Chains discussion

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson is a powerful historical fiction book that continued to keep me entertained and wondering where the story would take me. I loved the blend of things I have learned in history classes with a story of a brave and enslaved teenage girl named Isabel living in New York. The book takes place during the Revolutionary war year 1776 where there are sides and tension with the Patriots and Loyalists. In the beginning of the book we see one of the book’s themes of betrayal when it immediately dives into how Isabel and her sister Ruth had a broken promise in a will of their deceased owner of them being freed. However they were instead sold to the Locktons, an unkind loyalist couple where the wife is cruel and in return Isabel has to risk everything to protect her sister Ruth. One of the biggest conflicts throughout the book is between Isabel and Madam Lockton several things happened such as Isabel getting slapped, being separated from Ruth, and more. One of the other biggest themes in the book is resilience which we see when Isabel continuously fights for freedom especially when she risks everything by spying on the Locktons and their Loyalist friends to report to the Patriots. This book shows a text to world connection with Isabel’s fight for justice and freedom in 1776 can seem like the fight for justice and equality that went on throughout America’s history and even now such as the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter.