Government Control

Author’s Note: In this final essay I will demonstrate my understanding of comparing and contrasting to books that I have read.

            Money is power, and power is the only thing about which current citizens care for.  Tim Meeker has to make a decision which should allow him to betray or keep his family.  Meanwhile Luke Garner is at a battle with the new and improved government for letting him live his life freely.  These two characters may seem different but you will be surprised at how much they have in common.   The book My Brother Sam is Dead and Among the Hidden are both based on the theme of government control, although they show this in unique ways.

In my historical fiction book My Brother Sam is Dead by James and Christopher Collier many citizens are fighting in a war that has broken out because of how the government has been running the country.  For example the government was taxing the nation and making new unnecessary laws, so the colonists broke out in war.  The Rebels decided to dump tea into the Hudson River to really show the government how they felt. 

Not only is this theme portrayed in my historical fiction book but also in the series Among the Barons.  In this book the theme of government control is showed in a very cruel and unfair way.  The government decided they should not allow parents to have more than two kids, if they have a third it would then result in death upon all that are guilty.  The third children of the country or also known as shadow children try and rebel against the government and make a difference in the world. 

On the other hand, and maybe more importantly, these books are from completely different time periods.  In my historical fiction book the plot takes place in the late 1700’s hence the term historical, because it happened in the past.  Where as in the book Among the Hidden it is demonstrating what will happen in the future.  The timeline is well thought out in both of the books though. 

So as you can see these books are very similar, even if they did seem very different in the beginning.  Hopefully next time you read two books you will think of how they may be similar or how they could be different.  In other words these books portrayed the main theme of government control in different but also similar ways.