Ally Condie's Matched: An Analysis

Cassia once said, “This is as close to perfect as any society has ever managed to get.” (Condie, 32) In writing this, Ally Condie wrote of a seemingly utopian world where protagonist Cassia Reyes lives in, specifically engineered to eliminate as many choices as possible to create a better life for its entire population. However, the reality for Cassia is that this world is definitely not perfect. What she sees is a world where she wants something that requires difficult decisions in order to produce the best outcome for herself, her family, and her lover. In the novel Matched, by Ally Condie, the transcending theme in the prescribed passage is desire and choice to fulfil life. Due to the microcard incident and, interactions between her father and grandfather, Cassia developed a need for many things that required here to make critical decisions.

The day Cassia lost her grandfather on his Final Banquet; he introduced her to the idea of making her own choices as he did by dying on his own terms.

In addition, her grandfather, Samuel, gave her two illegal poems before dying. He said, “I am giving you something you won’t understand, yet. And, remember. It’s all right to wonder.” (24) In this kind gesture before dying, Samuel tries to encourage her to pursue whatever she wants because he believes she is stronger than everyone else is. Furthermore, with the combination of wanting to die on his own terms and handing Cassia the poems, perhaps as an act of rebelling, it was as though his intention was to encourage her to rebel and to make choices. As a result, Cassia and her father Abram had to make a choice whether to support him and value his principles. Cassia stated, "He didn't want them to be able to bring him back. He wanted to choose what happened to him." (38) This shows that Cassia respects her grandfather’s choice and subsequently her father choice to destroy the tissues, which further encouraged her in the possibility of making her own choices down the

line.

A second instance that encourages Cassia to make choices is when she saw Ky’s face briefly appear on the microcard screen. This is an apprising moment for Cassia because she realized that she could make choices. Cassia detailed, “Two lives… I’ve never known which life is my true one.” (51), therefore implying that she has a choice to make. Since the society was deemed perfect, there should never have been any mistake, so perhaps Cassia sees the microcard glitch as a choice. Even though she desires both Xander and Ky, she now has to make a critical selection between these two rights. Afterwards, Cassia desires many more things and makes many choices that go against the law of the society. Cassia states, “I’ve hidden artifacts, read stolen poems, learned how to write. I’ve fallen in love with someone who’s not my Match and I’m keeping that fact from my Match.” (67) Here she describes all of the illegal things she did because of her desires. Having the ability to choose creates two paths, and thus there is a sense of longing for things, outcomes and people [Ky] where options exist.

From the passage, it is evident that Cassia has choices to make for her desire for things big and small. Her father and grandfather challenged and encouraged by her to do stuff that may not be considered acceptable. Furthermore, she discovered that the society itself has flaws. Therefore, what the society does may not always be true or absolute. The key idea presented in the passage is that desire for something requires action. The idea of being able to choose became very important for Cassia as she made a critical decision to pursue Ky in the dystopian society presented in the novel.