How Does The Raft Criticize Society

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The Raft by S.A. Bodeen is a novel that invites readers to come along on an adventure with Robie and Max. As the title suggests, the story takes place on a raft. It’s not a typical raft though, its a raft that fell with them out of the airplane and has a hole that lets the aggressive ocean water in. The Raft is the story of how Robie survives an makes it back to Midway, her home island. The novel criticizes society in two ways: it shows how much we rely on others and it also shows how we remain hopeful even when the circumstances are not ideal. The first way that The Raft criticizes society is when it shows how society relies on others to complete basic life tasks. Many people do not want to do anything by themselves. Robie says that for …show more content…

It shows how we can stay hopeful even in the most difficult situations. At any point in the novel Robie could have given up on her hopes of returning to her home but, she chose to remain hopeful. This hope led her to think of many genius ideas. Even though Robie’s hopefulness helped her to survive, it came with some weird side effects. Robie is so hopeful that she fails to realize that Max is dead. Along with hunger and dehydration, Robie’s hopefulness causes her to hallucinate after Max is gone. She has conversations with him and acts like he is still living here. Robie eventually realizes her hallucinations and uses them to help her focus on survival. Robie’s hopefulness pays off when a ship comes and rescues her. “The boat got closer. Say it was real just say it was. Had they seen my fire? Wouldn’t a hallucination have landed them closer, be more convenient? Two people hopped out and pulled the boat onto the beach and more people got out. They just stood around. If it was my hallucination, wouldn’t they come right for me? Maybe they were real” (Bodeen 214). This quote not only shows that Robie’s hopefulness paid off but it also shows how she didn’t know whether or not the people and the boat were real. She recognized her state of confusion and didn’t want to be too hopeful or get let down if they weren’t

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