"You can build walls all the way to the sky and I will find a way to fly above them. You can try to pin me down with a hundred thousand arms, but I will find a way to resist. And there are many of us out there, more than you think. People who refuse to stop believing. People who refuse to come to earth. People who love in a world without walls, people who love into hate, into refusal, against hope, and without fear." - Delirium by Lauren Oliver
I just finished reading this book yesterday morning (you'll get to hear my thoughts on it later this week), and I have to say that that is one of the most thought-provoking ending paragraphs in a YA novel I've read in a long while.
Maybe it's just because of my current thought process and life situation, but that quote really spoke to my soul. Up until six months ago, I was pretty gloomy and cynical and pessimistic. My future dreams and plans had been blown out of the water and trampled on, and for once in my life I didn't have any idea what I was going to do with myself. The affect this had on me was to turn me completely distrustful, negative, and hateful towards people who told me differently. They hadn't tasted the bitter brew of disappointed hopes; they were living a sugar-coated fantasy that would eventually be destroyed, just like mine.
Thanks to a few friends who didn't give up on me, and a few personal realizations, six months ago I gave up my bitterness and decided to treat my life as the gift that it is. So looking at this quote now, it makes me think back on how true it is. In this instance, Lena - the protagonist of Delirium - is talking about an oppressive government that has eradicated affection of every kind, literally fences their citizens in, and kills those who oppose them. But literal fences erected by an oppressive government aren't the only fences that exist. By holding onto our disappointments, resentments, bitterness, regrets, and hatred we create emotional and mental fences. That's what I had done to myself. And the more I held onto those things, the tighter my fences became.
Life will always throw things at us to try and make those fences exist again. Something or someone will always be trying to hem us in. But so long as we don't stop believing in the good; so long as we're not afraid to show our love - for life, for people, for our interests and passions - those fences can't keep us in.
What are your thoughts? What chord does this quote strike with you?
I am liking how you are examining the emotional aspects (or in this case, "fences") that come with literature. It is a new way to look at things and if it pleases you, that's what counts.
ReplyDeleteWhile the book is referring to real fences, I also think Lena means it in an emotional way, too. It just really struck a note of truth in me when I read it. :)
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