Delirium By Lauren Oliver

Delirium is a dystopian novel about Lena Haloway a 17 year old girl, who falls in love in a society where love is seen as a disease. The author Lauren Oliver is an American author of a few New York Times bestselling YA novels. For my project I have created a playlist that represents the major points in the novel. I picked this novel because I enjoy books that are set in the future and with female protagonists. Delirium shows the theme of person vs. society when Lena falls in love with Alex. In this future version of Portland love a very illegal thing and could be punishable by death. Lena and Alex have to face all of society to try and keep their love.
My first song choice is “Worth Fighting For” by, Katy McAllister, which represents
the novel’s theme. I choose this song because it talks about fighting for love and escaping, things that Lena and Alex had to do for love. McAllister’s lyrics, “We can get away from this town. I know exactly how I hurt you. There's nothing left but the truth. We can change this life. One step at a time. I know there's so much more, isn't that worth fighting for?” show what Alex is thinking when he asks Lena to go out of the city and into the Wild with him and never come back so they could be together. Alex says to Lena, “We could run away together. To the Wilds. Just go and never come back. Only--Lena, we couldn’t ever come back. You know that right? They’d kill us both, or lock us up forever….But Lena, we could do it.”(Oliver, 332) All she has ever know is in Portland and she would have to leave her best friends; Hana and her cousin Grace.
My song example for the protagonist Lena is “Forbidden Love” by Madonna. The lyrics “Just one kiss on my lips, was all it took to seal the future. Just one look from your eyes, was like a certain kind of torture.” represent what Lena is thinking when she realizes that she is in love with Alex. This whole thing is a mystery to Lena since she has grown up being taught that love is deadly and a vicious disease. It was a new and joyous thing for her but it was also torture because they might not make it into the Wilds in time.
“Fight for this Love” by, Cheryl Cole is good for the main conflict because it shows the struggles Alex and Lena have to face in order to keep their love alive.
“Anything that's worth havin'. Sure enough worth fighting for. Quittin's out of the question. When it gets tough, gotta fight some more.” is a lyric from Cole’s song and it shows determination to make love work even when it may not be easy, but it is worth it in the long run. Both Alex and Lena want to make it work and in the end love prevails in its strongest form, agape love. Alex shows his love for Lena when he gives up his life so that Lena can have her own life free from Portland’s
control.
The lyrics, “Said goodbye, turned around and you were gone, gone, gone. Faded into the setting sun, slipped away.” are from Carrie Underwood’s song, “See You Again.” Lena’s pain is show in these lyrics when she jumped over the fence into the Wilds and looked back and Alex was still on the other side sacrificing himself for her. This is the resolution of the story, Alex chooses his love for Lena over his own life. In the end love wins and Lena begins her new life in the Wilds with Alex watching over her from above.
My final song choice is called, “It’s my Life” by, Bon Jovi which represents what i think the author wants the reader to take away from delirium.I think that the author was saying that we have to live our own life, not something someone else gives us. We have to be our own person and this lyric, “It's my life. It's now or never. I ain't gonna live forever. I just want to live while I'm alive.” represents this well. It is important to be your own choices in life and to make mistakes so you can learn and grow from them. This includes love and the fact breakups and divorces may be hard but if God wills it he must have a good reason.
In this project I read the book Delirium to get a better understanding of person vs.
society. To do this I analyzed the book as I read it and went more in depth then I have before when reading any book. The process started out with fully understanding person vs. society and then went to creating a playlist that featured the main points in this novel. Overall the process was very smooth, however time consuming and mentally challenging in the sense of trying to find songs that represent the story accurately. From this story I learned the importance of understanding that you need to live your own life as you wish not as some else wants you to live it. One last thing to leave you with, “You have to understand. I am no one special. I am just a single girl. I am five feet two inches tall and I am in-between in every way. But I have a secret. You can build walls all the way to the sky and I will find a way to fly above them. You can try to pin me down with a thousand arms, but I will find a way to resist. And there are many of us out there, more than you think. People who refuse to stop believing. People who refuse to come to earth. People who love in a world without walls, people who love into hate, into refusal against hope, and without fear...They cannot take it.”(Oliver,
440-441)