All humans have felt it at one time or another. Fear.
I'll freely admit that I'm terrified of most dogs, even little tiny ones. They have sharp teeth too, you know.
So in accordance with our discussion on Margaret Haddix's AMONG THE HIDDEN, I'm going to talk a little bit about how she used fear in the novel.
Poor Luke is struck with it all the time. He loses his freedom to go outside for fear that someone will see him. He can't sit at the kitchen table for fear that someone will hear him. And Luke isn't the only one living in fear. His parents--though it might be hard to see sometimes--live in constant fear that their third child will be found.
I think Haddix does an amazing job of infiltrating the plot with fear, which then captures readers. Parents can imagine what it would be like to protect Luke from getting caught. Teens and kids can put themselves in Luke's position, constantly living behind closed shutters and silence. The use of fear appeals to wide audience.
So then Luke conquers one of his fears when he sneaks out to meet Jen. My heart was pounding during that scene, because let's face it, haven't we all snuck out at some point in our lives? The fear of getting caught doing something we're not supposed to be doing is almost inbred in us.
Fear is what endears the reader to the plot, because it is a human emotion that we all understand.
Think of the dystopian novels you've read recently. Were they filled with fear? I bet they were. What about other types of novels? Is fear driving them too? What makes someone, like Luke, take a risk, leave the house and scamper out into the open to see if another Third is living next door? What makes YOU take that risk -- look fear in the face?
Class (and Saint Monday) Among the Hidden
The beauty of Margaret Peterson Haddix' AMONG THE HIDDEN is that it’s a simply told tale about some very heavy, thought- provoking subjects. Today, I want focus on the class system she's built in this unnamed country some time in the near future.Jen’s father tells Luke that after the famines and the riots that followed, the government—one that believed in democracy—was overthrown, and the despot who came to power offered the two things people wanted: food and order. The class system—the Barons and everyone else—was a conscious decision to control the populace. The Barons—who run the government—want to protect their privileges. And the poor are kept too busy working and surviving on less and less. So neither class openly questions or dissents. All in the name of productivity.
It works in the context of the story. The government takes Luke’s family’s land for a subdivision of Barons. The Garners lose their ability to support themselves, and Luke’s father gets fined for trying to raise food indoors. Luke’s family is constantly made to work harder for less and less.
Far fetched? Not so much.
In the very early years of the industrial age, factory workers, mostly fresh off the farm, didn’t quite have the 9-5 (or in their case, 9-9 or later) grind beat into their souls yet. They got paid by the piece, and when they had enough money to pay for the necessities, they simply didn’t work. They even invented a new holiday, Saint Monday, which was usually observed after a late Sunday night at the tavern.
As you can imagine, this piecework arrangement didn’t last too long. Employers wanted factories running full tilt all the time. So manufacturers had to figure out how to get workers to actually work full days and full weeks. Incentives and increased pay didn’t entice people. Given the choice of earning more or working less—provided that the base pay was enough to cover expenses—most people then chose time over money. They chose to honor Saint Monday. So employers started paying less, as little as possible even, in order to force workers to put in more hours just to make ends meet.
So Haddix is right on the money, so to speak, about how the powers that be (whether governments or corporations) try to control the workforce.
How else did the government of Luke’s world control its people? Fear? Privilege? Food? Discuss. (And for your book club listening pleasure, check out Billy Bragg's "Saint Monday" below.)
Who Would You Be if You Were Hidden?
For me the most affecting part of Among the Hidden is Luke's isolation, how he spends the beginning of the book in a strange sort of limbo that's drawn more and more tightly around him as the story progresses. First the outdoors are taken away, then the ability to eat in the kitchen, then he can't even walk by a shuttered window for fear of someone seeing his shadow.
What's left? He sits in his room. He rereads books. He eats in the stairwell. There are some attempted conversations with his brothers, but really, what is there to say?
Everything changes when he comes into the orbit of fellow 3rd child Jen. Jen, though Hidden like him, is allowed outdoors on shopping trips and interacts with a large number of other kids online. It struck me how much bolder Jenny is in terms of characterization than Luke. She's brash, smart, passionate and more than a little entitled while Luke is basically a nice young man, dutiful and curious. Put next to Jen he seems sweet if a little bland. That starts to change though once they begin to interact. Jen offers him new ideas about the government's laws and their fairness, she gives him new books (leading to his attempt to get his Dad into hydroponics) and finally she offers him a way to act that might change his world for the better.
It's not until Luke begins the struggle to assimilate these ideas that we see him come into focus and his characterization broadens and deepens.
I think this is a great look at how all of our personalities are built. We grow up at home with our families, safe and sheltered, and it isn't until we start venturing out on our own and encountering new disruptive ideas that we begin the process of becoming who we are. One person after another crashes into us leaving little behind bits of their personality, their values and beliefs. You take some whole or in part, you react against others, you leave others behind.
I know, for me, my interest and pursuit of the arts was inspired by people I met growing up. I can't even begin to imagine all the ramifications of that. My sense of humor was seriously informed by watching endless Steve Martin movies with my high school friends. My analytical nature was focused and intensified by experiences I had with teachers and fellow students in college. Some early awkward attempts at friendships and dating also made me a little shy, a little tentative, a little slow to get to know people. I finally became comfortable with who I am and where I am in life because of my wife.
It's hard to even conceive of myself without these experiences. Without these people in my life I think I'd be about as blank as Luke seems before he has that first encounter with Jen.
What do you guys think? How much of who you are is because of the effect others had on you? Who would you be if you were one of the Hidden?
What's left? He sits in his room. He rereads books. He eats in the stairwell. There are some attempted conversations with his brothers, but really, what is there to say?
Everything changes when he comes into the orbit of fellow 3rd child Jen. Jen, though Hidden like him, is allowed outdoors on shopping trips and interacts with a large number of other kids online. It struck me how much bolder Jenny is in terms of characterization than Luke. She's brash, smart, passionate and more than a little entitled while Luke is basically a nice young man, dutiful and curious. Put next to Jen he seems sweet if a little bland. That starts to change though once they begin to interact. Jen offers him new ideas about the government's laws and their fairness, she gives him new books (leading to his attempt to get his Dad into hydroponics) and finally she offers him a way to act that might change his world for the better.
It's not until Luke begins the struggle to assimilate these ideas that we see him come into focus and his characterization broadens and deepens.
I think this is a great look at how all of our personalities are built. We grow up at home with our families, safe and sheltered, and it isn't until we start venturing out on our own and encountering new disruptive ideas that we begin the process of becoming who we are. One person after another crashes into us leaving little behind bits of their personality, their values and beliefs. You take some whole or in part, you react against others, you leave others behind.
I know, for me, my interest and pursuit of the arts was inspired by people I met growing up. I can't even begin to imagine all the ramifications of that. My sense of humor was seriously informed by watching endless Steve Martin movies with my high school friends. My analytical nature was focused and intensified by experiences I had with teachers and fellow students in college. Some early awkward attempts at friendships and dating also made me a little shy, a little tentative, a little slow to get to know people. I finally became comfortable with who I am and where I am in life because of my wife.
It's hard to even conceive of myself without these experiences. Without these people in my life I think I'd be about as blank as Luke seems before he has that first encounter with Jen.
What do you guys think? How much of who you are is because of the effect others had on you? Who would you be if you were one of the Hidden?
Two sides to every coin...
There are usually at least 2 sides to every issue - certainly two sides to every coin - and maybe several sides to right and wrong. Some of the "bad" things in Among the Hidden, could have been written as "good" things with a different story bent.
In the book, Jen points out that the Government wants people to become vegetarian because more food can be produced from plants than from animals. Now - this is fact - it takes about 16 pounds of grain to make 1 pound of beef. Not hard to see that cutting out meat would mean more food (grain) for the world’s people. Yet, the idea of the government forcing people to become vegetarian is seen as bad. Whereas, with different circumstances and a different plot - vegetarianism might be seen as a positive.
The Population Law (the basis for the entire book) could be seen as a good thing under certain conditions. Particularly if overcrowding had reached the tipping point - such as the concerns of overpopulation in China. (I won’t go into all the issues that have sprouted out of that experiment in population control.)
In Among the Hidden, the Government disallows hydroponic farming supplies because of fears of illicit drugs being grown in secret. Or, so they say... However, is that much different than various over-the-counter drugs being unavailable nowadays (except by individual request and mandatory tracking) because they are used in the manufacture of illegal drugs?
So - what is good and what is bad? Not always an easy question to answer.
Beth did mention that I might drift into Government and Media discussion. And, it is very easy to do with this topic.
The totalitarian Government in Among the Hidden came to power because people were scared. They believed whatever the ever-present Media told them (a media controlled by the government - duh!) and were willing to give up their freedoms - the ability to make their own decisions about how many children to have, what kinds of food to grow and eat (no more potato chips, folks!), and so on - in order to feel safe.
And, to reinforce things - the Population Law in particular - the Media began a campaign of portraying pregnant women as criminals! Not hard to convince the general public of a thing when it’s constantly coming at you from TV, billboards, magazine ads, etc. (Think about our own views of women that are driven by Media images.)
Sadly, it’s not difficult to come up with current examples of our government moving in the direction of the totalitarianism seen in Among the Hidden.
One recent example that seems, on the surface, to be innocuous, but is being enforced due to its good for the general population is...
The Department of Energy is going to start enforcing federal regulations that require shower heads to deliver no more that 2.5 gallons per minute. How will they enforce it? By not allowing manufacturers to make shower heads capable of delivering more than 2.5 gal per min. And, fining them if they do. Currently it is mostly only the very wealthy who use these huge (24” diameter) shower heads and/or multiple shower heads (shades of the Barons!) without regard to the wasting of water.
Now - it doesn’t seem an awful thing to want to conserve water. I've lived in places where there have been droughts and watering the lawn was a ticketable offense. But, where does the public’s common sense jump ship, thereby allowing the Government to step in and mandate rules about how you can (or can't) take a shower?
It could only happen in a book - right?
At the Kitchen Table
Not because they're bad people. Not at all! I've got a wonderful, loving, Norman-Rockwell-perfect family.
And that's, in some ways, what smothers me.
See--I'd love to travel the world. Live in weird, exotic places. Do bad things that make me a legend. Rebel. Not care about a damn thing.
But I do care...because my family cares about me, and I don't want to disappoint them. I don't want to leave them behind.
In AMONG THE HIDDEN, nearly all of Luke's actions are directly influenced by his family. He elects to be locked up in his attic based on their guidance. He accepts his positions as a hidden child based on their fears. He ultimately decides to not act on Jenna's suggestions in part because of fear for repercussions to his family.
But it all--from the fear to the hiding--is based on love.
That's what got me the most while reading AMONG THE HIDDEN. At the root of it all, Luke's parents forced him into solitary perpetual confinement because they loved him. And he accepted lifetime imprisonment because he loved them. More effective than any stone walls or metal locks is, simply, love.
That's something the Government didn't understand, not at all. Jenna's father, who works for the Government, acted out of love for his daughter, though neither Luke or Jen really realized that before. His fear of the very Government he worked for was nothing compared to his love for his daughter. A family is more powerful than any Government.
A bit fortuitously, I came across a poem, "Perhaps the World Ends Here" by Joy Harjo, while writing this post. The poem is about the kitchen table, and how so much of our lives start there. It reads: "The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, / we must eat to live." As the poem goes on, the reader becomes aware of how much of our lives are centered on that table. "It is here that children are given instructions on what / it means to be human. We make men at it, / we make women."
How different would AMONG THE HIDDEN be if there was no kitchen table? Such an innocuous piece of furniture, but the story itself starts there, at the kitchen table, and Luke's imprisonment starts there, too. His family gathers for meals at the beginning of the novel, and Luke's place is swept away and hidden when visitors come to call. When the Barons move in next door, Luke no longer even has a place there--instead, he's stuck on the stairs, along, separated from his family who gather around the table for their meal.
Harjo's poem ends sadly: "Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, / while we are laughing and crying, / eating of the last sweet bite."
AMONG THE HIDDEN doesn't end at the kitchen table...but in a way, it does. Once Luke is shunted from the family table, he can no longer really be a part of the family. He can't hear their conversations, he can't participate, he's left silent and alone on the stairs. If his world had had just enough stability to keep him at the kitchen table, none of the other events that led to the end of the novel would have happened. It's because he had to leave the table that he had to leave his family.
Among the HIdden: July Book Club Selection
We here at the League are just so excited to share with you the very first Book Club. Have you all been reading AMONG THE HIDDEN by Margarent Haddix with us? We hope so--because all this week, we're going to be discussing this wonderful book!
Why AMONG THE HIDDEN?
We chose AMONG THE HIDDEN as our first Book Club selection because it's considered a classic dystopic novel. Geared slightly younger than a lot of dystopian novels, AMONG THE HIDDEN appeals to middle grade, young adult, and older audiences.
The story itself takes place in a near future world that worries about population control. After a series of natural disasters (that took place around the time the narrator's parents were young), the government has become stricter, stringently enforcing a law that decrees couples can only have two children. Ostensibly this is to ensure that there's enough food for everyone, but it seems to the narrator, Luke, that while some families struggle, the upperclass Barons have little to worry about.
Luke is a third child--illegal, and kept hidden from the outside world. That wasn't hard to do while he and his farming family lived alone in the country, but when the Government buys the farmland and builds houses for Barons to live nearby, Luke is forced to live locked up in his house in a windowless attic. Then he notices that one of the Barons has a third child, too.
In meeting this other illegal third child, Luke's world starts to spin out of control. He starts to question whether he wants to stay safe but locked up in his own house, or whether he wants to risk it all to fight the Government. Is freedom worth his life? His family's lives? His future?
For the rest of the week, we're going to be discussing specific elements of this dystopian title, and we hope you join in the conversation! Please, feel free to post comments and continue the discussion. Our goal is to make this an interactive place to explore different aspects of the book.
Our schedule for this week is:
- Monday (posted at 3PM Eastern Standard Time): Beth will discuss the family dynamics on the book--that, at it's heart, this book is about being a member of a family just as much as existing in a dystopian world with an oppressive government.
- Tuesday: Julia will talk about how there's two sides to every coin--how what's good in some dystopian novels is bad in others, and how that translates into the real world. She's probably going to overflow a bit into the government and media's version of the truth with her discussion.
- Wednesday: Jeff is going to talk about how much our personalities are formed by our relationships with others. If you have no one, how do you form who you are?
- Thursday: Angie will present the class system in AMONG THE HIDDEN and how the government controls people through it.
- Friday: Elana will talk about the fear of having to stay hidden, as well as the use of fear in general in dystopian literature.
Books That Spur
I believe Angie just talked about closets of the apocalypse yesterday. I'm camping in Glacier National Park this week, and in preparation for the trip, I had to steer my cart down the emergency preparedness aisle at the grocery store.
Holy brown cows, people. Have you been down that aisle lately? And I thought I could possibly survive a natural disaster. But there were things in that aisle I'd never even considered. An ax, for one. See, I live in a townhome, and let's just leave it at the fact that I don't need an ax for anything. Or at least I thought I didn't.
My little trip down oh-man-I'm-not-prepared made me think of a book I read last year. I think some of you know where I'm going with this.
The book?
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer.
As soon as I finished it, I posted something on facebook that basically said I'd bought 100 pounds of flour and 50 pounds of rice.
Because I did.
That book made me realize that I had nowhere near enough food to sustain my family, and I ran right out and stocked up on some things. My jaunt down the aisle at the grocery store reminded me that I haven't done enough.
Have you ever read a book that spurred you to action? What was it and what did you do?
Holy brown cows, people. Have you been down that aisle lately? And I thought I could possibly survive a natural disaster. But there were things in that aisle I'd never even considered. An ax, for one. See, I live in a townhome, and let's just leave it at the fact that I don't need an ax for anything. Or at least I thought I didn't.
My little trip down oh-man-I'm-not-prepared made me think of a book I read last year. I think some of you know where I'm going with this.
The book?
As soon as I finished it, I posted something on facebook that basically said I'd bought 100 pounds of flour and 50 pounds of rice.
Because I did.
That book made me realize that I had nowhere near enough food to sustain my family, and I ran right out and stocked up on some things. My jaunt down the aisle at the grocery store reminded me that I haven't done enough.
Have you ever read a book that spurred you to action? What was it and what did you do?
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