Themes
Throughout the novel Erebos, there are many underlying themes and virtues that reflect the characters and their actions. The one that really hit the point of the book, though, was that you should not throw yourself into something you will not like just because your friends and peers are doing
it. Countless times in the novel, Nick loses the respect and trust of his good friends because he is too busy playing Erebos and completing the Messenger’s tasks. He stops caring about anything other than the game, and when he notices that his social life and friendships are dwindling, he does not end his gameplay and stop his addiction short. Instead, he tries his absolute best to pull his friends, and even some strangers, into the game as well. Playing as his computer-game avatar, Sarius, he thinks to himself: “Sarius tries to push everything aside, to concentrate on what is important: the completion on the task for the third rite. Jamie, Emily… Who else could there be? Dan and Alex had long since been infected, Brynne as well. Colin, Rashid, Jerome…” (Poznanski 122) Even as he is playing the game, he calls it nothing but an infection, but that doesn’t even matter to him. He is already too far gone into the game to realize the error of his ways. The entire problem in the novel stems because everyone had heard of a mysterious game that everyone joined. Soon, if one did not play the game, they were deemed uncool or not worth the game’s time. If everyone had just done what they had wanted to instead of what many pressured them into doing, everything would have been fine. |
Another great theme that is expressed in the novel many times is that some secrets are better left unknown. This makes sense in the case of because nobody knew who started giving out copies of the unmarked disc or who even created the game. The secrecy and mystery of the whole thing drew out peoples’ curiosity and drew them into the game. “CDs – That would explain the format of Rashid’s parcel. A pirate copy going form hand to hand – maybe banned music… This was different. As if it was a game of Telephone, as if a secret password was going around. Thinsiders were keeping quiet, whispering, staying apart.” (Poznanski 15) Too many peoples’ curiosity got the best of them, and in return, the game sucked away their lives and their freedom. If the students had not peaked their interests so much, their lives would have not beem affected so greatly.
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