Blog Post #7: Matched Setting

            While reading the book Matched by Ally Condie I realized that the setting the people live in is an advanced place. The Society is an advanced place that people do not know how to write and only use computers to do everything. Things have to be perfect or else something bad might happen to the person who did wrong.  In the Society Officials decide on who a person loves, when they die, and where you work. There is no choice in the Society. Cassia trusted these decisions because there’s barely any price to pay for a perfect mate, a long life, and a perfect job. When her best friend, Xander, is appears on the Matching screen she knows he’s the one and only mate, but later she sees another face that she knows flash and then fade away.

            The Society is a place that people are always being watched. The people are always being watched over by officials all over. I think that the Society symbolizes how people want things to be perfect, but also don’t want it to be perfect. The Society has people that like having a perfectly lead life and some people who want to be free and do things that they can’t do. Cassia wanted to learn how to write cursive from Ky, but it is against the law in the Society to write. Slowly Cassia discovers what she’s really made of without the help of the Officials.

            In the book Ky plays a big role because he is the face that Cassia sees on the screen and she does not know exactly who she should be with even though the Officials said she should be with Xander. Ky has been fascinated with Cassia since they were little. The Society blocks off many things that people should be able to do, but cannot. When Cassia wants to learn how to write from Ky she has to do in secret because writing is not allowed. Cassia does not know what her real feelings are for Ky because she sees him as a guy that is interesting, but is untouchable.

            The setting of the book is like the setting in The Giver because in the book the world they live in is being controlled. They have to be assigned jobs. The Society is a place that you can choose your own job and move freely at any time. There is a curfew for all people to get to their house, there is always eyes watching you no matter what, and there is no way to get away from them watching you. The Society is building and getting more and more technological. No one can be free in a world where if you do something wrong you will be punished.