What Are The Similarities Between Red Rising And We All Fall Down

Though Pierce Brown’s Red Rising and Daniel Kalla’s We All Fall Down are works of fiction, they each share many similarities with our modern world. In both books, an extremely powerful group of people successfully oppresses another group considered to be lower, both literally and figuratively. During times of need, both societies will condone behavior that would normally result in serious punishment if it benefits the people in charge. The citizens of these societies live in fear of their respective regimes. In Pierce Brown’s captivating novel Red Rising and Daniel Kalla’s exemplary book We All Fall Down, dystopian themes within these novels commonly parallel our society.

In both Red Rising and We All Fall Down, a powerful ruling class oppresses

In Red Rising students are expected to kill one another during “The Passage,” (Brown 134) a special test designed by the Golds in an attempt to weed out the weaker members of Golds, with the goal to artificially simulate “natural selection” to slowly strengthen the Golds genetics until no weaknesses remain. In We All Fall Down WHO worker Byron Menke sounded a false alarm by leaking a potential suspect, Yasin Ahmed, a local muslim construction worker to the press. The press ran with the story, declaring “plague outbreak linked to terrorism! Authorities searching for fugitive Yasin Ahmed.” (Kalla 128) This caused a massive amount of anti-muslim sentiments and resulted in violent protests, attempted burning of mosques, and a violent beating that left a Turkish teen dead. If the WHO had not been so reckless with this false alarm this violence and racism would have almost certainly been avoided. These egregious government oversteps are not unique to these books, in the 1950’s through the 1970’s the United States government had a secret, illegal program called “MKUltra,” the purpose of this was to find ways to weaken and interrogate their opponents using mind control. They experimented on soldiers and veterans, dosing them with drugs, mentally and physically torturing them, hypnotising, sexual abuse, and many

In Red Rising certain actions are highly controlled for the Reds, they are not permitted to leave the mines, to speak out against the government, and to participate in certain songs and dances. When the main character, Darrow, and his wife, Eo get caught sneaking out of the mines, they are severely punished by a whipping. After receiving many lashes, Eo protests the Golds by singing the forbidden “Reaping Song” (Brown 41) which leads to her execution. In We All Fall Down the plague tears through 1300’s Genoa, with some surviving citizens turning to crime. Thieves run rampant in the streets, and the flagellants burn houses and attack Jewish communities. Victims of the plague line the streets, and there are only sparse vendors in the markets. Burials are increasingly uncommon, as Doctor Pasqua said, most corpses are “dumped into the sea or, sadder still, left to rot where they fall.” (Kalla 178) Citizens in the Middle East are also living in fear, notably, women under the control of the Taliban. The Taliban has forbidden women from doing many common tasks, such as being without a burqa, walking in parks, receiving certain medical help, and being banned from education. Large protests have taken place, but some protesters have been killed, tortured, kidnapped and executed for these