Weddingbee boards

I'm joining in, ladies! Jealous that I can't talk about the sequel yet, but I just picked it up the other day and am ready to devour it. :)

1. What makes Matched dystopian? How does the Society compare with the worlds in other dystopian novels you’ve read.  Matched is pretty clearly a book about the absence of free will and choice, which I found fascinating. The Society is by no means overtly oppressive (which is quite different from other dystopian novels like, say, The Hunger Games), and they seem to have their citizens best interests at heart (or at least that's what they want everyone to think). I actually find this type of society more sinister. I mean, there are so many people who clearly buy into their way of structuring the world and don't question it at all, and because their oppressive tactics aren't overt, it's more difficult to pinpoint them and know how to subvert them. I think Cassia has an interesting road ahead of her, and I'm excited to see how she and others will challenge the Society in the coming books. 

2. What details and events make the world Ally Condie created realistic and believable? What do think the positive qualities of the world are? What do you think the negative qualities of the world are?  I think the world is realistic because of the consistency throughout. At first, all the stuff about culture seemed a little peripheral to me. But, as I continued reading, I realized that this was just another way of demonstrating the Society's all-powerful control under the guise of "helping" their citizens. In the same way that they decide what their citizens eat, who they marry, and what job they work, they also limit their culture, and all in an attempt to give them the happiest, healthiest lives possible. 

Having just read the first book, I think there is the possibility that the Society isn't totally bad. Obviously a lot of what they do seems horrible to us, but I do think it's possible that they really think that they are trying to help their citizens live the best lives possible. I also think it's possible that there are more sinister motivations behind what they do, so we'll have to see what comes next.

Negative qualities are definitely the lack of free will and choice, as well as the treatment of the elderly and anyone outside of the norm. In an effort to keep things are pristine as possible, they do a lot of scary things, like totally uprooting Cassia and her family (as well as Ky and his family) from their community at the end of the book. The desire for a structured, problem-free life leads the Society to cover up cracks in a very dangerous and frightening way, and I think that shows how fraught their goals are in the first place.  

3. What scene sticks with you after you’ve finished reading?  This isn't a particular scene, but I loved how Cassia slowly began to question the Society. There wasn't one moment when she was like, "Wow, now I think the Society's bad becuase of X!" Rather, she started questioning whether or not the Society is truly good, and her discomfort slowly grew throughout the novel. It was a subtle transition, and it was interesting once she was finally on the "Society is more bad than good" side of things, but I appreciated how the author let her discontent grow slowly and naturally. I thought that was very intesresting and realistic. 

4. Why do you think The Society was so restrictive with the art and literature it permitted? The structure of the Society is very tenuous, and because it's so reliant on the restriction of free will and choice, it needed to keep its citizens' critical thinking in check. If you have citizens learning how to question, analyze, and critize things, then they will probably have a much more difficult time accepting a society that is based on restricting free will. In order for the Society to work at all, they have to control the cultural artifacts that their citizens come into contact with.  

5. What artifact from your life would choose to pass down to other generations?  Probably some sort of writing, like in the book. I think words and thoughts are so important (as we see throughout Matched), and if society restricted those, I'd definitely want to find a way to preserve them and pass them onto future generations. 

6. Cassia has a special relationship with her grandfather. Why do you think he gave her the poem even though it was so dangerous?  He questions the way the Society functions, and I think he wants Cassia (and others) to question it as well. He understands that there's something fundamentally wrong with the Society, and I don't think he can stand to simply buck their power by asking his son to lose his DNA sample so that he can die on his own terms. I think he cherishes the ability to think critically about the world, and I think he wants to pass that onto Cassia. Hence, why he gives her the poem. I don't think he necessarily has any expectations about what she'll do in terms of the Society. I think he just wants her to have the opportunity to think for herself and to know that it's OK to fight if that's what she believes in. 

7. Why do think that Cassia is so inspired by Dylan Thomas’ poem Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night? How do you think her understanding of the poem changes throughout the novel?  I think the poem opens Cassia's eyes. Prior to her interactions with her grandfather and getting the poem, Cassia simply accepted what the Society dictated for her life. The poem opens her eyes to another possibility: that she can question and react against what the Society wants for her. As she grows more and more discontent with the Society, I think she understands the poem on a deeper level. Whereas it first gave her permission to think and question, by the end, it helps her to react and fight. 

8. Cassia is to be assigned as a data sorter. If you were to be assigned a role in The Society what would it be and why?  I'm not sure. I have a hunch I might be doing something like Cassia's dad or grandmother/great-grandmother given my own background in literature. But it'd kill me to destroy all of that culture (and I'd probably be stealing tons of writing to pass onto future generations!). I also think it's hard to say what exactly I'd do because we only see a few options. Like even with Xander. We know he works in something to do with pharmaceutics, but we don't really know what. Maybe we'll learn more in the second book...

9. Cassia has an impossible choice. Would you make the same decision as Cassia? Why or why not?  Like PPs, I'm not sure exactly what this is referring to. But I'm guessing it has to do with whether Cassia quietly accepts the life Society has chosen for her or whether she chooses to fight against it and thus accepts the consequences of her rebellion. If that's the choice, then I certainly would choose to fight. I don't think there's any way for Cassia to simply go back to things as they were. She can think now, and a life that requires her to passively live out what others have chosen would be more miserable than anything the Society could do to her. I'd definitely rebel. 

10. Now that you’ve read Matched, what questions would you most like to have answered in the upcoming sequel? I want to see more develop with Cassia's mom and dad. They clearly are also thinking about how the Society works and how best to live in it, and they fall on two different sides of the equation (dad subverts, mom obeys). I find that fascinating, and I want to know more about how they got there. I also really want to know who put Ky into the matching pool. And I obviously want to know how everyone's story gets resolved. Can't wait to keep reading! :)

@Running Elley and @Mrs.KMM: That's so interesting that you both like Xander! I kind of had the exact opposite response to him and Ky - like I felt like Xander was more of the friend turned forced romantic interest, while Ky was the true romantic interest. But I definitely want to see more. Xander is obviously not as fully developed of a character in Matched as Ky is, and I would love to know a more about him in the next book. As it stands, we seem to get a lot of surface info about him in Matched, but by the end, with his confession about his previous history with Ky and the red pills, I think we get a deeper sense of his character. He's obviously not as passive and oblivious as he seems throughout a lot of the book, and I want to see more of that.

Overall, I think that's one of the things the book does so well: take characters who seem to passively accept the Society and show the ways in which they question and react against it. It's not just Cassia (and Ky) who's having this awakening, but so many other characters, like the grandfather, her parents, and Xander. The cracks are definitely beginning to show, and I can't wait to see them fall apart even more.