#lisa mcmann

[thoughtkick]

Because with the right person, sometimes kissing feels like healing.

Lisa McMann

[sunsetquotes]

Because with the right person, sometimes kissing feels like healing.

Lisa McMann; Gone

[perfectquote]

Because with the right person, sometimes kissing feels like healing.

Lisa McMann

[stay-close]

Because with the right person, sometimes kissing feels like healing.

Lisa McMann

[thehopefulquotes]

Because with the right person, sometimes kissing feels like healing.

Lisa McMann

[resqectable]

Because with the right person, sometimes kissing feels like healing.

Lisa McMann

[4pplec0re]

lotsa colors make my brain go wrrr

back on my unwanteds bullshit again sry

[surqrised]

Because with the right person, sometimes kissing feels like healing.

Lisa McMann

[nightlyquotes]

Because with the right person, sometimes kissing feels like healing.

Lisa McMann

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

[thoughtkick]

Because with the right person, sometimes kissing feels like healing.

Lisa McMann

[thebookworm006]

I need people that are unwanteds fans, people who have their whole personality shaped by these books and based their whole life off these. These were NOT just books these were my happiness and kept me going when i just wanted to die. Thank you Alex, Aaron, Lani, sam, meg, sky, kaylee, thiz, fife, dev, rohan, and THANK YOU LISA MCMANN FOR SAVING ME.

[theoakleafpancake]

Rereading the unwanteds and it just sank in that the people of Quill sent their kids to be thrown in a lake of boiling oil

[stay-close]

Because with the right person, sometimes kissing feels like healing.

Lisa McMann

[artimeanatheart]

Aaron Character Analysis-Book One Part Three

Okay, it's time to actually talk about Aaron's character development in this book.  Rather than how readers perceive him or future parallels to Mr. Today.

As always, this part has spoilers for the rest of the series, including Quests.

From Fear to Anger

Before I really get started, I should probably say that, when analyzing Aaron, I try to identify what he wants at his core. And it's something that I don't think changes very much from the beginning of the series to the end of the series. What I see Aaron's core motivation as, the thing that lies beneath the ambition and arrogance and selfishness and drives even those things, his is desire to belong. It's not super obvious in these early books, especially until he finds the Jungle, but I do think it's there. We can see it in how he clings to his titles throughout the first part of the series, how he's always introduced by them in his inner monologue, to prove that Quill is where he belongs. Aaron in these early books is definitely arrogant and ambitious and selfish, and power is certainly a motivation for him, but I think his desire for belonging runs deeper than them.

Anyways, onto the analysis.

"Alex glanced at Aaron, whose face showed the tiniest emotion. Scared, was it? Or sad? Alex didn't know."

Aaron starts this book afraid.  He comes to the Purge terrified that he, too, will be Unwanted.  That he will be cast out and killed.  But he's made a Wanted.  He is wanted.  He's important.  People can't ignore him anymore; he won't let them.  He'll be seen for who he is instead of who he is not.  His parents won't mix the two of them up in the rain anymore.  Because Alex will be dead. He has to say goodbye to his brother.  He does care about Alex.  He wanted to see what Alex did, that day in the rain, he wanted to fit in with his brother, with his brother's friends.  But not enough to be killed for it.

"He was Aaron Stowe, the Wanted. And he had a lot more to prove than most, having been born of two Necessaries. Not to mention overcoming the stigma of a worthless twin brother. It was, Aaron knew, a huge accomplishment to have made it to the top like this."

And so he says the first line of dialogue in the book: "Good-bye".  And he tells his mom that he wouldn't want to wear Alex's shoes.  He grieves his brother, as much as someone in Quill can. But he forces himself to stop and turns his attention to climbing the ranks. He goes to university and tries to succeed, to fit in, to find people he thinks are worthy of him.  He does well in class and gets the governors' attention.  He's always wanted that.  But it's at the cost of any relationship with his peers.  He's isolated.  He has no one.  He has to get close with the Governors and Justine.  He has no other choice if he wants to be successful, to be remembered, to be known, to belong.  

"'Stop torturing me. I am not allowed to be having all these dreams. I'm not the one who killed you-it's not my fault you couldn't follow the law. Now go away and never come back.'"

But at night he dreams.  He hasn't forgotten Alex.  He misses Alex.  A part of him feels like it's his fault Alex is dead.  Knows it's his fault because he reported Alex.  Just another casualty of his climb to the top.  Of his climb to belonging. 

"Aaron knew better than to tell anyone about these recent dreams, though. Now that he was held in such high esteem for a young student, it would be a definite career-killing sign of weakness were he to admit that to anyone. He shuddered to think it."

Dreaming is wrong.  He knows that.  And if he's dreaming, he must be wrong.  He can't let anyone know so he hides.  Hides away the best parts of himself, the creative parts of himself, anything that might get in the way of being the best Quillen.

"Alex. Aaron shook his head violently. 'Stop,' he said to himself. 'Or I'll be forced to report you.'"

There's also a part of him that knows he should have been Unwanted.  Oh, he will deny that he's creative, sure, but a part of him knows that he is.  It's just repressed underneath everything else.  But that knowledge that he should have been Unwanted, that he doesn't really belong, that he's a fake and someone could find out, haunts him.  He won't consciously admit it, but it does.  Why else would he follow Alex to Artime?  Why else would he stay to chat?  He tells himself it was so he could report it to Justine, and I'm sure that played a part in it. But was that it?  Or was it also curiosity about what his life could have been?

"I'll earn my position back! I must prove myself to the high priest. I'll find the old man, and I will kill him. And then I'll finish off Alex, once and for all."

And then Artime is revealed and he looses everything.  He looses the respect of the government, the position he worked so hard to get, and what, to him, is his only chance of belonging in a space outside of his brother.  I do want to note that his first attack on Alex wasn't necessarily intended to be lethal.  He definitely wanted to hurt Alex, but he didn't know that he had stumbled upon the lethal verbal component to the spell.  He didn't even know what a scatterclip did.  He just knew that he was angry and he wanted Alex to hurt for what he had taken from Aaron.

Aaron starts the book afraid.  He ends the book angry.

It's interesting how those are the only two emotions Quillens are allowed to feel, and they play such a big role in Aaron's arc, not just in this book, but in the series as a whole.

And now for a side note:

"Aaron sniffed once quietly, catching Alex's attention in the silent amphitheater. The identical boys held a glance for a moment. Something, like a bolt of energy, passed between them. And then it was gone. 'Good-bye,' Aaron whispered. Alex swallowed hard, held the stare a second more as the governors tugged at him to follow, and then broke the connection and went with the governors that would take him to his death."

I've always thought it was kind of weird, how in Quests, Fifer and Thisbe have a magical telepathic connection that was never really touched on with Alex and Aaron.  Well, I was wrong.  The first chapter of this book mentions a 'connection' breaking between the twins when Alex is pulled away to the Death Farm.  Throughout the book, Alex and Aaron have similar dreams of reunion.  Between that and the fact that Fifer and Thisbe's connection fully emerged when they were thirteen, I think that these moments might actually have been that telepathic connection trying to form and being slowly broken down. By the end of the book, with Aaron having tried to kill Alex and having walked away from Artime, any hope of that connection strengthening to the extent that Fifer and Thisbe's did is gone.  Aaron may regret its loss eventually, but by the time he does, it's too late for him to fix. Alex and Aaron can still feel when the other dies. But that's about it, if I'm remembering right.  They lost their chance at having a truly telepathic connection when they were thirteen.

I don't know if McMann planned that, but it's a really cool detail.

[fireflys-fanfics]

so I’m going to be that one meme for a minute

you all know the one that’s like “I’ve connected the dots” “you didn’t connect shit” “I’ve connected them”

I’m going to be that for a minute

so ok

going on my extreme the Unwanteds obsession

it took me a while to come up with this stupid theory

but anyways

so the main characters are these twin brothers named Alexander and Aaron Stowe

Alexander and Aaron (remember the names ok)

they start off pretty much as enemies

now

we go off American history (y’all might know where I’m going from here)

two people that ended up as enemies by a technicality (ignoring the deleted songs)

duh duh duh

Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr

ok I’m done my dumb theory now move on with your life