The Seven Basic Plots

Christopher Booker's The Seven Basic Plots is a book (extremely long and repetitive, I hear) that states that there are only seven basic plots that a story can have. Matched falls into several of those plot categories perfectly and follows the mould Booker set out.

Overcoming the Monster

• Cassia finds that the 'great evil' of the society is the lack of knowledge, creativity and free will they give their citizens. With the help of Ky, Cassia is determined to learn what the Society has kept from her for years.

Rags to Riches

• Surrounded by dark forces that try to suppress her, Cassia slowly blossoms into a mature figure, that understands more about the Society than anyone else. Ultimately, Cassia will become a hero to her people, and will allow everyone the freedom to be themselves.

The Quest

• Cassia and Ky go on a quest to learn why such a 'mistake' as their matching was made, and how this effects them as a community

Comedy 

• Cassia and Ky are destined to be together (as they learn more about each other, and grow to love one another), but the Society (and Ky's status) is keeping them apart. Eventually, the Society will have to give in (in the second and third books in the Matched trilogy) and Cassia and Ky will be free to be together. This is/will be a cascade of events that will lead to everyone knowing how cruel the Society really is and will allow for more people to be together because they love each other, not because they are forced to marry.

The remaining three plots that I didn't find applied to Matched are as follows:

Voyage and Return

• Protagonist heads off to a faraway land with crazy rules, ultimately triumphs over the madness and returns home far more mature than he/she set out.

Tragedy

• The flip side of the Overcoming the Monster plot; the protagonist is the Villain. We get to watch him/her slowly spiral into darkness before he/she's finally defeated, freeing the land from his/her evil influence.

Rebirth

• As with the Tragedy plot, but the protagonist manages to realize the errors in his/her ways and manages to fix them before it's too late, and manages to dodge a bullet in inevitable defeat.