Dystopia In Legend By Marie Lu

Throughout history there have been many dystopian societies, societies with major flaws. In these societies actions occurred which caused harm to the citizens such as murder, destruction of property and other unfortunate consequences. These events are often portrayed in novels to point out the consequences of these societies. The novel Legend by Marie Lu contains events and situations based on historical occurrences such as World War II, North Korea and Tiananmen Square in order to point out societal flaws in real dystopian societies. Legend follows two characters June and Day who come from different levels of society. June is a privileged teen, raised by her older brother and the only person to get a perfect score on the Trial, a test determining

During World War II, there were special camps for the Jewish where “prisoners were regularly beaten and starved, and several were murdered” (Tucker). The Nazis considered the Jewish inferior so they treated them poorly. This is similar to the treatment the plague victims receive from the military government in Legend. Those diagnosed with the plague are required to stay in their homes along with their family members, and when soldiers see a plague victim walking down the street, they shoot her simply because of the infection (Lu 5). Plague victims in the Republic parallel the treatment the Jews in Germany, genetically inferior. Both of these groups of people are treated poorly, killed without reason and contained without permission to leave. Lu’s use of the “genetically inferior” point out the mass deaths and dehumanization of targeted groups within society and demonstrates how it affects the people as well as their

Prisoners and Jews taken during the war were forcibly relocated to areas with “no prepared lodging or sanitary facilities and little food for them” (Tucker). Often said the people were simply being held prisoner, many of them died; some from the brutality of the German soldiers and others through methods for mass killing (Tucker). The labor camps in the novel are based off of this concept; people being taken to an area with poor treatment and then being killed. Towards the beginning of the novel, June believes students who fail the trial go to labor camps and are never seen again (Lu 8). Later in the novel, Day enlightens June about the labor camps by telling her “the only labor camps are the morgues in hospital basements” (Lu 205). In both the labor camps featured in Legend and World War II prison camps, the people are told they are being taken away when in reality they are killed. Furthermore, in the Nazi Germany prison camps the people were living in poor conditions up until their death, similar to the individuals in the novel who were experimented on for the benefit of the military. The portrayal of labor camps as similar to wartime prison camps points out the brutality of the government towards its citizens, as well as, the way leaders tell lies to cover their unethical