The Program

“‘Do you really think anything can ever be the same again? She’s empty, Sloane. She’s the walking dead now.’ I don’t want to believe that. I’ve seen returners for nearly two years, and although I’ve never had more than a standing-next-to-me-in-line-at-the-mall conversation, I’m sure they’re still people. Just…shinier, as if everything is great. They’ve been brainwashed or something. But they’re not empty. They can’t be.”

This quote explores The Ethics of Involuntary Medical Treatment. Miller believes that Lacey is only a shell of herself, while Sloane chooses to believe in the returner’s personhood, even if they seem different, because she does not want to believe that a person’s identity can be fully erased. Regardless of who’s correct, or if Lacey truly believes “everything is great,” the fact that Lacey changed without her consent is proof that she has endured unethical treatment.

“It’s a question we often ask ourselves: Would we commit suicide without The Program, or does it help drive us there?”

This quote emphasizes the paradox of The Program. While The Program claims to erase people’s memories to save their lives, Sloane wonders if the depression that people experience from seeing their loved ones forget them perpetuates the epidemic rather than slowing it. It alludes to the fact that the government is doing it less for public health and more for mass control.

“James saved me. But he couldn’t save Brady—neither of us could. In the end we did just as my brother asked—we took care of one another. Sometimes the survivor’s guilt was more than we could bear, a secret between us that we never let show. But we were all we had left.”

James and Sloane bond over the mutual loss of Brady, which deepens their relationship. This quote shows how the Program forces teenagers to keep secrets and stifle their emotions until they inevitably break. The separation of James and Sloane leads to their depression because, without each other, they have no one left to support them.

“‘I won’t let you go, you know?’ I say. ‘I’m never going to just give up. So don’t even think about getting another girlfriend.’ I smile, pretending he laughed. ‘I know things are bad right now, but they’ll get better […] You won’t leave me on the side of a river wondering why. You’re stronger than that. I know you are.’”

Even as James slips into a depression after Miller dies, Sloane clings to the hope that he will fight back for her. Sloane feels terrified of losing James, but she stays optimistic because she cannot fathom the thought of losing him. This also implies a potential frustration with her brother for choosing to die by suicide, leaving her “wondering why,” instead of staying to protect her. This shows the beginning of Sloane’s character growth because she must rely on herself, rather than anyone around her.

“When he’s gone, several people look back at me. The teacher stares at me. Everyone is waiting to see my reaction, if I’ll be next. If they’ll come rushing in here any second. But I do nothing. Inside I’m dying, ripping apart and bleeding. I’m so far gone I’m not sure I can get back, but I open my notebook and poise my pencil over it, as if ready to write.”

After the handlers drag James away, everyone waits in anticipation of Sloane’s breakdown. However, Sloane has mastered the art of repressing her emotions from years of not being able to mourn for Brady. Young uses the imagery of Sloane bleeding inside to reveal the intense pain of losing James, yet Sloane knows that to keep herself safe, she must internalize this feeling.

“I can’t believe they don’t understand. I wonder if it’s because adults would rather forget about their problems, the thought that ignorance is bliss. But The Program steals our memories. They reset our emotions so that we’re brand-new, never having been hurt or heartbroken. But who are we without our pasts?”

Young invokes the common phrase of “ignorance is bliss” to suggest Sloane’s parents’ reason for trusting in The Program. In the dystopian society, adults prefer the erasure of memories to mental illness because they can pretend that it is not hurting anyone. Sloane feels helpless, knowing that her parents would rather trade their daughter’s past for the possibility of “curing” her depression.

“They’ll take out parts of me. Parts of Brady. I won’t even know my friends. I won’t remember why I love going to the river. […] It’s because that’s where James first kissed me.”

Sloane tries to explain to her mother that The Program erases people’s identities by stealing their memories. Sloane knows that she will not remember anything from the moment when she fell in love with James, and this terrifies her. However, Sloane restores her love for the river later because James kisses her by the river a second time, showing that she can recreate some of her lost memories.

“I lay my head on my broken arm, my clothes stuck to me as I stare at my ring. I couldn’t kill myself, couldn’t let go like so many others had. I wonder if in their last moments they changed their minds, but there was no boulder to grab on to. I start to sob as I think about Brady and about how I should have gotten to him in the water sooner. Maybe he wanted to live. Maybe it’s my fault that he didn’t.”

Sloane feels like a failure after her suicide attempt, even though she realizes afterward that she does not want to die. Sloane feels haunted by new guilt because she thinks that Brady may have wanted to live at the last moment, but she could not save him. Without James or her family’s support, she is overwhelmed by her negative thoughts.

“I stare through the windshield and think about how James will return from The Program. They might not let me near him for a while, but they will eventually. And James isn’t like other people. He’s smart. Resourceful. What if he doesn’t get hollowed out? What if he comes back and remembers me? If it were me, if I’d been sent to The Program, I’d do everything I could to remember him. I’d find a way. I have to believe that James will too. I have to believe in him.”

Sloane clings to the belief that James will find a way to remember her. However, once James returns, Sloane knows that she will need to save their relationship. This could set her up for disappointment, as James doesn’t initially remember her, but her assertion that they would find their way back to each other proves true. Her hope in the face of The Program’s power demonstrates her internal strength.

“Her words strike my heart and remind me of Brady, how she cried for weeks after he died. How my father would drink too much, and then they’d scream at each other. I’d tried to comfort my mother, until my own grief got the best of me. And then James became the only person I could trust to see that side of me.”

This quote highlights the way that The Program turns families against each other. This division isolates people and makes them more susceptible to outside control. Since the dystopian society believes that adults are immune from the epidemic, they allow adults to mourn. However, Sloane does not have the same privilege as her parents to fall apart after Brady dies. Instead, Sloane learns to internalize her pain and turns to James for support.

“I wonder if Lacey even knows Miller is dead, if somewhere inside she misses him. Misses all of us. Can The Program take away our emotions, or do they always remain—only without the source?”

This quote highlights The Persistence of Emotion and Human Connection. Sloane answers her own question about Lacey remembering her friends at a base level, without memories, when Sloane goes through The Program. Sloane’s hope in people restoring their memories allows her to explore her emotions when she returns from The Program.

“James doesn’t know me, not even a flicker of recognition. It’s like I never existed. We had so many secrets together and now they’re just mine. The weight of them is too heavy for me to carry.”

Young uses the metaphor of Sloane and James’ secrets having weight to reveal the significance of their connection. Without James sharing the secrets with Sloane, she feels isolated and weighed down by her own grief.

“‘Everyone who comes into The Program is very unwell.’ ‘That’s not the point,’ I say. ‘We should have a choice.’ ‘But how can a proper decision be made when the mind is clouded with disease? It’s an infection, Sloane. A behavioral contagion. And we’re the only cure.’”

Sloane’s attempt to reason with Dr. Francis backfires because he truly believes that mental illness is a disease. Sloane realizes that she cannot reason with this controversial belief because it implies that people with mental illness cannot make decisions properly, rather than understanding that every person deserves to have a decision in what happens to their body.

“I stand there, staring at the closed door. What I’ve lost? I look suddenly to my hand, but the finger is naked. The purple heart ring that I always wear is at home in my mattress. I wouldn’t forget that. James gave it to me when…I stop, thinking. A spike of fear rushes over me. He gave it when…Oh, God.”

This quote highlights the unethical nature of the treatment Sloane is enduring as she realizes that she is slowly losing her memories, including ones that made her happy. This causes Sloane to feel helpless and out of control because she had not realized that The Program was stealing her memories so slowly that she would not notice the loss of them.

“I’m not saying James is a bad guy. Neither is Brady or Miller or Lacey. But they’re the reason you’re really here. They were infected, Sloane. They infected you. And now you have to get better. Just like a cancer, we have to cut out what’s making you sick.”

Dr. Warren’s stigma against mental illness causes her to believe that Sloane’s depression is a direct result of the people around her. Dr. Warren uses the metaphor of Sloane’s depression being a cancer that they need to cut out instead of being a process of ripping away a person’s memories without their consent. This rhetoric is meant to put Sloane at ease with her treatment, but it achieves the opposite.

“‘If it’s meant to be…’ Realm says, sounding like my mother. But underneath, I hear his hurt. I don’t respond and just let him hold me, knowing that I shouldn’t be here like this. But no one ever comes in to make me go back to my room. And when I start to fall asleep, I think that my guilt is gone—if only for a moment. I’ve become comfortably numb.”

Realm uses the antiquated phrase of saying that if James and Sloane are meant to be together, then they will find each other even without their memories. While Realm does not believe this, Young introduces this concept to foreshadow how Sloane and James will find each other again. Additionally, Realm represents the type of relationships that Sloane could have if she gave into the treatment—a romance with some earnest feelings, but is ultimately only achievable if Sloane becomes “numb.”

“Inside I feel a pull—something yanking out my heart. I miss someone. I know it plainly, and yet I can’t conjure up a face. An image. It’s like an ache, a phantom pain for an appendage that’s no longer there. I don’t know what I’ve lost, where I’ve been.”

Sloane’s empty feeling as she misses James reveals The Persistence of Emotion and Human Connection. Young uses the metaphor of a phantom appendage to describe Sloane’s loss of James in her mind. This is Sloane’s first experience of emotion without a memory, and she feels confused about why her body, or subconscious mind, remembers something that her conscious mind does not.

“I have no idea how to explain to Realm that, in the light, he’s not what I thought he was. That I do feel different today. About him. About everything. I’m not quite sure why, but more than ever I’m desperate to go home. I’m going to play this game, beat The Program. I’m going to get out of here.”

Even though Sloane does not remember Realm’s betrayal, she no longer trusts him, as she subconsciously remembers his secret. Sloane’s lost memory of Realm’s betrayal causes her resistance against The Program to reignite because she knows that there is something suspect about the way they run their treatment program. This sparks her sense of rebellion, playing into The Struggle Against Oppressive Societal Structures.

“Something tickles the back of my mind, but I can’t put it into words, this odd feeling I have. A feeling that has no meaning because I can’t remember what it relates to. It’s like I’m about to discover it when a memory of my brother sitting alone at the table calling out fractions on flash cards echoes in my mind. I blink quickly and try to clear it away.”

After The Program erases Sloane’s memories, the disorientation becomes more intense for her. This feeling eventually pushes her toward resisting The Program’s surveillance. As she tries to remember why she feels protective of James, her brain fills in another memory of Brady to replace it, but this leaves her feeling unsatisfied.

“There’s a tightness in my chest, and I think what she’s asking is unfair, especially because I can’t remember losing my brother. I need a little more closure, a chance to grieve now that I’m home. But instead, I just nod, and she pats my thigh.”

Sloane’s mother takes advantage of Sloane’s memory loss by making her promise to never ask about Brady. This makes Sloane feel uncomfortable because she cannot know what she is agreeing to without her memory. Rather than understanding that Sloane needs time to grieve, Sloane’s mother repeats the past by forcing Sloane to repress her emotions.

“I tell her I missed her, too, but really I’m thinking about the ache that has started deep in my chest, a pain that I can’t place, and I can’t understand. It’s like longing, whether for myself or someone else, I don’t know. There is a part of me missing and no matter what I do, I’m not sure I’ll ever fill it.”

Sloane cannot shake the feeling that she misses someone. Sloane realizes that she cannot confide in her mother about how she feels because she thinks any discussion about emotion will cause Sloane to experience depression again. Without her knowledge of her relationship with James, Sloane fears that she will always feel empty, wondering why she misses someone that she cannot remember.

“‘And I don’t know you. So why did I care that that asshole was being mean to you outside on the patio that night? Why have I worried about you since? Can you explain it?’ He sounds frustrated, and I realize that he has the same conflicting feelings that I do. Emotions that are there, but without cause. Feelings that aren’t attached to memories and therefore meaningless.”

Sloane connects with James about their confusion over their memory loss and reacting to each other when they do not know why. Sloane’s realization that she is not alone in this feeling encourages her and acts as a way for her to reconnect with James without her memories. Calling the feelings without memories “meaningless” demonstrates the thought process The Program hopes to implement, with people disregarding their emotions, but Sloane chooses to explore them instead.

“It’s a ring. A pink plastic heart similar to the one I’d found in my mattress. James must have given me the other one, and it must have meant something for me to save it. For a second there’s a hint of a memory, just a flash of me stuffing it into my bed, but I can’t hold on to it. Instead, I start to cry. I clutch the ring to my chest and then fold over, my cheek on the grass.”

When Sloane sees the pink ring that James got for her, she has her first flashback to a memory of hiding the purple ring in her mattress. Although this memory is difficult for Sloane, the understanding that she can remember something causes Sloane to cry, overwhelmed by what she has lost. She doesn’t know that finding the pink ring mirrors how James gave her the purple ring before, but she feels satisfied after the realization that James is the person that she has been missing.