Superficial Worlds (Theme)

Have you ever read a book or watched a movie, and the further in you got, the less you trusted the narrator? But did you ever think, that may be they were telling the truth, and that is what they saw, but they were the ones being lied to, they were in a counterfeit world that was staged around them?

There are plenty of books and movies where everything just seems a little… off: The Maze Runner trilogy, The Matrix, The Giver, and so many more. These all take place in superficial worlds that are either built around the main character and their friends, or around a community of people, and the main character wants to break free of these binds.

Each main character of The Maze Runner trilogy, The Matrix, and The Giver, all figure out at one point or another, that the world is false, and so is almost everything they see, feel, and hear. As they strive to break free of the binds of their fake reality, either they realize that the real world is just as bad as the fake one, the evil things they encounter break free along with them, or as they break free of one, they are pulled into another and have to break free all over again.

In The Maze Runner Trilogy, the main characters break free- or at least they think they break free, but are then sent to the real world, which doubles as a fake reality, and are required to travel across the treacherous landscape full of insane people trying to kill them. After that, they are then pulled into the real world, but they figure out that it is not as nice as they thought, and are nearly killed several times, but in the end, they survive, but with some losses.

In The Matrix, the world itself is a dream, and the main character needs to wake up. However, when he does, the evil entities follow him out to the real world, and he has to purge the world of them.

In The Giver, the main character discovers some disturbing things that his “community” does. His community frowns upon anybody being different or better than anyone else. At first it sounds efficient, but then he slowly starts to realize  that the community isn’t the only place to go, and in the end he escapes with a little boy, and ends in a way you’ll have to read for yourself.

So, in the end, almost all superficial worlds end well enough, but may have some sort of a tragic ending, that leaves something, or someone behind.