(ack! I wrote a huge comment there but LJ just ate it! ...I hope I can remember what I said!)
I toally agree with you! That's exactly what I thought when I first read it. The dehumanisation and friends and children turning against people reminded me of many dystopian novels, such as 1984, Brave New World and Handmaid's Tale. However, in those novels, people were living with a constant, daily fear, not one that comes just once a year.
This raises the interesting point of how the way you are raised might shape you. In the story a sixteen year old boy (I think...?) picks for the first time, yet even this fairly young person, did not say no. I feel that the stroy is written so that the families seem indistinguishable from each other and blend together, so that in the end not even a sixteen year old boy stands out from the crowd.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
Re: dehumanization
Date: 2006-03-07 08:26 pm (UTC)I toally agree with you! That's exactly what I thought when I first read it. The dehumanisation and friends and children turning against people reminded me of many dystopian novels, such as 1984, Brave New World and Handmaid's Tale. However, in those novels, people were living with a constant, daily fear, not one that comes just once a year.
This raises the interesting point of how the way you are raised might shape you. In the story a sixteen year old boy (I think...?) picks for the first time, yet even this fairly young person, did not say no. I feel that the stroy is written so that the families seem indistinguishable from each other and blend together, so that in the end not even a sixteen year old boy stands out from the crowd.
Pixie // Hufflepuff