Spring DWA 2013

In the book Gone by Michael Grant there is a flash and then all of a sudden everyone older than 14 disappears. There is a wall on a ten mile radius from a nuclear power plant, now not only are there just young people but they are trapped within their town. With a limited amount of food they must not only survive but figure out how to get back to the earth that they know.  The world that we know is the only thing that matters.

The way that young people are trapped inside of a force field like shield without any adults is similar to The Hunger Games. In Gone  everyone that is 14 or younger, is trapped inside of an electric force field and must figure out a way to get back to the “normal” world. Circumstances in The Hunger Games are not much different, everyone 18 or younger is trapped inside an electric force field and must kill to get back to the “outside”.

When families are trying to get into a country illegally and they have kids, some parents can’t afford for the whole family to come so many times only the kid goes. Then kids are in a foreign country, speak a foreign language, have little or no money and must fend for themselves. Even though there are adults all around them they can’t talk to any since they speak a different language. Child immigrants must get their parents over and the kids from gone need to somehow get in touch with theirs also.

The connection this book has to me is that they are trapped inside a force field and I am trapped in school. I get out in seven hours though they may be trapped forever. People have died in that force field. At least school isn’t as serious as that!

Obviously this isn’t possible of happening but if it were to happen in the ‘real world’ how well would kids do? In many cities the electricity would go out, there would be food shortages, water shortages. I think we have become too dependent on technology. If you are lost on a road people just use their phone to get to where they want to go instead of asking a human where to go. If we want to know when Missouri became a state, we don’t flip through pages in an encyclopedia we ask our phones. We may need to take a step backward in technology.