Betrayal Quotes in Delirium

Hana is totally open and honest with Lena about how she feels—she likes music and boys. And she's not ashamed of it. But since this all that stuff scares Lena, Lena sees Hana's forthrightness as a betrayal.

Dang, talk about trust issues. Lena's mother's suicide (and her government's creepy totalitarianism) has left her unable to trust people. She always expects the worst.

Lena's gone a little bit off the deep end with this. None of her friends have ever done her wrong, so it's strange that she's so angry at Hana for being frank with Lena about her mom. Maybe this is the deliria talking...

Up until this point in Lena's life, she always thought she had a happy childhood. However, the more Lena retreats inside herself, the more she sees her mother's loving treatment of her as a betrayal. That's how you know Delirium's Portland is totally backwards: a happy childhood somehow becomes a bad thing.

This revelation is kind of a typical coming-of-age trope. Waking up one day and feeling like everything you believed in as a kid was a lie is actually totally normal. You know, Santa Claus. The Muppets. And so on. But in Lena's world, what she believed in included world peace and the government. Nothing is sacred, you see.

These seven words are the last thing Lena wants to hear from Alex. She's so insecure with herself, she's been practically counting down the days until Alex betrays her. So when he tells her this, she runs away without giving him any opportunity to explain himself.

Lena doesn't have a monopoly on betrayal, even though she sure acts like it. Looking at things from the other side of the story, we see that Hana confessed her true feelings to Lena. And what did her best friend do? Yell at her and storm out. Um, yeah, we'd feel a little betrayed too.

Once again, we see why Lena is a champion of the love cure: safety. This time, it's safety from feeling betrayed by a friend.

Lena is upset because her whole history has been a lie. "The blitz" wasn't just some big terraforming project; it killed millions of people. Even though Lena had no hand it, nor knew any of the people involved, she still feels betrayed. And we understand that.

It seems that Lena's mother just can't win. She betrayed Lena by giving her a happy childhood. Then she betrayed Lena by committing suicide. Then she betrayed Lena by not actually committing suicide. And finally, she betrayed Lena by escaping from the mental institution and not contacting her. If Lena ever meets her mother, will she forgive her for these betrayals, do you think?