Dystopia Novel Project for Delirium
Novel written by: Lauren Oliver
By: Tania Sofia Batista
Ms. DIvan
Period; 6B Honors English 10th
Lauren Oliver Facts:
Lauren Oliver is from Queens, New York City, New York. Lauren Oliver is thirty three years old.
- She pursued literature and philosophy at the University of Chicago.
- She started working at Penguin Books, in a young adult division called Razorbill.
- She graduated from New York University's MFA program in 2008.
- She wrote other books like Before I fall , the sequels to Delirium which are Pandemonium and Requiem, Panic, and Vanishing Girls.
Plot Overview of Delirium:
In the novel Delirium, the story takes place in Portland, Maine. It is set one hundred years into the future, and scientists have discovered that love is a disease and that it can be cured. The cure to the disease of love is when citizens are eighteen years old, the procedure takes all the citizens' memories associated with the emotion love so they won't feel it. They get the cure and are free to live their own lives. They get a free education, an occupation, a spouse, and a number of kids chosen for them. The protagonist in the story is Lena Haloway. She is seventeen and is afraid of everything. She is afraid of everything because love is a disease, and she fears that her emotions are her worst nightmares coming to live. Although she is satisfied because she wants to get her procedure done, she doesn't want any more bad reputations in her life. Her mom never got cured and her family told her that her mom killed herself. For that reason, she lives with her Aunt Carol, her cousin Grace and Jenny, and her Uncle William. She gets the cure on her birthday which is September third. She keeps counting the days until her procedure comes. She has a best friend named Hana. They both run for the cross country team. They have been best friends since they were little. On the day of Lena's evaluation, the evaluation that will decide everything about her future, she was getting nervous, and the people who live outside of her society (which are called the Invalids) pulled a prank. The Invalids' prank was that they released a bunch of cows into the evaluation room. The message was that the citizens in Portland, Maine are a bunch of empty-headed livestock. Lena tries to get out of the evaluation place. She kept getting flashbacks of the prank. Then she sees a boy, who proceeds to wink at her. Lena can't get him out of her head at all after that happens. In a few days, Hana and Lena go out for a run and they meet the same boy that Lena saw in the evaluation process while the cows were released into the room. His name is Alex. They get to know Alex, and Lena asks him if he remembered her from when the Invalids released cows in her evaluation process. He replies that he does not remember, which turns out to be a lie. Lena learns that he is a flirt, and she thinks he is cured because he is a city guard. Lena and Hana's friendship is falling apart because she finds out that Hana has been attending forbidden parties where boys and girls hang out, she walks in on Hana listening to "illegal music", Hana is not arriving home on time, even though she has a curfew, and Hana also tells Lena that she is nothing like her mother. Hana's comment hurt Lena because she is trying to be different from her mother. In Delirium, that is unacceptable because the government doesn't want boys and girls hanging out. They don't want them to hang out because they are afraid more people will be infected with love. Before Hana and Lena get into a fight, Hana tells her about the forbidden party. She decides to sneak out and go to the party. She sees Hana, but things are still awkward between them so they don't talk a lot. Lena didn't realize that the party is Co-Ed and becomes so freaked out that she starts to run away, but she is stopped by Alex. They talk, and Alex explains to her why he lied about recognizing her. He asks her to dance, and Lena accompanies him in dancing. She later tells him that dancing with him made her world. He asks her to meet him the next day at Back Cove, and she replies yes. Alex and Lena finally meet at the Back Cove. Lena tells him about her mother. They race in the water and Lena talks about the Wilds and the Invalids. Alex tells her that he is actually an Invalid. She becomes very frightened and runs away from him. Few days later, Hana and Lena finally make up. Hana invites Lena to another forbidden party. Lena refuses to go, but later ends up going to the party to warn them about the Regulator's. She only goes for Hana sake because she doesn't want anything horrible to happen to her. While she is there and trying to escape with the others, a dog from The Regulator's bites her. Before she can be knocked out, Alex comes and rescues her. He takes her to an empty shed where he tends to her leg and they lie low until The Regulators are gone. When the regulators are gone, he tells her about his life in the Wilds, how he moved here and never got caught. He also, tells her why he likes her so much. She feels like everything she has ever known to be true is falling apart in front of her. He kisses her, and she realizes she has feelings for him and that she is in love with him. Alex and Lena hang out a lot. One day, they were laying down in the spot they usually meet at and they start talking about the Wilds. She gets amazed how Alex describes the Wilds and she says that she wishes she could go to the Wilds. He tells her, that he can take her. She is confused if she want's to or not. She later says yes and they set up a day to go. She lies to her Aunt Carol and says that she is going to spend the night at Hana's house. The day finally comes for Alex and Lena to meet up. They are able to sneak past the guards as one of them is actually a sympathizer. Alex shows Lena his trailer, which Lena falls in love. There is no electrical power in the Wilds. His trailer is filled to the brim with books from "before" which are banned where Lena lives. The books are all filled with poetry and love stories. He reads some to Lena. Lena becomes far less naive as she begins to understand that nearly everything she had ever been told about the Invalids, and the Wilds, and the Deliria and life, in general, were lies. Lena and Alex come back to Portland. Few day's later, they hang out again, and she starts talking about how she misses her mother and she describes her mother to Alex. She talks about how she wears a pin that her father would wear. Alex realizes that her mother resembles a woman he used to know in the Crypts. She is shocked and wants to know if her mother is actually alive or dead. He helps he sneak into the ward and Lena discovered that her mother had been kept in there for nearly twelve years until she escaped a few months earlier. All over the walls, they were covered with the world love all over the place. Her mother carved the letter "O" so deep that chunks of the wall fell out and she ran away. They think she ran away most likely to the Wilds. Lena is in shock by all of this. She can't believe that her family lied to her that her own mother killed herself. Lena decides to run away with Alex to the wilds. She's upset that her family lied to her and allowed her to think that her mother abandoned her. She tells Alex that she wants to go with him to the Wilds forever. He warns her the dangers, saying that she can never ever come back. She tells him that she loves him, this is a huge deal for her as the word "love" was such a restriction.They decided to go on the week before her procedure. Lena and Alex plan their escape to the Wild at their favorite hiding place (an old abandoned house on the outskirts of Portland). The door is locked, but then they realize that there is a dozen of Regulator's begin to run towards them. They try to run away from them, Alex gets away and Lena get's knockout by the Regulators. Lena finally wakes up at her home. Her sister Rachel is there and convinces her to take these Advil pills. Lena doesn't believe her but still takes them. She asks her sister why did they lie to her about her mother killing her. Her sister tells her she is crazy and that the knockout must of really hit her. She discovers later that her procedure has been moved up to the next day. Early morning of her procedure, Lena decides that if Alex doesn't come and rescue her, she will commit suicide in order to escape the procedure. Grace sneaks into her room and unties her. She tells Lena that there are two regulators outside. Moments later, Alex comes with a motorcycle. Her uncle comes up to the bedroom to stop her from escaping. Lena jumps off from the two story house and makes it to the ground. She hops on to Alex's motorcycle and they ride off to escape the Regulators to the Wild's. He tells Lena that she has to run and climb over the fence. She will have thirty seconds and he promises that he will be right behind her. She runs and makes it over the fence with all of her strength. She looks back and Alex hasn't moved at all, and all the regulators are running towards him. He tells her to run, and she does.
Lily Collins as Lena Haloway
Alex Pettyfer as Alex Sheathes
Ashley Benson as Hana Tate
Portland, Maine
Grace Tiddle
Kristina Pimenova as Jenny Tiddle
Lisa Kurdow as Aunt Carol Tiddle
Jennifer Aniston as Annabel Haloway (Lena's mother)
Lena's mother in the Crypts before she escapes
The forbidden parties
Lena and Alex racing to the water
Alex and Lena's first kiss
Description of the Dystopian World :
In the book Delirium, it is described as a dystopian world because it takes place in the future and they have discovered that love is actually a disease called Amor-Deliria-Nervosa. The government has convinced society that love is a disease that needs to be wiped out. Everyone in the society, before their eighteen birthday should sustain a series of tests to analyze every aspect of their personality and how they are as a person. This is to lead the citizens to their best future careers and to find them a suitable partner. "Usually the evaluator generates a list of four or five approved matches, and the citizens are allowed to pick among them. This way everyone is happy." (page 21 Oliver). When the citizens are eighteen, they are cured of the deliria through a surgical procedure and then paired to live a safe and comfortable existence free from the pain, sorrow, and heartbreak that love can bring them. This society is ruled by a bureaucratic government control and a technological control. They make the society believe that the Wilds are dangerous and that the Invalids are horrible people because they refuse to take the cure. They make the society feel frightened about them and where they live at. The government refuses the citizens to have any communication with these Invalids by having theses raiders, regulators, and guards at the border.
The Evaluator's and Procedure Place
Citizens during their Evaluation's testing's
"The Book of Shh"
Dystopian Characteristics :
In the book Delirium, it uses propaganda because the government uses a bureaucratic control to scare the citizens into getting the cure, so that "deliria" doesn't steal their power. The government does this by making up lies about the Invalids. The government makes them have mandatory surgical producers to get rid of the disease. The government gives each citizen a "Book of Shh", which describes the disease of love, contains rules, tales, and religious anecdotes for the society. If any citizen burns the book or destroys it in any way, it is considered profanity. They make their freedom limited by making parties of forbidden, they have forbidden music that they can't listen to, they also banned books that were contaminated with love related elements. The society has a fear of the Wilds. The Wilds is where the Invalids live in. The society is afraid of them because they feel as if they will get infected as the government told them. They feel like their lives will be ruined and that they won't have a wonderful future. They know if they get infected, they will have their procedure moved up. If they refuse to get cured and are infected, they get thrown into the Crypts or be killed by the government. Another characteristic would be that the citizens are under constant surveillance. They make regulators, guards, and raiders check in and make the citizens swipe their ID cards to see where the young adults go and see what time their curfew is. They see what time their curfew is to make them go where they want to go or go back home. They check where they go, so they won't disobey one of the strict rules. The society is an illusion of a perfect world because the government told the society that they are preeminent than the Invalids. The invalids to the government and society are evil. The citizens believe that the invalids are evil to them because the invalids don't want to be cured and the society believes that the invalids want to infect them with the dreadful disease.
Dystopian Controls:
The society in Delirium is controlled by a corporate control, bureaucratic control, Technological, and philosophical /Religious control. The society is controlled by a corporate control because the regulators, raiders, security guards, and evaluator's are somewhat the society's government. They control the society by making them do procedures so they won't get infected by the disease, love. They set up a lot of check in's. They make parents choose specific curfews for their kids. The society is also controlled by a bureaucratic control because the government has forbidden music, poetry, and books that contain love. The government tells the society that music, poetry, and books contain the horrible disease and will make them want to have the disease. They make horrible lies about the Wilds. They say it is a horrible place filled with people that aren't cured. They are an incompetent government because they didn't know that some people from the Wilds were crossing over to Portland from the fence. They make horrible lies that love is a disease when it isn't. Lena in the story learns that what the government said about the disease isn't true at all. She learns that love is amazing and it actually makes her delighted. These invalids pretend to be cured, add fake ID cards, and had jobs. Alex is an example of one of these's invalids. The government didn't even realize this. They only found out later when they caught Alex and Lena. They didn't even try to chase Lena when she went over the fence to go in the Wilds. The society is also controlled by a technological control because a lot of citizens don't have cars, computers, I-Phones, I-Pads, tablets, laptops, Samsung, and etc, Some citizens do have these technologies, and the government tells them that they aren't allowed to listen to certain music on them especially about love. The citizens aren't allowed to go on certain websites. For example, they can only go on educational and government websites. They are also under a philosophical and religious control because "The Book of Shh" is almost like Bible to them. They feel dubious when someone talks ghastly about the book. An example of The Book of Shh is " Humans, unregulated, are cruel and capricious: violent and selfish: miserable and quarrelsome. It is only after their instincts and basic emotions have been controlled that they can be happy, generous, and good." (page 355 Oliver). The government kept this way of control so they can control these citizens and not let love take over their power. They feel like love is weak and will destroy their society.
Dystopian Protagonist :
In the novel Delirium, Lena sometimes feels trapped about her feelings. She feels trapped about her feelings because when she meets Alex she knows she's feeling the symptoms of love. She knows she's not supposed to, so she tries to make herself stop and not feel those emotions towards Alex but it doesn't help. Her emotions make her feel trapped. Her emotions make her confused that if she should let these emotions take over her or listen to what the society tells her to feel. She feels the struggle to escape when she finds out Alex is an Invalid. She has the struggle to escape her emotions toward him because she knew she wasn't supposed to be with an Invalid because they will infect her with the disease. Later in the book, her trapped emotions change when Alex explains his feelings towards her. He explains to her how he got here and that he really loves her. He shows her that love isn't what the government and the society say it is. She finds that love actually makes you happy than the evaluator's picking who your spouse is going to be or the moment they choose your occupation or how many children you will have. She has another struggle when she wants to escape the world she lives in. She wants to escape because everyone in her family lied to her about her mom and the government isn't being truthful about love. She later believes that there is something wrong with her society when Alex changes her mind about the government. She notices that the government is really careless and secretive about the disease which is love and about the Invalids that live in the Wild's. Alex makes Lena realize that love is vigorous, even though the government says that love is pathetic. " I don't like to think that I'm still walking around with the disease running through my blood."(page 2 Oliver). This example shows that Lena in the beginning thought love is godawful. She believed the government when they said that the procedure will make you beatific. Later, Lena feels the opposite toward the end of the book." I'd rather die on my own terms than live my life on theirs. I'd rather die loving Alex than live without him."(page 425). The quote shows how she was so in love, that she would die loving Alex than not loving him. She learned that love is actually superior and that the government was wrong about love being an awful thing. From Lena's perspective, reader's can learn that her world was wrong about love. The reader's can learn that the government was trying to rule over people having to be in love. They are trying to take the citizens rights away. The government does this by making them do procedures, banning music, banning certain websites, banning parties, and banning books that contain love. There were no traits missing for Lena because her character shows how she rises when the realization hits her, that she's living with the lies of a malevolent and a fake government.
Personal Review :
I would personally give Delirium a rating of five out of five stars. I really loved the book. The things that I loved in Delirium was it was in Lena's point of view. I loved how the author wrote about Lena's feelings to Alex. Their love for each other would always give me goosebumps. I loved how the book would make me gasp when Lena found out her mother didn't die. I loved how the author decided to write from Lena's perspective. I loved how Lena would defend Grace when her family would call her dumb for not talking. Lena was the only one that knew Grace could talk. I loved how Lauren Oliver made the book seem so real to me. Lauren Oliver made me think what if this actually happen. I thought to myself, would I be an invalid or someone in Delirium's society. I loved how the book made me fangirl over Alex and Lena's relationship. It made me follow this account on Tumblr of a fan-fiction about them, that is I got most of the drawing pictures I posted on here. I loved how Lena changes from a scared girl to a brave one. The brand new Lena shows she is fierce and she is fighting for what she believes in now. I really didn't like how the book ended. I wanted Alex and Lena to be together at the end. I can't wait to read the next sequel! I hope it is convenient because I really don't like dystopian books. I remember reading The Hunger Games and I loved it, but when I read the sequel's. I really didn't like The Hunger Games sequels at all. I hope the Delirium series are better and I hope I fall in love with them.Delirium made me fall in love with dystopian books all over again.