Blog Post #4

I think that theme in my book, Turnabout by Margaret Peterson Haddix, is that you can't control the past or the future.  First off the author uses a literary device to prove this theme.  During the book there would be flashbacks of when Melly and Anny Beth first became members of the Project Turnabout or their previous lives. This was used to show that Melly and Anny Beth made their decisions based on their past and the successes and failures in it. But, as the book went on the flashbacks became more and more limited, almost to the point of none.  I think this is because the author wanted to showcase that when Melly and Anny Beth were confronting the scientists at the Turnabout center and AJ Hazlewood this wasn't because of their past.  The characters knew that their decisions weren't going to change the past and that whatever they did where based on their judgments in that moment.  To add, the whole entire idea of Project Turnabout was based on the idea of controlling the future.  Dr. Reed started the project to save his dying grandmother and have her live forever with him.  That didn't work out ot well since Dr.Reed's grandmother died before the injection could be administrated.  This left a whole group of people who had so many regrets and issues in Dr.Reed's hands. It said in the book that so many comitted suicide or left the project without a trace.  Dr. Reed thought he could control the future, but that ended up with him causing a lot of deaths and miserable people.  This is why I think that the theme of Turnabout is that you can't control the past or the future