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Corruption In Z For Zachariah Ann's Life

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Corruption. Problems that can be big or small in your everyday life. In every dystopian story, the world that the characters know best isn’t what it used to be. The stories show how everyone has hardships in their lives. Corruption is dealt with in many different ways. You can either trust yourself to make the right decisions about your life or trust others to help you through it. Both of the books that will be talked about show how this is true. In Running Out of time by Margaret Peterson Haddix, Jessie lives in a town that acts like the people do in 1840. The people who live in the town are supplied with the modern day medicines that they need to live. When the creators of this town - Clifton - take away the modern day medicines, Jessie …show more content…

Both of these stories show the idea of corruption in the way that they affect each of the characters. In Running out of Time the trouble starts when there is no medication for the people in Clifton, and that affects the way Jessie acts towards her mother and trusts her advice about 1996. In Z for Zachariah Ann’s life starts to change for the worse at the very beginning of the story when everyone has died except for Ann and Mr. Loomis from the nuclear war. This issue causes Ann to do what it takes to survive by trusting herself because of her limited other options. With no one in the world for her to trust, she could only rely on herself during troubled parts of her life. In Running out of time and Z for Zachariah both of the main characters find people that they think they can trust. But towards the end of each book, those people turn against them. Corruption is shown when Mr. Neeley turns against Jessie. “‘Yes, I’ve got her here,’ she heard Mr. Neeley say. ‘I drugged her, so we’ve got some time. How much do you want me to find out? She knows too much - we may have to kill her.’” (Haddix 129) When Mr. Neeley turns against Jessie, it shows how Jessie’s life is affected by the disruption in their trust. Without Mr. Neeley to for her to trust and be guided by, it makes her life even more troubled and harder for her to navigate through 1996. As said earlier, when Mr. Loomis turns …show more content…

It is like an airplane flying. If the airplane goes the wrong way, there is a lot of trouble for the passengers to get to their destination. But if the pilot purposely goes the wrong way, that also causes a lot of trouble for the passengers but wasn’t just a simple misunderstanding or mistake from the pilot. That is like what happened in both books when the friend of the main character betrayed them. The authors use corruption to show a message in the stories. In Z for Zachariah O’Brien tries to teach the reader that when things go wrong, and you aren’t sure what to do, you should trust your instinct. In Running out of time Haddix teaches the reader that when your world is troubled, you should trust those you know you can trust to get through it. Although both books include someone betraying the other, Jessie found out why Mr. Neeley betrayed her and Ann did not find out why Mr. Loomis betrayed her. Everyone faces corruption in their lives. No matter if it is big or small, both books teach the reader that handling it is possible but can be difficult at

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