Lena and Alex sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. In any world, this rhyme is annoying enough to make you want to poke out your own eardrums. In the world of Delirium, however, it's more than irritating—it could very well be a death sentence. Lena lives in a world where the United States has outlawed love. They see it as the root of all evil. Suicide, greed, jealousy, crimes of passion, and so on are all caused by the complex concoctions of emotions we've boiled down into a simple four letter word: love. K-I-S-S-I-N-G? More like K-I-L-L-I-N-G.
Questions About Love
- Is Alex's love the only thing that matters to Lena, above all else?
- Lena says "Love: It will kill you and save you, both" (24.74). What does she mean by this?
- What do you think the cure for love actually is? Does it seem to work?
- Is love the root of all the world's problems, like the government thinks it is? What about love's companion, hate?