The 100

By advancing the nuances of Glass’s and Bellamy’s character traits and emotional struggles, this section adds depth to the novel’s focus on The Impact of External Change on Internal Growth. With Glass’s pardon and Bellamy’s freedom on Earth, both teens discover how profoundly the oppression of the council has weighed on them, forcing them into lives they did not want. As a citizen of Phoenix, Glass has enjoyed a level of privilege that kept her from understanding the struggles of the people of Walden. Rather than feeling empathy for their plight, she merely viewed her time in Walden as an escape from the chore of Phoenix social dynamics. However, now that she has experienced true confinement, she finds that the luxuries she once enjoyed on Phoenix pall amidst the realization Luke and those of Walden are forced to go without such benefits. 

Similarly, once Bellamy is freed of the council’s oppression, he begins to discover who he truly wants to be. After a lifetime of keeping secrets and acting specific ways to keep the council from discovering Octavia’s existence, Bellamy is overwhelmed by the possibilities that the lush planet holds, and he is awash in confusion as he struggles to decide what to do with this new freedom after a life of harsh restrictions. At this point, he is still processing the fact that he no longer needs to hide Octavia’s existence because the Gaia Doctrine no longer applies. The sudden absence of this threat highlights the habitual fear in his thoughts and makes Bellamy realize how often the council used fear and punishment to keep people in line. Together, Bellamy and Glass’s stories show that only by gaining knowledge and new perspectives can people truly learn how to counter the effects of systemic oppression.

Yet even as Glass’s pardon grants her insight, it also highlights The Power Inherent in Privilege, and the vice chancellor’s role in pardoning her hints that he will eventually be unmasked as the series’ main antagonist. (The narrative will later reveal that none of the convicts have been receiving pardons because the colony is running out of oxygen; criminalizing and executing members of the populace simply helps to conserve resources.) The decision to create and then sacrifice criminals thus highlights the intersection of this theme with The Struggle Between Oppression and Freedom. Because the council is charged with protecting humanity, the methods they use are not questioned by the people of Phoenix, who blithely believe that the council has their best interests in mind. At the same time, the people of Walden remain silent because they live in fear of what the council does to those who are bold enough to ask questions. 

With the decision to send the 100 convicted criminals to Earth, the council exhibits a level of self-serving corruption that implicitly critiques the ways in which callous bureaucratic systems abuse power. The council decides to execute criminals because it deems non-criminals to be more worthy of taking up space and consuming the colony’s limited resources. No attention is given to the reasons why the crimes were committed—or even to the question of whether the crimes are legitimately defined as such to begin with. Because the council is unilaterally deciding who lives or dies, they now hold power beyond what the Gaia Doctrine ever intended them to have. In this light, Glass’s pardon becomes a political maneuver to draw attention away from the fact that the council is taking liberties with its power.

Amidst the teens’ hardscrabble existence on earth, the confrontation between Wells, Bellamy, and Graham develops a different angle of The Power Inherent in Privilege. Whereas Wells once held a position of authority on the colony and was respected by many on Phoenix, his past has now become a liability because the kids from Walden and Arcadia realize that he is no longer protected by his social or political status. Similarly, Bellamy possesses a large amount of information about Earth, but because he is viewed as an outsider and not a fellow convict, the others distrust him and question his motives for coming to Earth. Thus, while Wells and Bellamy are the most qualified to lead, Graham takes advantage of the group’s distrust to gather power for himself. However, the kids don’t realize that by overstepping and making rules that benefit only himself, Graham is using tactics identical to those of the council. Notably, his tactics are only successful because his status as a convicted murderer makes the others fear him and cede power so that he will not hurt them. Yet this oppressive dynamic is further complicated by their belief in his “strong man” persona; they respect Graham because they believe he is tough enough to survive and can help them to do the same. In short, they make the mistake of many real-world societies in sacrificing their freedom for the illusion of safety.