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Scribbles About Books: Matched Chapter 7 (Spoilers)

So I was reading Matched... which I talked about yesterday in my post... and I liked a chapter so much I wanted to review that chapter alone without knowing how the book is going to end... I'll probably do this if a chapter kind of effects me like this one does.

I don't want to get too spoiler-y but there were a lot of feelings I had about this chapter... and I think it's pretty beautiful and this chapter changed how I felt about the book as a whole a little bit...

So this chapter focuses on the main character, Cassia's grandfather's Eightieth birthday... which in The Society, is the day that they die. The Society chose this end for the people... so they don't have much of a choice in the matter. There are still some diseases in The Society- which Cassia's Grandmother had already passed away from... and it's unusual for someone Cassia's age to have an 80 year old Grandfather. He had been matched later on in his life than most people... The Society doesn't even allow people to match at the age he was... which I think was 35... anymore. And it's also established that he and Cassia are very close. Also, he has kind of a dark sense of humor... which I liked.

I was also close to my grandfathers and the Grandfather character reminded me of them. They are no longer with us unfortunately... so I think that's why I had such a fondness for this chapter in particular.

Another reason why I like this chapter is that it kind of establishes how The Society Works really well. I assumed when reading it that The Society matched up 16 year olds to get married at a young age so that they would have babies at a younger age, and they'd be able to live longer, healthier lives... especially as The Society seems to have eliminated several diseases... it would make sense that they would want people to live as long as possible... but they are also working to "preserve" the dead and bring them back if possible. Not everyone gets the preservation privilege- but Cassia's grandfather was honored. This made it clearer that it was not really taking into account what might be best for the individual... but instead what was best for The Society.

He had a little bit of say in his death... it could be private or public and he got to choose the food everyone ate for his last meal (everyone has the same meal... but his is on a plate they are not allowed to eat from... I'm guessing because there is poison in it?), and he could chose to be preserved... other than that- he wasn't able to have it where he wanted to... and in my opinion- he didn't really have a choice into whether he had to die or not. It was a little vague on that or I am just not remembering properly... but I think that was a good way of showing that even though The Society is trying to make things as easy as possible... you still don't really get to chose how to die.

Now the main plot of the story involves Cassia being matched to one boy named Xander and later being matched with another named Ky- who isn't able to be matched... Officials of The Society are aware of this... but Cassia wasn't allowed to tell anyone other than her grandfather. And the Officials mentioned the Grandfather losing preservation privileges if he were to tell someone... and that is not specifically mentioned in this chapter...

While I do believe this was subtly mentioned (I'll get to that) the fact that it wasn't mentioned means that this is possible for a Chekhov's Gun scenario. Checkhov's gun is a writing principle that addresses that everything in a piece of writing must be relevant to the piece itself.Most popularly described as " If in the first act there is a you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following act it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there." I'm hoping that this is relevant to the plot somehow and that the grandfather risked his preservation privileges to help his granddaughter realize the problems with The Society so that she can rebel against it.

One part that was heartbreaking to me in this chapter was when Cassia gives her grandfather his present... which is a letter that she "made" for him on the "computer" for lack of better phrase... these parts I don't understand that well... but the Grandfather is somewhat disappointed in the letter because Cassia did not use her own words. The Society was very focused on numbers... so many people in the society didn't know how to write.

As a writer- that is heartbreaking to me because I love writing... but it also gives me hope that that was not just a random mention of the preservation privileges because Cassia's Grandfather encouraged her to "Use Her Words" and he either left a note in her Compact- or he discovered a note in her compact that Cassia hadn't seen before... I'm hoping this is what ends up being the catalyst to get Cassia moving!

That is all for right now... don't comment with spoilers please! I have only read up to this point right now and I'll do a full review soon... but this deserved its own review!

Byeee!
-Shannon

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