did what they could to survive but it wasnât enough and everything spiralled from there.
Millions died as armies loyal to the ruling nationalists battled the lower classes over eight long years. The screen shows us images of men, women and children lying dead, some through violence, some through hunger. We might have heard these things passed down through our parents but this is the first time I have ever had to see anything like this. The nauseating feeling in my stomach is only growing as weâre shown huge pits of burned, blackened bodies. Someone at the back starts to sob at the sight of a dead child who is lying in the dirt clutching a soft brown teddy bear.
I can feel my emotions being played with as the screen pales to white before an image of King Victor fades into view. A hardened womanâs voice tells us that he stood up to both sides, uniting the country behind him by providing another way that didnât involve fighting. She doesnât say anything else but my mother has told me in the past that people were tired of the battle and that he came along at the right time for people to support him. I always asked what was different â people were hungry before the war, hungry during it and, aside from the feast of last night, I can barely remember a day where I havenât been hungry myself.
Her words were always the same: âYou donât understand.â
Although she is not as patriotic as someone like Opieâs father, Mum has always assured me life is better with the King than it was before.
I continue to watch the pictures of him in a hospital talking to an injured soldier and another of him helping to rebuild a damaged house, heaving bricks and smoothing cement. He is younger and thinner, a far cry from the man we saw last night. As delicate music plays gently in the background, I am forced to remind myself what he did to Wray because it would be too easy to think of him as the kind, uniting person being shown on the screen.
After becoming our leader, the King divided the nation into four Realms, where we were expected to work together for the well-being of us all. The East and the West farm their lands, providing food for us. In the East they also fish, while the West is also responsible for defence. The images tell us this is where our nuclear weapons are stored deep underground if we are forced to defend ourselves. It feels as much of a threat as an assurance.
The South deals with finance, international trade and future research. In the North we produce textiles and electronics. The film misses off the part where we act as a giant dump for everyone else too. Despite that, I feel a longing for home as the screen shows us vast greenery, small untouched villages and enormous lakes. I donât know exactly where they are but the thought they are in my Realm makes me feel proud.
The broadcast tells us about the Kingâs innovations: the thinkwatches which help us live our daily lives and the cross-country trains which are the main way of transporting people and goods.
Finally, it moves on to the Reckoning. I am hoping there may be some explanation but instead it tells us that the King devised a test for all his subjects; something which would figure out how everyone was best suited to serving the country. It shows us rows of soldiers, laboratories full of people in white coats and a group of workers helping to build a bridge. Given everything I have seen in the past day, I want to feel hostile but it all seems so sensible. Is it really such a bad thing to utilise everyone in the best way in order to enhance all of our lives? I want to say no, to think that the way people such as Wray and Faith are discarded is wrong but then I remember all the dead people I have just seen on screen.
The screen fades to an image of Offerings being led onto a train, telling us that this is the way the four Realms repay the King for the sacrifices he made. That each year, he takes thirty young
Millions died as armies loyal to the ruling nationalists battled the lower classes over eight long years. The screen shows us images of men, women and children lying dead, some through violence, some through hunger. We might have heard these things passed down through our parents but this is the first time I have ever had to see anything like this. The nauseating feeling in my stomach is only growing as weâre shown huge pits of burned, blackened bodies. Someone at the back starts to sob at the sight of a dead child who is lying in the dirt clutching a soft brown teddy bear.
I can feel my emotions being played with as the screen pales to white before an image of King Victor fades into view. A hardened womanâs voice tells us that he stood up to both sides, uniting the country behind him by providing another way that didnât involve fighting. She doesnât say anything else but my mother has told me in the past that people were tired of the battle and that he came along at the right time for people to support him. I always asked what was different â people were hungry before the war, hungry during it and, aside from the feast of last night, I can barely remember a day where I havenât been hungry myself.
Her words were always the same: âYou donât understand.â
Although she is not as patriotic as someone like Opieâs father, Mum has always assured me life is better with the King than it was before.
I continue to watch the pictures of him in a hospital talking to an injured soldier and another of him helping to rebuild a damaged house, heaving bricks and smoothing cement. He is younger and thinner, a far cry from the man we saw last night. As delicate music plays gently in the background, I am forced to remind myself what he did to Wray because it would be too easy to think of him as the kind, uniting person being shown on the screen.
After becoming our leader, the King divided the nation into four Realms, where we were expected to work together for the well-being of us all. The East and the West farm their lands, providing food for us. In the East they also fish, while the West is also responsible for defence. The images tell us this is where our nuclear weapons are stored deep underground if we are forced to defend ourselves. It feels as much of a threat as an assurance.
The South deals with finance, international trade and future research. In the North we produce textiles and electronics. The film misses off the part where we act as a giant dump for everyone else too. Despite that, I feel a longing for home as the screen shows us vast greenery, small untouched villages and enormous lakes. I donât know exactly where they are but the thought they are in my Realm makes me feel proud.
The broadcast tells us about the Kingâs innovations: the thinkwatches which help us live our daily lives and the cross-country trains which are the main way of transporting people and goods.
Finally, it moves on to the Reckoning. I am hoping there may be some explanation but instead it tells us that the King devised a test for all his subjects; something which would figure out how everyone was best suited to serving the country. It shows us rows of soldiers, laboratories full of people in white coats and a group of workers helping to build a bridge. Given everything I have seen in the past day, I want to feel hostile but it all seems so sensible. Is it really such a bad thing to utilise everyone in the best way in order to enhance all of our lives? I want to say no, to think that the way people such as Wray and Faith are discarded is wrong but then I remember all the dead people I have just seen on screen.
The screen fades to an image of Offerings being led onto a train, telling us that this is the way the four Realms repay the King for the sacrifices he made. That each year, he takes thirty young
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