49 pages • 1 hour read
Matched
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Symbols & Motifs
Grandfather’s Poems
The two poems that Cassia’s grandfather gifts her are a symbol of knowledge and enlightenment. They represent everything that Cassia has been deprived of in the heavily censored and controlled society in which she lives. At Grandfather’s Final Banquet, he gives Cassia “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas and “Crossing the Bar” by Alfred Lord Tennyson. For decades, he has kept them secretly hidden in his wife’s compact—which was passed down to Cassia. Grandfather tells Cassia that she will eventually understand what they mean. Although she has to incinerate the poems shortly after reading them, she takes great pains to remember their words, particularly those of the Dylan Thomas poem.
Once Cassia is exposed to illegal poetry, she craves more. The poems awaken her to her plight—and that of others. She repeatedly thinks “do not go gentle” (97) as she vows to fight for what she wants and is inspired to write. Ky gifts her a verse from another Dylan Thomas poem that he purchased on the black market, and Cassia is resolved to one day “share the poems” (272). At the end of Matched, she begins writing her own words. Although she has to destroy them, she hopes she can eventually share them with Ky, and “they will change from ash and nothing into flesh and blood” (366).
Sisyphus
Sisyphus represents the ingenuity and perseverance of the oppressed. According to Ky, he is a mythical figure amongst the people of the Outer Provinces who once outsmarted an Official by turning their weapon against them. However, because Sisyphus “dared to think he could be as clever as one of them,” even though he was “nothing” but an Aberration, he was punished by the Society (235). He was forced to push a rock up a mountain, but every time he reached the top, the rock rolled back down; he did so for the rest of his life. Ky admits he doesn’t know if Sisyphus was ever a real person, but he still serves as a representation of life in the Outer Provinces. Cassia draws inspiration from the myth, particularly after learning her Match with Ky was orchestrated. She decides Sisyphus may have “lived the life the Society planned for him, but his thoughts were always his own” (313). He never surrendered his drive or values, despite being punished for eternity.
Sisyphus likely references or is the Sisyphus of Greek myth, a king who cheated death and was charged with rolling a boulder.
The Hills
The novel’s many hills symbolize self-discovery, possibility, and the prospect of a better future in which society is more integrated with the natural world. There are two hills—a smaller one within the Arboretum where Cassia and Ky start their hiking activity, and a larger one that is the highest point in Oria Province. The hiking activity later moves to the larger hill—known simply as The Hill—where the students are commanded to clear a walking path. Cassia and Ky’s relationship blossoms on both hills, and they eventually kiss on the larger one.
It is on the smaller hill where Cassia first reads Grandfather’s poems. It is also where she sees Ky’s vulnerability for the first time. She shares the Dylan Thomas poem with him and, in return, he shares his story through drawings and poems, as well as the myth of Sisyphus. Cassia begins to desire a closer relationship with nature, wishing she “could identify the birdcalls” and “name the plants and flowers” (94).
On the larger hill, Cassia and Ky cement their bond with a kiss after they make it to the top. At the summit, Cassia relishes standing with Ky “in a place where neither of us has been before” and believes if she had wings, she “could soar” (314). Later, when Cassia’s Official tells Cassia that the Match was orchestrated, the latter remembers how “That moment on the Hill is still ours, mine and Ky’s. Ours. No one has touched it but the two of us” (345). The Hill offered a place of refuge where Cassia and Ky could consider a future together—outside of the strict oversight of the Society and its Officials—even if it was only for a little while. Both hills allowed Cassia to discover poetry, love, nature, and personal growth.
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