Delirium Themes

In the novel Delirium by Lauren Oliver, the main character Lena Haloway learns about the emotion of love. This novel is labeled as a fantasy considering the fact the plot revolves around the ‘disease of love’ (Oliver). Knowing this, Lena encounters new emotions and an intertwining fate. Oliver's novel, Delirium ,blends the fantasy of corrupted laws, with the realistic emotions of love and courage to form Lena’s development. In Delirium, the government's immoral laws do not allow people to love freely nor express themselves in any form of way. As the plot develops so does Lena. Those restricting laws only taught her to work harder, It allowed her to build up courage and fight for what she believed in. As it states “you can build walls all
Lena's falls in love with a boy named Alex. She knows very well that love is not permitted and that it is dangerous to even talk to him, but she does whatever possible to be by his side. Falling in love taught her that love is not what others say it is, nor what she thought it was. She learned that love gave people purpose. For instance, "..says that deliria alters your perception...but it does not tell you this: that love will turn the whole world into something greater than itself" ( 261-262). Lena learns that love gives you a reason to live, something that no one told her about. As I quote, "I know that life isn't life if you just float through it.. find the things that matter, and hold on to them, and fight for them, and refuse to let them go" (383). This is what Lena learns from loving Alex. She learns to be courageous, does whatever possible to be with one she loves. In conclusion, the novel Delirium introduced fictional laws of regulation to create an intriguing plot. Those law were mixed with real life emotions of love and courage. This allowed the main character Lena Haloway to develop a stronger character than what she had originally started with. Furthermore, the laws that were firmly plastered before her, gave her a true reason to try, this and