Role Of Lena In Delirium

Love into Fear
“You can build walls all the way to the sky and I will find a way to fly above them. You can try to pin me down with a hundred thousand arms, but I will find a way to resist” (Oliver 440-441). In the novel Delirium by Lauren Oliver, a seventeen year-old girl, Lena, lives with her Aunt, as her parents both died. She lives in a society where love is a disease, Deliria. Going against all she knows, for a boy, she finds her freedom. Love, supposedly fatal, pushes Lena and gives her strength to escape. Although Lena starts out a submissive, scared, tentative girl, the harsh world she lives in forces her to become confident, brave, and determined, in order to overcome her obstacles.

To start off, submissive has described Lena since

That is until Alex. Since Lena’s mother used to warn her about the dangers out nearing the electrified fence, the one which was closing them in, consequently, those fears stuck. “Since then,” Lena says, “ I’ve run alongside it with Hana a few times, always careful to stay a good ten feet away” (124). Regardless, Lena has to escape and drown her fear of the fence, or surrender her freedom. Lena makes it out to the fence, and although the fence is momentarily not electrified, it could be any second: “I limp to the fence and haul myself upwards, inch by inch… I reach the top of the fence… and let myself drop twenty feet to the ground” (438-439). Surviving the drop, Lena is uncontrolled due to her bravery; a trait which she never used to have. Indeed, the thought of the unknown terrifies Lena, for a short period she is even afraid of Alex. Of course, Lena surpesses her cowardice when it comes to Alex as she does in the face of many other challenges. When Alex confides in Lena that he is not actually cured, that he comes from the Wilds, all she can bring herself to do is run away. Stumbling over her words, she blurts, “you’re not⎼⎼ you’re still⎼⎼ you might still be⎼⎼” yet she can not bring herself to say the word, “Diseased. Uncured. Sick.” (166). Despite Alex’s pleas to explain himself, Lena takes off, and does not see him again until the night of the raid. In spite of the fact that Lena’s intentions are good, going to warn her friend, she ends up caught up in the raid. The regulators chase Lena and one of their dogs bite her. Just before the regulator swings at Lena, Alex jumps in and whisks her away. Alex saves her life. She allows Alex to wrap up her would, and he gives her good reason to trust him. Lena is bold and conquers her fear of the unknown in opening herself up to Alex (220-233). From square one, Lena fears the Wilds. At first Lena even permits her unease to