Shatter Me Themes

In the book Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi, there are many complex themes that can be expressed through various of author’s craft moves that show importance. Settings, character choices and emotions, along with various of conflicts show up throughout the text that Mafi included with a purpose. In the next few paragraphs, I will be explaining my thinking towards the components I stated above, and why the author incorporated them. To start, there are multiple different settings that Mafi included in this book that show importance. A theme that can already express this situation could be: parts of characters personalities get shown through settings that impact them. In the very beginning of the book, there is an important setting that highlights

Because of all the events that happened in Juliette’s life over the past few months, they have affected her both emotionally and mentally, as well as causing her to take risks and other life taking decisions that show importance. A theme that can already dilberate this situation could be: characters can potentially take risks, calculated or not, based on the events that affect the character’s emotions. A scene that really expressed this theme, was when Adam and Juliette escaped from the wrath of The Reestablishment compound. Not only did this scene feature both Adam and Juliette’s on-demand decision making, it also showed some of Juliette’s most feared emotions in this intense display. To further explain, I could clearly see Adam and Juliette’s thought process of trying to escape. Especially since their original intentions didn’t go according to plan, they had to rethink in a matter of seconds. This is where I came to the conclusion that Adam has a great on-demand thought process, which can guide him through tough situations, but can potentially hurt him if he is not careful, (which was shown when he got over confident, and relied to much upon himself). This is also where I came to the conclusion that Juliette’s emotions can overthrow her thought process, making her crack under pressure. Therefore, her emotions can affect her decisions deeply.

The conflicts that show the most importance in the book consist of society v.s government, and person v.s government. To start, a theme that can represent the conflicts that consist of the society v.s government and person v.s government could be: when character’s go against their government for justice and freedom, compromises aren’t that easy to obtain and that means the war is bound to happen between the people. To further explain, when the rebellions of the Omega Point try to reason with The Reestablishment to enforce peace between to the two groups, war began because it seems as if justice and peace can’t just be compromised. It has to be fought for. War is a major conflict that takes place in this book, where you can tell that society is striving for their rights as citizens, but can’t overrun the government with all of it’s enforcements. Therefore, you can see how society is trying their hardest to earn what they deserve. The more peculiar conflict is person v.s government. It is true that all of society is planning to strike out at the government, however, the main character Juliette is in the middle of all the war, and was one of the main reasons why the war started in the first place. Because of her. She knew that the government was going to fail and become corrupt before The Reestablishment had even started. Therefore, that makes her more vulnerable as well