The dystopian choice novel I chose was The Running Man by
Stephen King, which was a book about a future society in 2025 where a new form
of entertainment in the form of game shows has become very popular. The game
shows involve people risking their life for large amounts of money. The main
character who is named Ben Richards, is participating in a competition known as
the running man, in which he is pursued by a group of professional killers
called the hunters. While running from the hunters Ben Richards discovers that
the government has been hiding the truth about increases in air pollution which
has risen to extremely dangerous levels in recent years. This air pollution has
caused a breakout of deadly cardio-pulmonary diseases, which they have labeled
as “asthma” to the public. The way the story was resolved surprised me, because
instead of Ben Richards unveiling the secrets the government hid from the
public to the world, like the reader might predict, it ends with him learning
that his wife and daughter were killed by a mob that believed that Ben Richards
was a criminal and then hijacks a jet and crashes it into the game associations
headquarters.
I thought that this ending was slightly unsatisfactory because you never find out how or if the problem was resolved like you do in most novels. One thing that surprised me about this book is why Ben Richards chose to blame the games association about his family’s deaths instead of the mob that killed them. Indirectly, it was the games associations fault for spreading propaganda to the public telling them that Ben Richards was a criminal which caused the mobs anger towards Ben Richards. It confused me that after Ben Richards learned his family was dead the author described him as in a delirium but he still seemed capable of planning his hijacking of the plane, and also put thought into who’s fault he believed his families deaths were. I also thought it was odd that he was capable of piloting the plane after hijacking it, even though the book never mentioned that he had any ability to fly one.
I thought that this ending was slightly unsatisfactory because you never find out how or if the problem was resolved like you do in most novels. One thing that surprised me about this book is why Ben Richards chose to blame the games association about his family’s deaths instead of the mob that killed them. Indirectly, it was the games associations fault for spreading propaganda to the public telling them that Ben Richards was a criminal which caused the mobs anger towards Ben Richards. It confused me that after Ben Richards learned his family was dead the author described him as in a delirium but he still seemed capable of planning his hijacking of the plane, and also put thought into who’s fault he believed his families deaths were. I also thought it was odd that he was capable of piloting the plane after hijacking it, even though the book never mentioned that he had any ability to fly one.
No comments:
Post a Comment