Dystopia Ladies: Delirium
There’s one crucial thing about Delirium by Lauren Oliver that makes it unique in the teen dystopia genre — a heroine that literally chooses flight over fight.
But in a militarized Pleasantville world where citizens’ futures are decided by surveys and tests — and everyone gets brain surgery on their 18th birthday — there’s really no other option.
Delirium, published in 2011, is set in a chilling alternate reality where amor deliria nervosa (commonly called love or deliria) is considered a disease and has been “cured” with a procedure. What could be a hokey premise is fleshed out with Oliver’s petrifying images of the “infected” and passages of fictional health books. What makes the premise realistic is that looked at in a different light, falling in love — and its various side effects — could easily be considered a disease.
At first glance, the entire fabric of society is based on avoiding the disease. Schools are gender-segregated, spouses are chosen by the government and it’s considered taboo to be seen talking to someone of the opposite sex. The protagonist seventeen-year-old Lena Haloway is looking forward to her cure, months away, because she’s haunted by her mother’s deliria-induced suicide.
With that premise, there are no points for guessing what happens next.
The journey is not about Lena falling in love with her romantic interest Alex, a rebel that has faked being cured, and standing up for love.
There’s not much development for Alex, outside to his identity as a gatekeeper to a whole new way of life. Their relationship is based off Alex giving Lena an identity as a free spirit –someone who is “awake” in a world of people asleep for years.”
The audience knows that this is exactly the opposite of who Lena is. She strives to blend in with everyone since she’s been an outcast because of her mother, who rejected the cure four times. Lena wants to escape the stigma of her “dirty blood”. She so desperately believes in the cure that when she at first realizes that Alex is an uncured, she quite literally runs for the hills. The only moment Lena actually does feel completely at ease is when she’s running for fun.
No, Lena’s journey is about discovering what it is like to live in a world where you are robbed of any empathetic emotions. Lena believes deliria is eradicated due to contagious nature of love, but it soon becomes clear it’s to make people devoid of emotions — and the illogical choices that come with them.
Without the mess of emotions and personal freedoms, the citizens become completely ruled by logic, sometimes to the point of cruelty. The soldier’s raid is the best example of the cure’s wonders. The men shoot a neighbors’ dog because it won’t stop barking — and its owners put it in the street to die. When the soldiers stumble across a illegal concert, they use attack dogs and lethal force on unarmed, uncured teenagers. Without any compassion, the cure essentially created perfect soldiers — those that put the greater good over regard for human life.
The raid is the true turning point for Lena, who arrived just before the soldiers did to warn her best friend. While Lena just skated through life and thought many disturbing instances — like tales of cured parents being extremely detached from their children they end up killing them — she now sees in a harsh light. She sees the cure rob people of any emotional capability. Repeatedly, Lena is told she’ll lose feelings that she once has whether it’s enjoying running, her lifelong bond with her best friend or family.
While she does begin a relationship with Alex shortly after the raid, unlike many YA heroines, Lena keeps her individual identity. Their relationship is like a summer fling, with Lena feeling that she’ll return to her rightful place in society when it’s over and doesn’t even consider becoming a rebel. They make out a lot — but she feels that it’s not enough to risk catching deliria for the rest of her life. In the end, it’s familial love for her mother that inspires her to abandon the world she knows.
Lena’s not a typical heroine in Young Adult lit. She’s not particularly strong, aggressive or violent in her actions. As the novel ends, the audience knows she will struggle to survive in the wilderness. But there’s two other novels in the trilogy to develop her inner warrior.
But what she lacks in physicality, she more than makes up in her determination. As an outcast she had little to nothing, but she scraped her way into society and refused to give up on her dreams of being protected from the disease. In the final pages, Lena throws away the comforts of home, safety and her only chance of belonging to follow something she believes in.
She runs for the memory of her mother. She runs for her a compassionate world. And yes, she runs for her love interest, even after giving him up.
Love is not only political action in this world, but it’s also a transformative power — and with it, Lena has evolved from a everyday girl to someone who has the makings to start a revolution.
Love what you read? Want to follow us closer to get all the latest Legendary Women news? Then sign up for our monthly newsletter and also our Medium collection.
