Reading Response on "Lockdown: Escape From Furnace"

      In the story "Lockdown: Escape From Furnace" by Alexander Gordon Smith, the theme was survival. Throughout the story the main character Alex Sawyer and his friends who he met at Furance, the worlds most secure prison for young offenders have to fight for there lives.
He has to defend himself against vicious gangs, work himself to near death and eat disgusting food.
He found himself one night after getting into a fight with a fellow inmate up against police dogs. The story has lots of upsetting content involving children being treated terribly in this prison do to a law that was passed in England at the time increasing the cruelty allowed for Juvenile Penitentiaries.

      One reason why a survival theme is evident in Lockdown is because the prison is extremely dangerous, they explains that their are lots of very dangerous gangs that pick on and threaten the new kids who are put into the prison. Alex has a very dangerous encounter with one of these gangs, where he barely escapes. He probably wouldn't of escaped if it wasn't for his friends Zee and Donovan. The story shows constantly that people are trying to survive at any means possible. Alex probably wouldn't have survived if it wasn't for his friends, he's extremely lucky they helped him and risked their loves for him. 

     Another reason why survival is one of the main themes in Lockdown is the way the guards were always threatening the prisoner with horrible treatment or death. For example the guards would release killer dogs at night to kill the escaped prisoners and if you didn't cooperate while working in the mines, you were taken to a hole where you were given nothing to eat, no food or anything for days, until you would go mad. This was reasons to do what the guards said and not disrespect them if you wanted to survive. The guards behavior made sure the prisoners didn't defy them and gave them a motive to be good and follow their rules. This was another place in the story where survival was key.

      In conclusion, while reading "Lockdown," survival was definitely one of the main themes in this story,  It was evident in they way it was so important for the prisoners to follow the rules and be able to defend themselves at any moment and the children seem to be fighting for their lives, trying so hard to stay alive because no one wants to die especially that young.  Everyone in "Lockdown" were constantly trying to survive and were doing whatever they could to stay alive.