Similiarties Between Divergent and Delirium

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           Start with a perfect or utopian society, usually formed after a rebellion that no one really remembers:

In Divergent everyone is divided into factions based on their beliefs so “everyone fits in”. In Delirium people can’t be possessed by passionate love, which is what destroys happiness

           

            Add in one breakthrough that occurs during the teen years:

In Divergent, everyone is given an aptitude test and allowed to choose their faction at age 16. In Delirium, everyone gets surgery to remove the deliria part of your brain at age 18.

            

            Rules by the government that no one thinks to question:

In Divergent, there is technology to create serums that give the receiver lifelike simulations which others are able to watch, but if you leave your faction, you cut off people from your past life. In Delirium, you have to have the surgery so you cannot love. To make sure people get the procedure, the government shows them videos of people dying for love as a scare tactic.

           

           Add in Words to enhance the illusion of a future society:

In Divergent the main examples are dauntless, erudite, candor, abnegation, and amity. In Delirium some exapmles are, amor deliria nervosa, Invalid (uncured person), and the Book of Shhh.

            

           Mix in a character that opens the main character’s eyes to the flaws of society and is used as a love interest:

For Divergent that character is Four, who teaches Tris about fighting and about being a Divergent and Tris falls in love with throughout the book. In Delirium that person is Alex, who Lena falls in love with just before her surgery.

            

          Flaws in society:

In Divergent, the factions create friction. For Delirium, the government makes citizens easy controllable with brain surgery and also the fact that people need love.

Main Theme in Delirium

   Simple to say, the main theme in Delirium is love. Once you turn 18, you will never love anyone or anything again. No love for family, friends, boyfriends/girlfriends. You wont love anything, not even something as little as a sport.  It’s what the entire book is based off of; there would be no book without love. I can agree that in most books with the main theme of love… are pretty awful. This book is not just a sappy love story though. Action, betrayal and love. All incorporated in one book. The theme of love is shown throughout the whole book. 

    An example from the beginning of the book is, “The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don't.”(1.12) This is how Lena feels about love in the beginning of the book. For Lena, she thought love was bad before she actuallu truly experienced it. The theme of love is shown in the middle of the book by,  “The disorientation, the distraction, the difficulty focusing—all classic Phase One signs of deliria. But I don't care. If pneumonia felt this good I'd stand out in the snow in the winter with bare feet and no coat on, or march into the hospital and kiss pneumonia patients.”(15.21) The theme of love has evolved. Lena now could not live without love. It shows that people need each other’s love; it’s just how the world is. An example from the end of the book that shows the theme of love is, “Without love, there could also be no hate: without hate, no violence. Hate isn't the most dangerous thing [...] indifference is.” Lena realizes that love has its downside because without love there is no hate. She also realizes that love is the only way to true happiness, which kind of relates to Fahrenheit. They are both about a journey to true happiness. Those quotes show how the theme of love has evolved throughout the book.

My Writers voice

Blog post #5:

       “Within the first few pages of the book we already know that it is set in the good ol USA. A quote from the book that shows that is, “Of course we aren’t totally free of deliria in the United States." It makes you think, what if our government said love was a disease? What if they prevented us from love? The US government in this book deprives its people from such an important emotion. They see only the pain love brings, they don’t see the happiness and wonderful things it brings. Any town or city could have been chosen for the setting in my opinion. No matter what city, there would be no love anywhere. (Thanks to the wonderful US government) But it is set in Portland, Maine. They can’t love, can’t choose who to marry and get told how many kids they can have. The government watches them like people watch a reality show. In the book, the US still celebrates some holidays. The government held the value of the fourth of July. A quote that proves this is, “the day of our independence, the day we commemorate the closing of our nation’s border" So there are some similarities with the world in this book and our world. Even though in that quote, the border closing really represents their total dependence for the cure of love. The US is totally cut off from the outside world. The people are not allowed access to the outside world. It's kind of like a communist country, but worse.”
       
        For my writers voice I use sarcasm as a writing style. I use it as a way to criticize something or sometimes show I like it. It shows I feel about a subject. I also use rhetorical questions as a of my writing style part of my writer’s voice. An example of a rhetorical question I use is, “What if they prevented us from love?” That phrase shows my writers voice of sarcasm is, “Thanks to the wonderful US government.” They show my personality as a sarcastic writer that likes to involve my reader’s with questions. It also shows that I am headstrong about my opinion.
      
        I use different types of punctuation to enhance my writer’s voice. I use commas a lot in my writing. It’s a good way to in cooperate my opinion with examples or evidence. It’s also a great way to make sentences interesting and different. It can change the tone of the whole piece. An example is, “Its kind of like a communist country, but worse.” It really helps the reader understand what the country is like and is a great way to add to the tone. For diction I use a lot of abstract diction. The abstract diction helps enhance writer’s voice because it shows how I want to make the readers feel. It helps the readers really evoke their emotions with what I’m is trying to describe. An example is, ‘What if they prevented us from love?” the word prevented changes the way the readers feel about love in the book and helps them appreciate love.