Poem Analysis: Jessica Tunner's 'Shade'

“Shade”

“Jessica Tunner, you have to be White! Can you imagine the shame our family will have to endure if you are not White?” My mother’s voice echoes in my ear or maybe it’s my mind. I wish I was an Electronics Master. I would find a way to remove or override the Communications Chip that had been implanted in my ear even before I was born. I could become some kind of rebel hero or Com Terrorist as the GOV likes to call them. Unlike my brother Gary, I barely meet the academic standards for electronics. My Assessment Data always end up in the satisfactory area, which is fine with me, because you won’t get to White by being satisfactory.
I have to wait. In three years, four months, and seven days, my life count will be adult. Then,
There was the chaos that too much freedom can bring. People began following the practices of the ancient bands who committed acts of violence under the notion of representing their colors. A person’s chosen color became an indicator not only of their loyalty, but their philosophy, their morality, and their identity. This lead to the Party Wars which decimated a third of the population. The World Council was forced to restore order by adding Amendment 135 where all colors became contained. This only lasted a few decades. True equality made for less motivation. What is the point of working hard when everything ends up being the same? That is when the Council added Amendment 187, the mandated gifting of color. A person could earn a color though achievement. This color would be an indicator of Achieved Status and the only hue a person would be allowed to see besides beige.
My mother reminds me again that my Academic Data must reach superior if I am to be gifted White. I figure where my scores are now, I’ll be Blue. I hear that it is a peaceful color. Someone once described it as the feeling you get when you are drifting off to sleep and your mind and body is heavy and calm. If I work any harder, I’ll end up a Green which is alright too. They say green is the color you breath in when the air transfroms from winter to spring. It sounds like something I would like and I do not care if the entire
Teachers never left the transmitiosn station in front of the room. It was weird to even see that she had legs. She checked over Kyles device saying that there was nothing wrong. She sighed and turned to make her way back to the front. I saw Kyle hook her leg. It could have been unintentional but I knew him. School misbehavior had been eradicated with the passing of the Admendment 252, the loss of color based on delinquency, but we knew Kyle could get away with anything since the Honor Loyalists were seemingly untouchable. He wanted to disrupt the assements a teacher falling on a student and putting him at an emotional disadvantage would eradicate the validity of the GOV’s most prescious