Jonas is a young 11-about to turn-12 boy,
that lives in a community where being different is fowned upon. Everybody has
the same opportunities, houses, families, and they all get certain things, like
a bike, at the exact same age. Nobody has their own birthday, just a ceremony
each December in wich each age group moves up a number, until they turn 12.
When they turn 12 each individual is given their assigment (what you will work
and do for the rest of your life) and most people stop counting their age after
that. Jonas is nervous about what he will get as his assigment, he has done his
volunteer hours almost everywhere and he didn’t have the slightest clue on what
the elders would put him in. Besides that, his family unit had taken a little
baby boy each night to be with them until the naming ceremony. The little boy
was not growing correctly so Jonas’ father, who was a nuturer, decided he
really wanted this baby not to be released therefore Jonas and his family now
take care of the little boy every night. Jonas is constantly wondering what
will happen with his life, he is confused and a little scared.
“ We celebrated a release this morning,
and that always throws things off a
little, so things get backed up” (pg 28). Why do these people celebrate a
release? In this community, it seems to me that its more like dying, you never
see the released man/woman again and they are out of your life forever. I
wonder, if releases are bad for people in the community that are not old, why
is it considered a motive for celebration when a old citizen is released.
Besides that the person being released is described as happy and exited, not at
all frightened wich to me seems almost imposible, considering that they will go
out to the great unknown completley alone.
“But there was a little shudder of
nervousness when he thought about it, about what night happen. Apprehensive,
Jonas decided. That’s what I am.” (pg 4). Jonas is very careful about his
felings and how he describes them. He deeply thinks and analyzes what is going
on within hiself. I believe jonas likes to overthink his emotions because of
the community he lives in. Probobly he didnt want to say a very strong feeling
in his nightly ritual of shairng the feelings as a family after dinner. Why are
feelings so discussed in this book? Proplr cannot realy decide what they feel
but they can choose to describe a certain way and that is what Jonas is doing
at the beginning of the story.
Could you imagine lving in a world like
this? For me it seems everyone is very careful to describe what they feel or
want. Words seem to have a great impact on this society and fear is not very
present when talking about the release of old citizens. What will Jonas get for
his assigment? Will he like it? Will it change his life forever? What does the assignment say about Jonas? All of these questions come flooding to mind,
but we will have to wait and see.
