Critical Thinking Question: How different are people allowed to be in this text? Does it assume everyone is happy and good in the same ways?

In the book Cinder by Marissa Meyer, all the characters are portrayed as being forced to be certain people fulfilling certain positions, even if they don’t desire it. The people and circumstances around them have labeled them in certain ways that may not even be accurate. The characters struggle to come to terms with what is expected and who their true personality really is, even if that is different from what other people want them to be.

Cinder is often overlooked by many people because of her background as a cyborg and Lunar. Many people are afraid of cyborgs, while Lunars are known to be evil because of their special abilities to mind control others. Because she is a cyborg, this makes her stand out as different from everyone else, and they treat her badly. For example, her neighbors stay away from her and warn their children about her too, despite Cinder sharing human-like feelings. Because she is labeled different, she is seen as bad. People think that all cyborgs are not human and all Lunars are evil in the same ways, even though Cinder is actually different from these stereotypes. She is treated like a group, not an individual.

Another example of a character in a forced position in the book is Prince Kai. Due to a major outbreak of a disease known as the plague, Kai’s father, Emperor Rikan, passes away, forcing Prince Kai to take his place as emperor. Before he died, Rikan proposed marriage to the queen of Luna, Queen Levana, in order to seal the treaty with the Lunars after being threatened many times with starting a war. Kai’s new role and responsibilities are summed up by what the royal advisor tells Kai: “’Your Majesty, with all due respect, you no longer have the luxury of being a lovesick teenager. You have a duty to fulfill to your people now.’ ” (Meyer, 348) Although Kai just wants to live a normal teenager’s life, he is thrust into following his father’s footsteps. He feels like he lost his childhood because of this, and doesn’t have the same abilities to do things he used to do when he was just a prince; he isn’t allowed to be himself anymore. Even though many people would probably think it is great being Emperor, it doesn’t make Kai happy.

Many of these characters wish to be someone else, in a different position in their lives; however there’s always someone or something that forces them to be something other than they want to be. They all have their own personalities and wishes, but it is a constant struggle for them to find a way to project it.

Critical Thinking Question: Whose perspective is missing in this text? What would it be like if we put it back?

******Spoiler Alert********

In the book The House of Hades by Rick Riordan, we follow Percy and his friends as they go on their adventure to save Olympus. Along the way we’re shown multiple perspectives from each of the six main characters. However, one of Percy’s friends, Nico di Angelo, although always present throughout the book, never has his perspective expressed. This makes him come across as mysterious to the reader, but limits our understanding of him as opposed to the rest of the characters.

While all of Percy’s friends are all part of a prophecy to be the seven demigods who are supposed to save the world, Nico is not included. In the first Percy Jackson series, Nico and his sister are said to have been born in around the early 1930s in Venice Italy, but he and his sister were brainwashed and brought to a hotel after their mother was killed in an accident where Zeus trying to kill them. They remained in the hotel for about 70 years without aging or noticing the time pass by. Later in the same book, Nico’s sister dies within Percy’s trust. After she dies, Nico starts to lose his trust for all humans and buries himself into darkness by spending time in the shadows and hanging out with the dead more than the living. When Percy “let” his sister die and started a relationship with one of their friends, Nico starts to grow hatred towards him. From looking at Nico’s past, the reader can tell why as a character he’s always gloomy and in a way scary to the other demigods. We only learn about Nico’s traumatic past when it is forced out of him in this book – up until then, Riordan does not give us any insight. Until this book, I didn’t really care about his character and found him creepy. Now, I am curious whether there is more to his personality than what meets the eye. This is what including his perspective would help do.  

Clearly, Nico has an interesting back story, along with a mysterious personality, which hooks the reader to want to know more about him. Before The House of Hades came out, lots of fans requested that Riordan put Nico as one of the character’s perspectives. However, at the time I disagreed because I thought that the book was fine the way it was and nothing seemed too amazing about Nico that I would want him to be a narrator. When we read The House of Hades, we discover that Nico used to have a crush on Percy, which in a way helps explain why Nico is the way he is. I’m not quite sure why Rick created this character, but after reading The House of Hades, the reader learns more about Nico than what is told in the past few books, since the beginning of the series. I wasn’t really interested in his character before when I read the other books in the past, but when I found out more about him in this book; it helped me understand why others suggested that Nico become a narrator. At the end of the book, the group is forced into a situation where they will have to begin including Nico’s perspective. I think this will be very interesting because he is so mysterious to the readers up until this point.  Adding his perspective will help us gain a better understanding of his true personality, which hasn’t been very clear.