What Opinions About Goverment Are Books Giving To Teens

      As children become teens and then adults they need to understand the world around them and government is a huge part of that. How they were brought up will have the biggest effect on their decisions and opinions but what they hear and read will have some effect as well. Therefore it is important to know how authors are portraying the government and people in power.

      In the book Allegiant by Veronica Roth I've noticed that the power keeps shifting. Uprising after uprising occurs. Once the people who rebelled get into power there is a rebellion against them. They can never settle for a leader or even a democracy. The people who are in power usually have a dark secret or an alternate motive for good doing. This is what causes the uprisings. Is this a good message to teach children. That first of all the government has secret plots and isn't trust worthy. And secondly that rising up (and usually causing a war) is the answer. This isnt just in Allegiant. Many science fiction books portray a crooked dystopian society that needs fixing. And the reason it is so disfunctional is because of the people running it.

      I also noticed that the people in charge were portrayed as cruel and violent. In Allegiant when soldiers from the government go to the corrupt poor areas the people are afraid of them and their guns. However in that pacticular scene from the book their is also the opinion of the soldiers. To them the people are the violent ones. However you as a reader dont take the soldiers side because they think that they are better than the poor citizens.they think they are scum. Does that show that the government doesn't care for the people? This book doesn't seem like a government promoting book. You could spin it and take the side of the soldiers if you really wanted to but the way it's written doesn't make you want to. The main characters are against the power figures so that makes you want to be too.

      Basically the people in power are always the villian. Being portrayed as heartless people who don't have feelings. Like they are playing a game of peoples lives and they can't feel the effects.Do we want our children thinking that that government is bad and that authority figures can't be truly good. The government isn't perfect but it isn't our enemy either.

Death=?

     Death is a mysterious and complex thing. Yet in many science fiction books it is tossed aside as worthless. In The Hunger Games shows it as a game and as something so easy to lose. These books mention the deaths of main characters but if you read closer you'll notice the tons of lives lost. Whether from wars or revenge thousands of people die in each book. I think that it conveys that life isn't precious or that life is so little that it could be used as a punishment.
     In the book I'm currently reading Allegiant by Veronica Roth I noticed something in this futuristic world that relates to the death penalty that we have today. After a war that killed hundreds of innocents there is trials for the leaders of armies and the rebels. It brought up a question that is a current debate in the world: is death a valid punishment. Also, if you killed someone is it worth your own life? That brings up the question of what is equal to what. Death to death or death to jail. I've noticed that a lot of sci-fi books have the question of what is death worth. And is there a time where death is the better option?
     I concluded that in most books death is what the punishment ends up being. For example, in The Hunger Games President Snow has an execution date. I'm not sure if this portrays the authors opinion on the death penalty or if she only thinks it was a good punishment for this character in particular. In Allegiant People are sentenced to death but are rescued so that the only ones who died were the innocent citizens. This shows the opposite perspective that no matter how many you kill death is not the answer. Overall I do not think anyone should be sentenced to death. Rotting in a cell seems worst to me. However I disagree about how death is portrayed in many books for teens. Instead these books should show how valuable life is.