Background Info on Ally Braithwaite Condie

ENGL 112, Dr. Warner

Fall 2016
Book Talk: Atlantia, by Ally Condie
Background Info on Ally Braithwaite Condie:

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  Website: www.Allycondie.com
  
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  Condie was born in Cedar City, Utah, and graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in English Teaching. She taught high school English for several years before pursuing writing.
  
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  Condie has written ten novels to date. Her most popular are the Matched trilogy, books that, like Atlantia, feature a teenage female protagonist struggling within the confines of a dystopian, tightly controlled society.
  

Rio, a teenage girl, has lived her entire life in Atlantia, an underwater city entirely cut off from the “Above”. Although she has always held a strong desire to see the Above, her mother’s death forces Rio to promise her sister, Bay, that she will stay below with Bay. Rio is devastated, then, when Bay abandons her and chooses to go above, leaving Rio behind, trapped in Atlantia as the only bloodline continuant aside from her estranged and secretive aunt, Maire. Atlantia is a mysterious city, one that has witnessed unexplained “miracles”: bats of unknown origin, and the existence of sirens. Sirens have the innate ability to control and manipulate others with their voices. However, Rio has a secret that she withholds from those around her: she herself is a Siren. As Rio explores Atlantia in search of a way out, she uncovers many secrets about the city, it’s history, and it’s inhabitants – including her aunt Maire.

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   “I knew Bay was right… I’ve used my true voice in public.” (p. 7-9) This quotation begins the major conflict that motivates Rio’s story. It also illustrates the clever back-and-forth between action and Rio’s internal dialogue. Finally, this quotation depicts the lack of certainty that permeates the novel.
   
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   “As people exit the temple… Everything has been wrong since she died.” (p. 106) Here is a quotation that encapsulates Rio’s sheer loneliness and distraughtness. Condie constantly contrasts Rio, both mentally and physically, with the other inhabitants of Atlantia, who gawk and mock her. These instances provide teenagers a chance to examine several aspects of social relationships.
   
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   “’My dear’, Maire says, ‘the only chance of success is to trust in your own power’” (p. 234) Here is a line from the text that the reader can really draw personal inspiration from. Inspirational lines like this allow teenagers to ponder ways in which they might trust their own power and demonstrate courage.
   

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   Rio, left alone, must sort out for herself which of her peers are trustworthy, and which are not. Her dilemma can springboard class discussions on friendship and trust: “How do we know who to trust?” One might pair this discussion with poetry, short stories, or even fables featuring the fool and the trickster archetype. “What are the pros and cons of being too trusting, or of not being trusting enough?”
   
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   Rio struggles to identify herself, caught between a flurry of socially generated labels that others attribute to her – the minister’s daughter, girl with weird voice, girl whose sister left her – and her secrets – siren, her desire to go above. One could pair this book with a Ted Talk such as Angela Lee Duckworth’s The Key to Success: Grit, and begin a discussion about how people define themselves in the midst of controversy/labeling. This is also a great chance to insert pop icon biographies.
   

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  Teens struggle with varying labels and identities (sexual, ethnic, religious, age-based, and many others)
  
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  Most teens are at the age where they, like Rio, have lost a loved one.
  
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  Teens are possibly struggling with religion: it’s messages, reality, and application. Rio has these same struggles, and provides a lens for reflection.
  

This book’s fast pace requires reader alertness and keeps the reader engaged. Students will be motivated to read this text because Condie does an excellent job generating tension and mystery via character and setting. There are only basic prior knowledge/cultural demands when reading because Rio explains the town’s fantastical workings, and Condie leaves the race of “those below” ambiguous. Student experiences only indirectly parallel Rio’s because she lives in a fantastical city. However, she faces many relevant, “real-world” issues such as death, religion, and self-identity, and these thematic elements warrant the book as engaging for students of higher grade-level than its Lexile measure.