx are making a virus that when released, would destroy the entire population of humans that dwell on the surface. The Styx would do this because they believe that they are destined to take back the surface from “The Topsoilers” (slang for someone that lives on the surface.) This just shows that The Styx are more corrupt than they seem at first.
The reason that this theme is important is that it affects the characters and setting of the story. The effects on the characters are that the main character(s) have to be weary of what they do and who they trust. In all three of these stories, the main characters are trying to evade the control of the government because in these extreme situations, the control is a bad thing when it is normally there to be a good thing. It almost always puts the main character in trouble or danger. Government control also affects the setting of the story. In April Morning, it is affected because the setting is a bloody, burning war zone and it because of the government that the war is going on. In Tunnels, the setting is affected by the government control because the main characters go to jails, laboratories and, and a city. Yes, that would be considered normal except that in this story, all of those places are underground. With these three examples found in those three books, the affect on the setting and, the affect on the characters, this is how the theme: Government Control is in many novels and affects each one with near similar results.
