Breaking Down SocietyBreaking Down Society

Matched,by Ally Condie, is set in the future. People live in different Boroughs, which are in different provinces. Cassia lives in the MapleTreeBorough in the Oria Province. The setting changesthroughout the story. For example, the setting changesbetween Secondary School, Cassia’s house, the movietheater, the Game Room, City Hall, themuseum, the Hill,the Aboretum, andthe Farmlands.

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Cassia is a 17-year old girl with dark hair and green eyes. Cassia is a major character. Actually, she’s the main character. She’s the girl who is stuck in the middle of a love triangle where she can’t decide her own fate. Some of her characteristics include being trustworthy, loving to the ones she trulycares about, she’s intelligent, very athletic, she loves nature, and she’salso unselfish. We consider her a dynamic character because at thebeginning of the book, she feels like she was destined to be with Xander,her Match, but then has a change of heart when she finds out moreinformation about Ky, making her fall in love with him. Another exampleof Cassia being a dynamic character is at the beginning of the book,Cassia follows all the Society’s rules. As time goes on, she starts to getcurious about how the Society works, and why other people get tochoose who she’s going to love, and breaks some of the rules to findout more about why this is. She is a protagonist when you think aboutOUR society, she just believes in her own rights. If you’re looking in HERSociety’s eyes, she’s the antagonist. She doesn’t believe in the rules ofthe Society because she doesn’t get to make her own decisions and choices, making her break some of the Society’s rules to get whatshe wants.

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This is what we thought Cassia would look like. She has green eyes and brown, wavy hair.

Ky Markham is a mysterious, observant 17 year-old. He’sconsidered what is called an Aberration- meaning he can’tbe matched because of a “felony” his parents committed.

Though, he can’t be matched, he said his ideal matchwould be Cassia. He’s a very observant, young man.

He’salso very quiet and shy unless he knows you and you’re

hisfriend. Ky is one of the very few people who can write,

andcan hide their talent well from the Officials. He alsopurposefully loses the games in the Game Room, eventhough he KNOWS how to win on the spot. Like Cassia,

Kyis an antagonist to Society because of him being an Aberration. Though he’s an Aberration, he really has a

goodheart. All he wants to do is love Cassia with no restrictions from the Society. Ky really did nothing wrong.

He’s being punished for something his parents did who apparently did something against the rules.

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This is what we thought Ky would look like. He has dark, short hair and his eye color “changes” according to the shading of the light.

Xander is outgoing, brave, and sometimes can be a rulebreaker. Xander is one those guys who will do anything toprotect his loved ones. He was matched with Cassia, his bestfriend since they were little. They’re technically “perfect” foreach other. He’s a very loving person and loves Cassia withall his heart. He LOVES to go the Game Room and playgames in his free time. He’s one of those laid back guys whojust enjoys living life in the moment. Xander is considered a static character. We believe this because his feelings don’t change throughout the book. He still loves Cassia with all hisheart and is his same caring, unselfish self. Xander, likeCassia, is a protagonist to OUR society, but an antagonist to HIS society. This is because he has good intentions but they go against the Society’s rules. An example of this was when he gave Em one of his green pills (anxiety relief) even thoughEm already took one that week, meaning she couldn’t take another one.

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This is what we thought Xander would look like. He has short, blond hair and intriguing blue eyes.

Bram Reyes is the little brother of CassiaReyes. He’s in Primary School and he’s 9years old- almost 10. He’s one of those littlerascals who doesn’t obey rules and doesn’tlike to listen to his sister. He would neveradmit this, but Cassia is one of his role models and best friends that he can look to for guidance. He’s a static character.We think this because he doesn’t really changeemotionally, mentally, or physically throughout the book. He’s also a protagonist. This is becausehe always is with Cassia on decisions, and Cassia isa protagonist in this story because she is against

theSociety’s unfair rules about the people not beingable to make decisions of their owns. Bram is a minor character. He is just the little boy of theReyes’ family and nothing more.

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This is what we thought Bram would look like because he has dark brown hair like Cassia, and a slim frame.

Em is Cassia’s best girl friend. She borrowedCassia’s artifact for her Match Banquet to be lessnervous and plus, it matched her dress (Dress #14.) She’s matched with Dalen from Acadia Provice,who looks very similar to Xander. She’s always veryanxious. You could say she’s an antagonist because she had Cassia’s artifact at her Match Banquet when she wasn’t supposed to have it, causing the Officials to go house to house, takingeverybody’s artifacts and not let them get it back.You can’t say it was just her fault though becauseCassia let her borrow it with no concerns, making itboth Cassia’s AND Em’s wrong doing. Em is a dynamic character. Her feelings and personality never changed throughout the book. She’s also a minor character. She is really just Xander’s and Cassia’s best friend who likes to be around them.

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We thought Em would look like this because she has dark hair and cream-colored skin.

In the rising action: Xander and Cassia are matched and are “perfect” for each other because they’ve been best friends and attached at the hip since they were little kids. Cassia sees Ky’s face on her port from her Match’s microcard. An Official from the Match Department finds Cassia to tell her that Xander is her

actual Match and to not worry about seeing Ky’s face. Cassia’s grandfather has his Final Banquet and dies at 80 years old. Cassia’s grandfather gave Cassia a forbidden poem for her to keep. Cassia and Ky’s leisure activity was hiking, this is the first time Ky sees her reading

the Forbidden Poems. Cassia destroys the Forbidden Poem because it’s illegal, and you can get an

Infraction from having such things. Ky expresses his love for Cassia on the Hill, where they can share secrets and talk

about their problems. Ky teaches Cassia how to write in cursive. Ky gives his artifact to Cassia to prove his love to her. Em borrows Cassia’s artifact for her Match Banquet because it matches her dress,

causing Officials to get mad because you’re not allowed to take someone else’s artifact.

Cassia and Xander have been best friends since they were little.

They went to Primary School together and have always had a

great relationship with each other. They’re basically soulmates.

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Ky has a new work position and the Officials had totake him to a new province that is outside the Oria Province, where they are currently living. Cassia and Mrs. Markham become hysterical because they don’t want to see Ky go. The Officials didn’t give much punishment to the Markhams or Cassia. Though they didn’t do much, the Officials made everyone living on the Mapletree Borough take their red pills to forget everything that happened in the previous hours.Cassia doesn’t want to forget that night so she throwsthe red pill on the ground and crushes it with her foot.

In the falling action, Cassia and her family get relocated to the Farmlands in a different Province because Society feels like Cassia’s mom knows too much information about bringing in foreign things fromFarmlands then she should.

Cassia goes to the Museum in the City like Ky told her to, so she could sell their forbidden story for information about the chaos thathappened in the Outer Provinces.

The Official from the Matching Banquet thattold Cassia that Ky wasa mistake on her microcard, told her that the entire thing with seeing Kyon her port was all an experiment that they do to some people who are being Matched to see how they would react to seeing a new face.

Xander realizes that Ky and Cassia really do love each other and iswilling to help the one he loves, to the one that she loves to make her happy.

Cassia’s father confronted Cassia about knowing how she loved Kyall along and wishes that they all had a choice in life.

Ky wrote a story for Cassia on napkins that expressed his love for her

and how he did/always will feel about her.

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Cassia’s family is relocated to the Farmlands where she is forced to plant seeds and grow crops. Though Xander is her Match, he is not allowed to go with her, nor is she allowed to stay with him back in the Maple Tree Borough.

Man vs. Self:Cassia has this conflict because she has a hard time choosing between her Match, Xander, and the one who’s her true love. This conflicts between her thoughts, beliefs, and rules that restrict her. Man vs. Society Ky has a conflict with the Society because he’s an Aberration. This means he can’t be Matched and his parents committed an Infraction. He’s considereda bad person in the Society who doesn’t get as much freedom or leniency as other people living within Society, even though he really didn’t do anythingwrong. Man vs. FateCassia has a conflict with her fate because she’s not allowed to choose her fate. Everyone in the Society is forced to be with whoever they’re Matched with, no matter if you truly love them or not. Also, they don’t have a necessarily “peaceful” death. They’re forced into a place where all elderlypeople live and they have a Final Banquet on their 80th birthday, meaning thatthey will die when they turn 80 years old.

You can’t choose who you wantto be with. Destiny and fate choose for you and you shouldbe happy with whoever that person is.

“I know which life is my real onenow, no matter what happens. It’s the one with you…” –Ky Markham (365).

There really is no REAL resolution of what happens to Ky or Cassia. Though we never found out what happened, we know that Cassia has chosen who she truly loves and

wantsto spend her life with, which is Ky.Cassia still loves Xander, but in a

moreof a best friend kind of way.