Mar 02 2008
In the Heart of the Valley of Love
On page 190 Francie takes a moment to reflect on the present word situation. Like in the Parable series the USA is being dominated by a dictatorship government that is more interested in itself then its citizens. Political, social, and economical chaos is all the byproducts of the government in the Heart of the Valley of Love that Francie talk about in her passage. Another thing that the government does is that it provokes fear in it citizens by arresting anyone for the pettiest to the most horrific crimes committed. The government would even arrest a person if that thought that those people worked with the criminals.
Francie’s Auntie Annie is distort after Rohn is taken away by the police and does not return. Annie writes daily to anyone that might have some information as to where Rohn is and if she could bail him out of jail. Francie fears that all if her aunt’s letters will get her aunt in trouble with the police too.
The police and the rest of the government rule made everyone live in fear of doing anything wrong. In the beginning of the passage Francie sees a helicopter searching for someone in the night. When she sees this helicopter she is not sure how ot feel about it, which is interesting. Normally people would be delighted that the police are keeping people safe. Instead Francie wonders if she should side with the person the police are looking for because he might have done nothing wrong. Francie, along with many others, are divided against trusting their government and thinking that the government is corrupt and evil. Since people are not sure whether to trust the government or not many resort to living secret live to survive and live a moderately normal life. A moderately normal life allows the citizens to get more water, food, and gas than the government gives them. The government seems to spend most of its money on providing order to the citizens with law, rather then providing public good, which is something that the citizens really need.
Since the government tells its citizen how much of the resources they can have, resources are given in small rations and are expensive to buy from privately own companies. The high prices and the small rations many people must resort to stealing in order to live. All the stealing is making most of the people petty thieves. The few that Francie says are not thieves are the rich. This distinction makes a large gap between the rich and the poor. However Franice say in the passage that she does not hate the rich for being rich. They actually fought with the poor for change.
Francie also mentions that she believes that even though the world is corrupt and thinks that the corruption is coming to an end. She states that she is not sure what would happen at the end of the corruption or when it will finally end, just that it will end someday. She says “something was ending, which also meant that something was beginning.” Maybe Francie is waiting for an almost revolutionary change, a revolt against the government. At this point she just wants to be free from the fear.
Lastly Francie talks about the rioters. In the beginning the rioters rioted because they wanted change. Now they rioted just to destroy. Why would the rioters want to destroy instead of making a point to the government? It seems as though through the destruction of physical things they wish to destroy an era or fear.
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Why would the rioters want to destroy instead of making a point to the government?
The rioters are destroying things to make a point. They are pointing out that they are fed up with everything the government does. Sometimes you just have to destroy shit to make a point. Its harsh but someone has to do it.
people destroy and ruin things for the most part when they are angry and sometimes when they need their voice to be heard. the government is regulating the wrong part of people’s lives. they ration gas and water, but don’t prevent crime. it is the rationing that causes people to destroy things. they need to survive and to do that, they need necessities that fall short with each ration they are given. since crime goes unnoticied almost, people can riot and tear places down and ransack every place they can get into to obtain more of the necessities they need. the goverment only wants to help themselves and it’s causing the people to destroy one another. in this book, people are angry and they steal from their fellows to get what they need. it’s the only way they think they’ll be able to make it through rough times. they need thier voice to be heard. this is the voice that comes in barely a whisper above the anger causing riots saying “help us government, we need you.”