Proposal

I am an avid reader, always looking for new releases of fictional novels. My favorite genres include science fiction, historical, paranormal, and romance. So, when I stumbled upon Across the Universe, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. The beautiful, starry cover art of the novel was the first thing that arrested my attention. This novel is of a Sci-Fi/horror genre, both of which I love. After receiving my copy of the novel, I started reading it right away. The story written in first person present was so engrossing that it took me just a few hours to complete reading  Across The Universe. The story had so many different aspects to it, it was inconceivable. Even though Across the Universe is a young adult novel, and a bit too simplified for my taste, I still loved it, because of the outlandish story written in an elegant way. A teenage girl cryogenically frozen with her family is brought back to life by Elder who is the future leader of the ship on which they’re all stuck on. The book covers hers and Elder’s journey to the Centauri system in search for the replacement Earth.

Biography

The author of the novel Across the Universe is Beth Revis. She lives in rural North Carolina with her husband and a dog, and “believes space is nowhere near the final frontier.” (bethrevis.com) Across the Universe is her debut novel, and it is the first of a trilogy. Beth graduated from NC State University with a BA in English Education with a minor in history and a MA in English literature with a concentration in fantasy literature. Her favorite author is C.S. Lewis, and has a deep passion for traveling.

Plot Summary

The novel starts out with a scene from our contemporary Earth, where the protagonist, Amy, is getting ready to be cryogenically frozen along with her parents and 97 other passengers. These passengers, including Amy’s parents and excluding Amy, are all specialized in some field like gene splicing, crop developing, military commanders, etc. They are all being sent on a mission to find a replacement Earth in the system named Centauri, and start a civilization, because the waves of depression hitting US and the world have made them look at other places in space to start anew. Amy is being lied to right from the beginning. Instead of being frozen for 300 years, the government delays and adds another year when she could have had one more year to enjoy the beauty of Earth.

Then, the author fast forwards 300 years into the future. The story switches narration, and is through Elder’s perspective. Elder is the future leader of the spaceship named Godspeed. He accidentally stumbles upon the cryo chambers, which are purposely hidden from him and the mono-ethnic humans living aboard the ship.

The chaos is spread when Amy’s chamber is unlocked. It’s a struggle for her to fit in. First of all, she is prematurely unfrozen, and there’s a killer among them who is trying to unfreeze the rest of the passengers, which will lead to some deaths. Secondly, she is treated like a freak for her appearance, and is kept in the hospital ward with the rest of the mental patients. The people kept in the wards are actually normal with exceptional talents, and the drug doesn’t affect them at all. Thirdly, Amy & Elder discover that the history available in the library is manipulated with to keep the truth hidden, which leads them to the most shocking truth of the ship. Amy is actually unfrozen 350 years later, the ship’s progress is 250 years behind schedule, and they’re not even halfway there. When the news of not reaching the Centauri Earth on time flew around, it had caused massive suicides and disruption in the past and that is why one of the eldests (before their time period) was forced to use the drug, Phydus, to calm the chaos. The Eldest, before their time, covered up the details, and prescribed a new plan for the ship. The rest unaffected passengers were labeled ‘mental’ to keep them under control and were medicated regularly. The past leaders were just thinking of survival, because there is a chance that they might not ever make to the designated place.

The novel has many twists and turns in the story, some very unexpected. In the end of the book, Elder is faced with many tough decisions, some questioning his own leadership skills. Amy tries to reconcile with the fact that she has to live out her life in the small ship without her parents and no chance at a real life.

Comparative Analysis

According to my opinion, Across the Universe has many similarities with the story of the Lord of the Flies. Both of the literary works deal with survival instincts, emerging leadership, and character’s fears or anxieties. For example, in the Lord of the Flies, the character, Piggy, voices his fear of being stranded on the island and dying since no one knows about the crash of the airplane. In Across the Universe, a similar fear takes birth in Elder’s mind when he finds out about the receding health of the engine. He never truly realizes how alone they are in space: “If we fail, there is no one out there to save us.”(Revis 335)  He knew the humans on Earth were never going to know the ship’s failure/success, and it didn’t really seem to matter: “If we die, there is no one out there to mourn us.” (Revis 335) In Across the Universe, there is a killer hiding among them. The killer purposely unplugs the cryo chambers of the specialized experts, who are frozen and stored aboard the ship. Lord of the Flies has almost a similar ‘beast’ which causes great panic among the little kids.  

These both novels also contain microcosmical events. For example, both novels display desperation sometimes leads to madness. Elder’s artistic friend, Harley, in Across the Universe loves the beauty of the stars, which helps him to remember his late beloved and gives him a view for his art. He sees the stars through this hidden window among the cryo chambers. Even though, he is one of the kindest and normal characters, he jumps out of the ship and commits suicide out of sheer desperation to be closer to stars. He would rather be among the dead space and beautiful stars for a few seconds and die, than to be stuck on an almost slave-like ship. Just like Harley, Simon is a peaceful character in Lord of the Flies, and sometimes enjoys the beauty of nature away from the group. Although, it is the group’s desperation to kill the beast that finally leads to his death.

Character Analysis

Amy Martin is a seventeen year old girl. She leaves her whole life behind at Earth, just to be with her parents. She risks a chance at a full and normal life when she steps into that cryo box. Now, she is stuck on a chaotic space ship, unfrozen due to a malfunction without her parents, and with a lost chance of any kind of normal, happy life. Amy “liked running” (Revis 131). Her ultimate goal was to run marathons. Ironically, she is trapped in a limited amount of room. This triggers claustrophobia when she realizes that “there is nowhere to run.” (Revis 138) Having nowhere to run when a killer is among them, or when someone tries to drug her, etc. is a dangerous aspect. She is a bird in the cage, especially when the author gave her the last name, Martin, which also is a name of a bird.

How can anyone keep themselves together knowing that their actual life, including their friends and family, existed more than three hundred years ago? The memories wouldn’t even be relevant, and no one will be able to share those with you. So, she just has to reconcile with the fact that she is wedged between a mess, and she has to settle with the next available, sane person to keep her going in this so called life.

Works Cited

Heifetz, Merrilee. "Beth Revis » About." Beth Revis. Beth Revis, 2010. Web. 06 May 2011. http://www.bethrevis.com/about/.

Revis, Beth. Across the Universe. New York: Razorbill, 2011. Print.

SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Lord of the Flies.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2007. Web. 5 May 2011.