Throughout the story, birds were a recurring motif. They symbolize numerous things in varied novels. In this novel in particular, birds symbolize freedom and the possibility of escape. While citizens are restricted from venturing outside government borders, the birds can fly wherever they please. Lena was forced to break numerous laws and risk everything she had in order to enter “The Wilds”. But if she was a bird, she could 've simply flown over the fence and escaped into the wilderness. The reason she could not escape was because of the electrified fences surrounding her area. In my mind, this symbolized a jail cell. As if her home was a prison rather than a democratic society. Though it was not a dictatorship, citizens were still refrained from many things. They could only listen to music on LAMM (Library of Authorized Music), “the Intranet, like everything else in the United States, [was] controlled and monitored for [their] protection” (Oliver 102). She lived in a society where even listening to music was a crime, and she was forbidden to talking to boys who …show more content…
To some, it 's equivalent to heaven whereas other it’s hell. To escape from reality we all have our methods, whether it sleeping or eating or knitting. To Lena, this ticket to happiness was running. Whenever a problem would arise she would run. This happened countless time throughout the story. After her mother 's funeral, she ran and after a fight with Hannah she ran. And in cases where she had to decide whether “fight or flight,” she always had the same solution. This happened during the raids in addition to when she was caught attempting to escape past the border. When her problems within the border came to be too much, her solution was running to the Wilds with Alex by her side. Running symbolizes control. In a society ruled by the government, having control was rare. But when running she had the capability of choosing where to run, how fast as well as countless other