The Election
Jonas had a stirring dream about him and Fiona
at the House of the Old, where Jonas insisted Fiona to let him wash here body,
so he told about this dream to his family and his mother gave him the pill in
order him to forget this prohibited feelings; Jonas didn’t want to forget about
this strange but pleasant feeling but he had to take the pill thinking next
time skip the pill secretly. Good news for the family was that Gabriel was given a new chance and not going to be release, but the family had to sign an
agreement that they wouldn’t complain or have feelings for him at the end of
the year where he is going to be given to a family unit. Finally the day had come, the Ceremony
started right on schedule; Jonas was number 11-19 (11 stands for his age and 19
the number he was born), he listened carefully every assignment; his friend
Asher was assigned the job of Assistant Director of Recreation and Fiona was
assigned Caretaker of the Old, but the Chief Elder who was announcing the jobs
skipped his number and from 18 she jumped to 20; Jonas couldn’t
believe what
was happening; he was shocked, dizzy, disappointed and sick. The Chief Elder
ended the ceremony apologizing to the community and with Jonas because of the
anxiety she caused to them by skipping him and then she asked Jonas to come to
the stage. Jonas felt he was dying and the Chief Elder said that Jonas was not
“assigned” but he was “selected” to be the “Receiver of Memory”, the most
honorable and unique job in the community; this job was given to him because he
had the qualities the “Receiver” had to have, intelligence, courage, integrity,
wisdom and most important of all, the capacity to see beyond. The community was
very glad that Jonas was the receiver because finally after ten years they
failed choosing the receiver and Jonas was promising to be the one but this job
represents a lot sacrifice from the beginning; Jonas wasn’t allowed to see
anyone while he is in training; and involves physical pain.
Despite the limits and controlling of the Committee
of Elders each person was unique and had its personality, for example Asher,
being funny and a good talker; Jonas as a very smart person who with his way of
being he respects his individuality and the others in the community and not
only the community but the Committee of Elder were aware of this, “Intelligence,”
she said. “We are all aware that Jonas has been a top student throughout his
school days. “Integrity,” she said next. “Jonas has, like all of us, committed
minor transgressions.” She smiled…”Courage,” she went on…” (Lowry 62). This made me think that beside any situation
or any place you might be, we have to be authentic, be ourselves because people
have to respect you and accept you the way you are; the same in the other way,
you have to respect and accept the people the way they are, in this way we are unique
respecting the individualities of each others. People who think like this will
accept the other as they are, making the other ones happy and proud of what
they are, same the other way around.
In these
last chapters we can feel in some way how the children felt before the big day,
where they were told what they will be doing for the rest of their lives.
Twelve years old is a short age to have a huge responsibility; and as this is
happening, they will be adults and not children anymore. We can imagine how
Jonas and his friends were passing through just to know that they were losing,
childhood, freedom, sharing with people they like, having friends or just do
what they want to do, of course within the limits; but now as they were going
to be adults, all of this is gone, they have new responsibilities and no
sharing with friends that they like anymore. Moreover, something really
important to mention is the fact that besides all the pressure and laws and
restrictions these people has to live with, each of them trying to keep their
individuality; as we can see with Asher, for example, when the Chief Elder was
announcing the jobs, she remind everyone when Asher was a little boy at
language acquisition days, the difference between “snack” and “smack”; (Lowry 54) Asher was always how he was;
authentic, unique. We can say the same for Jonas that his behavior demonstrates
how he was so people value and respect that so in this case Jonas was selected
to be the receiver.
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ReplyDeleteIsa, your summary is very well written and understandable if someone that don’t read the book would read it, they would understand it very well. Getting to your connections and thoughts I think the same in some parts, many people think that all of this rules don’t let the people be what they are but this isn’t this way like you stated. Like Asher and Jonas and all people in the society are different and have different thought and feelings everyone have different personalities, but the problem is that all of this feelings are controlled and don’t let them express what they feel. With the things that you think and dream is different all of this you need to tell in the mornings and in dinner so all of this thing need to be controlled by parents or by the elders so all thing apply equally to everyone. Now getting to your statement that we need to accept everyone by what they are, I think that this is fundamental so a society can be successful and all people have respect equally and there are no discriminations, but think of the real world do everyone accept the differences of other people? What about racism? So this make me think a lot because we always said that we need to be respectful and all of those thing but do we always do it?
ReplyDeleteBernardo, thanks for your comments and I am glad you liked my blog. About what you mentioned regarding the feelings of the people, you are right, they controlled them with the pill but I disagree with you that rules and limits explained in the book they do change the personality of the people, or what they really are. Please consider that in this community, the rules and laws influence in the way you act since the committee of elders chose what you have to do in every step of your life. Starting when you are conceive, they have birth mothers; then they choose where are you going to live, then the elders chose the clothing you have to wear everyday of your live and also the profession you will do for the rest of your live, they choose your friends and which people you are going to be surrounded, and finally the family units and the couples. As well the society was influenced by the rules since they weren’t allowed to say a certain word which is released. As you can see there are lot examples that extreme rules and limits can definitively change people individuality. I do agree about the real world, not everyone respect the others and that is what we have to work on. For example in our school there are campaigns against the bullying, probably for many people this are only words but if you have that in mind whenever you have a situation it can come back to you and you can help someone or stop this situation. If we started to do it in our home, then in our classroom then at school, I think we can definitively make the difference in other people s life.
ReplyDeleteBoy you were really detailed and specific to what you were referring to I support Bernardos first statement which is that if someone who didn´t read the book but read your blog he/she would definitely get it. I saw you point of view that in this community there is individuality but to a certain degree because if we want to see the how the community how it really is we need to see it from the elders point of view seeing what may be a threat to the society and seeking for perfection. So look at some of the characteristics most of their individuality is chose by the elder so there is no decontamination also my guess which influences a lot on the society is that there is no currency no money everything is provided by the state so they don´t really have to care about having money since they have none what they are concern about is helping the community as much as possible which leads to following the rules and that include getting rid of the strings. Now as much as goes for following the rules the characteristics of each citizen may be something that they do to baby because they use genetical engineering since I´ve notice there is no dark color people which means that baby's are being manipulated so there exists no racism. So without discrimination nor currency they´ve been able to eliminate to big problems we have in our world and reach to a level of almost perfection if it were´t for the Receiver.
ReplyDeleteYes Patrick you are right, to having so many rules, the individuality reaches a certain point. Also what you said about the money and that the government provides everything; it is definitively a way to have power and control on the people. But it is impossible to reach the perfection, as they are humans, and that is not possible
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