Chapter 9

Before Jonas leaves the Auditorium, he is given a folder with all of the rules that he will be needing to become the Receiver."Alone in his sleeping room, prepared for bed, Jonas opened his folder at last. Some of the other Twelves, he had noticed, had been given folders thick with printed pages. He imagined Benjamin, the scientific male in his group, beginning to read pages of rules and instructions with relish. He pictured Fiona smiling her gentle smile as she bent over the lists of duties and methods that she would be required to learn in the days to come.
But his own folder was startlingly close to empty. Inside there was only a single printed sheet. He read it twice.

Jonas

Receiver of Memory

1. Go immediately at the end of school hours each day to the Annex entrance behind the House of the Old and present yourself to the attendant.
2. Go immediately to your dwelling at the conclusion of Training Hours each day.
3. From this moment you are exempted from rules governing rudeness. You may ask any question of any citizen and you will receive answers.
4. Do not discuss your training with any other member of the community, including parents and Elders.
5. From this moment you are prohibited from dream-telling.
6. Except for illness or injury unrelated to training, do not apply for any medication.
7. You are not permitted to apply for release.
8. You may lie.

Jonas was really surprised at the last rule. He had never been able to lie, it was a rule that he had grown up learning and it was going to be hard to be able to break it. Jonas decides that he would have no reason to lie and leaves the thought alone.

Chapter 6-8

Chapter 6-8 is when Jonas finally becomes a twelve. He and the rest of the elevens have been assigned a number and they have to sit in that order when it is time for them to receive their assignments. Jonas has to endure the rest of the newborns, the ones, the twos, the threes, the fours, the fives, the sixes the sevens, the eights, the nines, and the tens. Then it is time for Jonas and the other elevens to step up onto the stage. This ceremony takes about two days to perform. " Now Jonas and his friends had taken a new place in the Auditorium, trading with the new elevens, so that they sat in the very front, immediately before the stage. They were arranged by their original numbers, the numbers they had been given at birth. The numbers were rarely used after the Naming. But each child knew his number, of course. Sometimes parents used them in irritation at a child's misbehavior, indicting that mischief made one unworthy of a name." This is what I would want to avoid. Being called my original number after a Naming. The naming, if you didn't know, is when a newborn gets its name and is given to its own parents. Now Jonas is ready to be given his assignment. He is number nineteen whereas Asher is number four. Big difference. Anyway, it is time for Jonas to receive his assignments when... The Chief Elder skips him!!!!! "Jonas prepared himself to walk to the stage when the applause ended and the Chief Elder picked up the next folder and looked down to the group to call forward the next new Twelve.

"Twenty" he heard the vioce say clearly. " Pierre."
Jonas has been skipped. What do you think might happen next? Anyway, Jonas believes that the chief elder has decided that he was not ready to become a twelve. But then... Jonas realized that the Chief Elder and the commity of elders has selected him to become the next Reciever!!!! Being the reciever is a great honor in the community.

Chapter Five-part two

When we last looked at chapter five, Jonas had had a dream about Fiona, a bathing dream. Jonas was in the middle of explaining his dream to his mother. "I wanted her to take off her clothes and to get into the tub. I wanted to bathe her. I had the sponge in my hand. But she wouldn't. She kept laughing and saying no" Obviously Jonas likes Fiona. I've said it a million times before and I will say it again, HE LIKES HER!!!!!!. Anyway, his mother and father have something to say. "Can you describe the strongest feeling in your dream, son? Father asked. Jonas thought about it. The details were murky and vague. But the feelings were clear, and flooded him again now as he thought "The wanting," he said." What do you think that the wanting is? It seems pretty obvious to me, or maybe I just know what the answer is but still, what is the wanting? Jonas said that he knew that she shouldn't but still, he really wanted to bathe her. His mother said that what Jonas was feeling "stirrings".His mother said that he was going to have to take a certain pill. Funny huh? So Jonas has to take a pill to stop stirrings and luckily for him his friend takes the pill too.

Chapter Five-part one

Chapter five, here we go. Chapter five starts out with Jonas waking up from a dream that you probably wouldn't think that he would wake up from or what the book would be talking about. Jonas supposedly had a dream about Fiona. Now remember I said that Jonas rarely had a dream, well this is why I am so reluctant to tell you about this dream. Do you also remember when I said that Jonas probably liked Fiona? Here is the answer to my question or statement. Jonas and his family take turns talking about their dreams. Here is what the book says,"Usually, at the morning ritual when when the family members told their dreams, Jonas didn't contribute much. He rarely dreamed. Sometimes he awoke with the feelings of fragments afloat in his sleep, but he couldn't seem to grasp them and put them togather into something worthy of telling at the ritual. But this morning was different. He had dreamed very vividly the night before." Jonas seems to have had a very vivid dream the night before. This interesting what if Fiona has something to do with this dream. Here is another quote "Jonas nodded."There was a tub in the dream. But only one. And the real bathing room has rows and rows of them. But the room in the dream was warm and damp. I was perspiring because the room was so warm. Fiona was there, just like yesterday." " Asher, too?" Mother asked. "No, it was only me and Fiona" WOW!!!!!!!!! Lets talk about this later on, for now I am just about finished part one of Chapter Five.

Chapter Four

Chapter four is an interesting chapter. Chapter four is when Jonas, Asher and a female eleven known as Fiona go to a building called the House of the Old. Fiona and Asher are inside bathing someone. Now before I get to who is being bated and why they are being bathed I want to talk about why someone call would call me a female twelve or a female six, why do these people call each other by these names? Do you see me going around and calling people a male or a female? Of course you don't. We would probably say he or she instead of that male eleven ate my food or something like that. Now back to who Fiona was bathing someone. Fiona was bathing an elderly male. "She was a good student,quiet and polite, but she had a sense of fun as well, and it didn't surprise him that she was working with Asher today. " Jonas seems to like her judging by the description that the book says. Do you think so to? This is when the book gets a little more interesting. Jonas calls to an elderly woman named Larissa and he starts to bathe her! But luckily it is against the rules to look at someones nakedness.
Larissa begins to talk about the release of Roberto, someone who Jonas knew, and that they had a wonderful celebration. There goes that word again, release, what does it mean!!!

Chapter Three

Chapter Three is when things begin to get a whole lot more interesting. Jonas' father has secretly taken a child named Gabriel into nursing because he believes that the child will be released if his condition does not improve. So he takes the baby into his home to nurse him. The baby is given a "comfort object". Lily, Jonas' little sister, thinks that his "comfort object",which is called a hippo, has a funny name. See this people have never seen real animals before. They have lived in the safety of this community for their whole lives and hearing the name "Hippo" makes them laugh. Lily, out of nowhere, says that she wanted to become a birthmother, but her mother told her with a sharp tone. "Lily!" Mother spoke very sharply. "Don't say that. There's very little honor in that assignment." Now I would hate to be in Lily's place right now. The last thing I would want is my mother getting angry at me. Would you feel that way as well? Also Jonas is beginning to see things. As Jonas talks about how one time he was playing with his best friend Asher. They were throwing an apple and then in the middle of the air the apple changed color. Jonas had taken the apple home that day then the loud speaker had made an announcement "ATTENTION. THIS IS A REMINDER TO MALE ELEVENS THAT OBJECTS ARE NOT TO REMOVED FROM THE RECREATION AREA AND THEY ARE TO BE EATEN,NOT HOARDED." How embarrassing, I would blush so red like the color of the apple if I were in Jonas' situation. What would do or how would you feel if that announcement was made for you.

Chapter Two

Chapter two consists of many odds and ends. First of all, it starts out with Jonas and his parents telling him about the Ceremony of the Twelve. Now the Ceremony of the Twelve may sound funny to you but during the next chapters it will seem to make more sense. Anyway, Jonas and his parents are talking and they start to talk about age groups. Now what they are doing is called sharing-of-feelings. Sharing-of-feelings takes place during or after dinner and it is pretty much when you tell about how your day was and what you were feeling that day. In the morning you do sort of the same thing except you tell what you dreamt about over the night. Back to the Ceremony of the Twelve. The ceremony takes place during December along with the other ceremonies. This is sort of like a birthday but for everyone 12 and under. You gain and lose things as you get older, but the Ceremony of the Twelve is your last ceremony. You lose track of how old you are when you past that age. But the Ceremony of the Twelve is when you get an assignment or a job. I will tell you about the jobs in chapter three.