Evaluation

The Declaration had moved me emotionally, it motivated me to learn more about science and the law. Because, I would want to know and understand what scientists today are doing, and see for myself if it is good or bad. As, this book raises a lot of political questions and ethical matters. The book was enjoyable for me, as ­it’s themes make you think of today’s society and whether we’ll turn out like that in the nearby future. It was also easy to understand, despite the terminology used.

Although, I believe the book has left out the explanation of why Mrs. Pincent is involved with the black market product of Longevity+. However that is because it leads to the next book, the sequel of The Declaration, ‘The Resistance’.  Although, I believe Anna should have been given more of a background story of her life in Grange Hall. Also, there were a few parts where the chapters didn’t flow, and a few obvious plot twists. Other than that, it was a great book that fits well into the dystopian genre.

I enjoyed the book especially because it raises the question, whether or not immortality is good or not. But, the author contends that immortality is bad throughout the novel. Longevity is seen as horrifying and evil, yet looks pure and is irresistibly tempting.  I hardly related to the characters as they were from a different time and place. Although, there were minor things I could relate or empathize to such, as starvation of the kids in the Grange Hall, the severe punishments given like those of a prison and how the ‘Legals’ had lived normal lives, travelling the world and thinking they’re better than those kids or ‘surpluses’. The book compare compares well, giving off its own unique vibe in comparison with other great dystopian genres such as Hunger Games and Divergent. Especially for one classified as a children’s book, despite its actual audience being for young adults. The Declaration has two other series along with it, the next called the Resistance and the last called the Legacy – all great books.

Intertextual connections : Poison Study

The Declaration shares the theme of freedom and fear with another novel, titled Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder. Although, both having completely different stories set in unique worlds, they both have a woman as the main protagonist of the novel and they struggle for a better life filled with freedom, but are oppressed by fear and painful pasts.  In poison study, Yelena, the protagonist, lives life as a food taste for the leader of Ixia. If she refuses, well, as a prisoner for killing a general in Ixia she would be hanged. She takes up this opportunity and lives life carefully on the balance and finds it difficult to trust people when her past had been quite the horrific one. Anna and Yelena both have suffered from forms of beatings, cruel punishments and both had lived out harsh lives on a daily basis. However, they both put the past behind them, learning to trust others and strive forward into the present and future.

Important quotes:

“You can't let the past ruin your future.” – Maria V. Snyder

“Surplus meant unnecessary. Not required.

You couldn’t be a Surplus if you were needed by someone else. You couldn’t be a Surplus if you were loved.

”  ― Gemma Malley 

 

“Many have tried to kill us. All have failed.” - Maria V. Snyder

 

“Many people lost their lives fighting for these rights - to vote, to be free, to work, to be able to get on the same bus as someone considered their superior. And it was the next generations who embedded these changes, who came to view women as equals to men, who came to understand that skin colour is of no relevance. Young people are the future. Without them, the world stands still.”

―  Gemma Malley

“Trusting is hard. Knowing who to trust, even harder,” – Maria V. Snyder

“The further away from something we are, the more we tend to mistrust it, Peter. we dislike the unknown, we reject anything alien to us: people with views that contradict ours, societies that are run along very different lines.” – Gemma Malley

 

Themes

The main themes of this book are freedom, fear, loss and mortality.

Freedom – Freedom plays an important part in the Declaration as Anna and Peter fight for a better life, escaping from Grange Hall and seeking shelter from ‘the Underground’. There are situations in the book that tells us of the other surpluses in the hall that were very ‘bad’ surpluses. This scales the fear of misbehaving within the Grange hall. The stories of them tell us that they had believed their parents were going to rescue them from that horrible of a place, but years go by and they are still stuck there. However, those that still strongly believed that they would be rescued, generally rebelled and finally Mrs Pincent moved them out to an unknown location in the desert. It is apparent that they’d be working their bones to death out in the scorching heat, being unfed and in harsh conditions.

Fear – Signs of these are shown as Anna had been brainwashed to believe that she didn’t have the right to exist, that her very being was a wrong. The kids are also subjected to cruel torture and punishments when they misbehave – even a step out of line may result in a beating. They live in plain, white cold halls, with a thin blanket. They shower in cold water, being underserving of energy resources. Every surplus fears of escaping for freedom, in case they will be exterminated or brought back to the hall only to be punished severely.  The boss of the place, Mrs Pincent is a frightful woman

Loss – Many cases of loss are present in the novel. Anna had lost the feeling of her parents, who she grew up to hate. Peter, who was dumped as a child at a home had a bleak life where he lived with no one that is similar to him in age. Then there are the ‘Legals’ who have forgotten the great benefits of raising a younger generation, and the younger generation who are on the brink of extinction due to the Declaration itself. The style of the Declaration contributes to this theme immensely as it shows a dull and dark outlook of life in this dystopian world.

Mortality – In this book, mortality is the main theme of the book. Readers are confronted with moral dilemmas. Science has made it possible to live forever, but the world cannot cope with the scarcity of resources. The audience are given the question – If you can live forever, provided that you do not produce any offspring, will you take it?  The choice of living forever and never having children also links with loss as for the sake of becoming immortal people have to be willing to sacrifice the right to have kids, due to population concerns. It is possible that such an environment could exist in the future – with the current way we are spending our resources, we may leave nothing for our future generations. The whole setting and style of this book has mortality as its foundations. The book delves further into these ethical and moral questions throughout the series. It shows that all great things come with a price.

Audience and Purpose

The target audience of this novel was aimed towards young adults, rather than being a children novel. This is indicated, as throughout the book, there are legal terms and various amounts of morals and ethical questions raised that are quite the headache for children. It can be thought, that the author’s purpose was to make the point that our future will be the downfall of society due to the cruelties of our past. If we don’t take care of the present as it is, the future would be a dangerous and limited place, that would have nothing left for our future generations to use.

 

Gemma Malley makes her purpose clearly, and many would be swayed and continue to keep this novel in their thoughts long after reading it. In the novel, the world Anna lives in; there are very limited food and fuel resources and that waste has become as serious crime. There are signs of this today, with the corruption of pollution, waste and ignorance destroying our earth. Although, there is another purpose that you can draw from this book, that is that new people lead to better things. In the novel, practically all ‘the Legals’ are well, very old people, and the technology developed is less imaginative and creative as people are content with their living and don’t strive for more. In comparison, if we were to have a new generation of people, we get us new innovations and ideas. Interpreting it as replacing the old model with the new, like the circle of life.

 

“Many people lost their lives fighting for these rights - to vote, to be free, to work, to be able to get on the same bus as someone considered their superior. And it was the next generations who embedded these changes, who came to view women as equals to men, who came to understand that skin colour is of no relevance. Young people are the future. Without them, the world stands still.”
―   Gemma Malley, The Declaration 

The Declaration

Typed out below is the Declaration. It is not shown in the first novel of this series, but the second. However, I believe it is interesting and decided to put it here.

When in the course of scientific development and progress it became clear that the function and roles ofh umans had changed fundamentally, that the basic tenets of procreation for survival had been challenged and found wanting, it became compelling for humankind to respond to this development and progress.
          Man has for many thousands of years relied on Nature to increase their numbers and has, at the same time, been in thrall to Nature and Her whims, including disease, pestilence, famine and other plagues that have culled great numbers of humans. 
           The cycle of birth, life and death has resulted in other burdens, reducing humankind to the enslaved position of animals, with no control over their future. Indeed, so used to slavery was Man that he created masters to worship and follow, gods who imposed rules and laws that contradict and contravene Man's true nature. 
           It is in science that Man has finally surpassed Nature; through science, Man has developed Longevity^TM ,the most significant discovery of Man's time on earth. Longevity^TM  enables humankind to live as gods, to live freely, unencumbered by the ravages that Nature imposes on them. Longevity^TM , through the process of Renewal^TM , has brought about a New Age for Man, an age of comfort, joy, prosperity and learning. An Age of Freedom.
          Freedom, however, brings with it responsibilities: responsibilities to the planet, to our fellow man, and to Nature Herself. Therefore, as a responsible citizen of the United Kingdom, under the governance of the Authorities of the United Kingdom, I, the undersigned, do solemnly Declare, that I will take every measure and precaution to ensure that I will never be responsible for the creation of new human life (forthwith to be referred to as Surplus), accepting any method deemed appropriate by the Authorities and allowing their appointed doctors to insert implants or other methods as appropriate, and that if I should break this Declaration either through intent or by error, or discover that a a fellow subject has broken the Declaration on my behalf, that I will contact the appropriate Authorities forthwith and submit myself and any other parties to the action determined by these Authorities, in the full knowledge that the balance of Nature must be maintained, that A Life for A life is enshrined in law and in everything that is moral and right.

          Accepting this, and confirming that I gratefully accept the indefinite life that Longevity^TM  will provide me, I do hereby solemly swear.

Signed:                                                 Witness:                                                   Date:

Anna & Peter

The main characters of The Declaration are Anna Convey and Peter.

Anna  Convey – The protagonist of the story, she lives as a ‘perfect Surplus’ – always obeying the rules, and being fully indoctrinated in the lies she is fed at Grange Hall. She never questions her role in life, and only strives to become a Valuable Asset to pay back her debt to society until Peter came along.  She transforms and starts questioning everything, starts thinking about things (which is dangerous for a surplus) and learns about things outside of the education of Grange Hall. She develops well within the novel, as she constantly struggles on whether to believe Peter and everything that goes against the Declaration. She then finally reaches a strong resolution to follow Peter out of Surplus Hall to live and find a better life.  

Peter – His last name is one that is subjected to spoilers, so for the sake of the people that haven’t read the Declaration, it will not be mentioned. Peter arrives to Grange Hall like a hurricane, unprecedented and dangerous. He is a bold and courageous, challenging the rules of the Grange Hall at any possible chance, regardless of the brutal consequences. Also, relentlessly trying to convince Anna that she has a life outside of Grange Hall and her parents (whom she grows up to hate) love her. He strongly believes that Longevity is a evil drug that should be estinguished.

“Because no one needs to live for ever. I think that sometimes you can outstay your welcome.”  ― Gemma Malley The Declaration
 

He doesn’t change much as a person, although that can’t be said for the sequel of the book, The Resistance.  However, it can be considered that Peter acted this way, because he had loved Anna and her parents, who had taken care of him. He fights for what he believes in strongly and doesn’t take no for an answer. His behaviour throughout this can also be because Anna’s parents had told him so much about Anna, that through the novel, it is mentioned once that he had thought of them as friends before they had even met.

The Beginning: Plot and Narrative Structure

Set in a future ahead of us, ‘the declaration’ is about a girl named Anna. She is just named Anna, and believes she shouldn’t exist. She lives in a place called the Grange Hall, where there are strict rules for people like her – who shouldn’t exist and aren’t, ‘legal’. They are governed by these rules, to make up for breaking the biggest rule of all - being born. The reason for this, is all because of the drug, Longevity.

Longevity is a drug created by scientists in the year 2040 that prevents the aging process and stops people from dying. All the once incurable diseases became curable with Longevity. Although, there was a flaw with that - people were still being born and because no one was dying, the Earth became overpopulated. Hence, in 2080, anyone who takes Longevity is forced to sign The Declaration, agreeing that they will not have any children, so that they can live forever. But, not everyone follows the rules and hence, there are those children that were born, who are harshly referred to as Surpluses.
 
Anna, being a surplus, is lucky because she can live in ‘Surplus Halls’ where they are taught that their existence is a crime against Nature, and that they must work hard if they want to redeem themselves for their parents’ sins and become a “valuable asset” to the world. A valuable asset in this case, would be to work for ‘The Legals’ who have signed the Declaration and be to some extent, free.
 
However, one day a boy named Peter arrives at Grange Hall, turning Anna’s world upside down. Everything she believes in, he defies it and insists on saying that her name is Anna Convey, that her parents are out there and love her. She struggles to escape the past, starts to question everything, and yearns for a better future outside of the Grange Hall.

The declaration is children’s novel written in chronological order. Although, it is written in third person and because of that, there are parts where we read from another’s perspective. However, Anna is the protagonist throughout the book.