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