Reading Response #4: Article 5

         Article 5 is set in a future America where citizens have little to no rights, every religion other than Christianity is forbidden, girls and boys cannot date, and 'immoral' books and materials are banned. The Bill of Rights was rewritten into the Moral Statutes. The main character, Ember Miller, and her mother are arrested for violating Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. Article 5 prohibits women from having children outside of wedlock. The two are arrested and Ember is sent to the Girls Reformatory and Rehabilitation Center of West Virginia.

the Girls Reformatory and Rehabilitation Center of West Virginia

Chase Jennings, a soldier who Ember loves, develops a plan to get Ember away from the reformatory school and reunite her with her mother. They encounter challenges along the way. While gathering supplies at closed mall, other soldiers find them and attack them. Chase almost kills one of them with his bare hands, but Ember intervenes.

            “‘They were going to hurt you.’ His voice was low and uncontrolled.

            ‘So that makes it okay?’ I countered. No, I didn’t want to be hurt- I certainly didn’t want to die- but that didn’t excuse murdering someone, however foul, based on speculation!(pg. 171-172)”

He later states:

 “‘Yes, that makes it okay’, he said between his teeth, eyes flashing with the lightning. ‘And don’t pretend you wouldn’t have done the same thing.’

            ‘I would never!’

‘Never? Not even if they’d threatened your mom?’

His words pierced clear through me. If I had been Chase, and my mother had been me, nothing in the world could have peeled me off of Rick.

            I realized then with a terrible clarity that maybe Chase and I weren’t so different after all. Everyone knew that a dog backed into a corner bites. I’d just never actually considered that the dog could be me. (pg.172)”

There are people we know and love who we would go to the ends of the world for. For some it’s family and others it could be friends. There are no limits to the devotion people could feel for each other. Some could not endure the thought of their loved ones being hurt by bad people. Chase was right to defend Ember and I feel that the soldier’s death would have been justified.