Among the Hidden

Among the Hidden is a coming of age story written in a futuristic society in which families are only allowed to have two children. The novel is written from the perspective of Luke, a third child, as he slowly realizes exactly where he stand in society, and how he will never be able to live and grow like his brothers. As a child he lives sheltered by the forest, allowing him to play outside with his two brothers. That is until  contractors cut down the forest to build a suburb for the more affluent. These actions force Luke into the confines of his home. With the knew neighborhood comes a whole new group of people that Luke observes from his attic window. Through his observations he discovers another third child, Jen Talabot. The daughter of an extremely powerful double agent in the population police. Through his relationship with her Luke eyes are opened to revolutionary ideas. He learns that there is enough food, and that government officials live in splender and enjoy the coveted foods and pets that are band to the general public. His family struggles to keep food on the table and as a last resort at one point his father figures out a way to grow food in the basement during the winter months. The government find out about this through the equipment he ordered and stopped it.

Looking at the two different definitions of dystopia I would say that this story fits much better with the second definition: in trying to create a perfect utopian world something goes horribly wrong. In Among the Hidden, the government places a restriction on the number of children born to try and end world hunger, but through the novel several key things happen to prove that the government’s motives are not pure. The incident with the father growing food in the basement proved that the government was not truly worried about adequate food production, but about the ability to control the masses through control of food distribution. This novel serves as a warning against the collection of power in the hand of the few. It pleads for a more democratic and innovative society and calls on the principles of John Locke that as citizen, we have the duty to overthrow our government if it is unjust. This is only the first book in an extremely exciting and inspiration journey of a group of third children who set about to liberate themselves. As American our liberty is very important, evident as reflected in the arguments prominent in politics. This is one of the reasons this type of heroic and democratic novel is so popular.