Themes In S. A. Bodeen's The Compound

In the book The Compound by S.A. Bodeen, there are multiple themes being portrayed by the book. One of the main themes in the book is even if you think you may know someone, you may not. Throughout the book, many parts of the book show this, and talk about trust. Many elements of the book also play off of how well people know each other. The family all trust the father about why they are going into the compound, that there’s enough food and supplies, everyone is truthful, fine in their well being, nobody will cross boundaries while in the compound, and nobody will harm each other. These are all things that they immediately believe and trust the others about. They also think that they know about other characters as well when in reality they don’t. They Think that Lexi is not as emotional and that Gram and Eddy are dead. To contradict what everyone took as granted truth, most of what they believed were lies. They believe lies such as why they are in the compound, there’s enough food, they
The theme of even if you think you know someone, you may not plays into the story in many different aspects. This theme basically sets the storyline for this book, that the family is in the compound due to a nuclear war, which proves to be all fake as the book reveals it. Smaller aspects of the book also show this, such as everyone thinking that Rex Yanakakis and his family were killed in a fire. As well, things such as the fact that the Supplements were only a last resort, the rest of the world is in a nuclear winter, everyone else is dead, there was intended to be enough food, and why things such as the animals dying, light bulbs being wrong, and the food packs being kept at the wrong temperature. Overall within the book, the theme of even if you think you know someone, you may not, is tied into many different parts and also clearly leads the whole