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The Dysfunction of the Government in Battle Royale

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Battle Royale.

Battle Royale is a novel that takes place in a dystopian future where the Japanese government, which is falling apart due to high rates of unemployment and students, who instead of studying, are skipping classes. The government then uses the “Battle Royale” act as a.. Persuasion, of sorts, against those who rebel. The “Battle Royale” act is an act which allows the government to kidnap a random class of ninth-graders annually and set them on an island, attaching collars to their throats, which explode and kill the wearer if they were to wander into areas that are off-limits. They are sent to the island with very few supplies, a map, and, if they are lucky, good weapons to arm themselves against each other. The students are given a time limit of 24 hours. If there is not just one winner, the collars will detonate, causing there to be no winner.

The novel takes place in Japan, and the “Battle Royale” itself takes place on Okishima island. The story switches point of view in almost every chapter, letting the reader experience the novel from almost all 42 points of view. It is also written in such a way that the reader can keep track of who had died, by whom, or what, they were killed by. This book was written in 1996, however, it was not published until 1999. Even then, there were a lot of controversy surrounding this book, people would often argue and raise concerns about this book promoting youth violence. As in all dystopian and post-apocalyptic novels, the

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