Focus+Assignment

Focus Assignment:

My Reaction:

I thought the novel was provocative, intriguing and it captured my attention making me want to read on and find out what happened to young Jonas. The story was well plotted and made for an amazing read. I think the theme of the novel was that in essence personality, individuality and things that we take for granted like colours and sounds is required in normal life. Also that knowledge is empowering and you need it to make the right decisions. I think this because when Jonas is exposed to ideas like freedom of choice and being himself he his intrigued. He wants to experience those things for himself yet he is not allowed. This makes him break rules to be able to experience theses things because he longs for them so much. I think that knowledge is power is also a main theme because with Jonas' experiences he gains knowledge and realizes the terrible truth that the world he's known up until now is a lie and a terrible one. People kill other people without having the knowledge that there doing so or the knowledge of what it truly means to suffer and experience death. This is because none of them have had Jonas' experience and so are content and do not realize their actions consequences. I think the author was very successful in conveying this message to the reader because he makes it obvious that Jonas changes as he gains knowledge. He makes better discussions and realizes the horrific consequences of other peoples actions. He also made it very clear to understand that with JOnas' special training he wanted to experience more of the feelings and things like colours. ONce he experienced them he couldn't go back and became more and more addicted to their lure. He makes these statements clear by using repetition and also saying the characters feeling showing his true emotions and things like, that he yearns for freedom of choice and in general all feelings and also for more knowledge. I think this book is idealy suited for ages 10-16. Although readers that are 10 must be advanced readers and also very good with understanding plot lines and even have knowledge of rather more complex statements and words. I think this book is suited for ages 10-16 partly because first of all the number of pages. There is only a little over 150 pages which is idealy suited for the advanced 10 year old to the average 12 year old readers. Yet it is still suitable for ages beyond 12 because it is a complex novel which requires very much understanding. It has more advanced ideas which are ideal for readers such as myself who are suited to understand these ideas and even interpret them into their own ideas and meanings. Yet still a reader that is 16 would enjoy this book although it is short, because it is such a good read. Another reason it might be suited to children around 12 is because the protagonist is 12 and of course there is a quite obvious connection between kids of that age. They are both experiencing the same changes and feelings around that time and have about the same understanding and enterpretation of events. But again it is suited for readers around 15 because it requires the reader to think more about what is being said. The author includes provocative statements and scenarios which create cause for the reader to think and enter prate what is being said creating a greater level of understanding. Also makes the reader look for more literary devices and metaphors or symbolism in the text. Also of course since this novel itself was chosen as an option for a group of 14-15 year old challenge students I assume it would be suited to that level of reader and personally I think it is idealy suited. Thats why I think this novel is suited for people ages 10-16. All in all the novel had some bad points but mostly good points. First of all as I already stated the novel was easy to read and captured my attention which made me want to read on. Aswell as the story line with riddled with mysteries that made the reader wonder and question also struggle with their own opinions. This made the novel good because it made me question myself and I found as the reader wanting to etiher confirm or deny my opinion. This novel was highly provocative and inspired the reader. Personally I found the idea of a perfect world very interesting and I personally wante to know who or what that would entail, thats personally why I thought it was good. As well as a well plotted out story line and in depth charcaters. I found that there were a few very interresting parts to the novel. The first of those was the authors creation of, what I would call a perfrct world. A world in which is free of pain and suffering but also free of choices and freedoms, were there are rules and according punishments. The author really illustrated this with the introduction of the strict rules early on in the book and also showing the following punishments that go with them. Such as the pilot who was released because he flew over the community and little Asher who was late for school and had to issue a standard apology to the class. I thought the little details made the illusion of a perfect seem even more beleivable. An example of this is the everyday standard meal time and also the ceremonies. The ceremonies make everybody in the community essentially have the same birthday, as the ceremonies celebrate a passing of time. Also to do with the ceremonies is that everyone in the community that is of a certain age gets the same "present" if you could call it that once they turn a year older. Another really interesting aspect of the book to me was the mysterious element to it. Examples of this can be at the very end. I wondered ot myself wether Jonas had actually found Elsewhere or wther he was just hillucinating and in actuality was freezing to death. Another example of this can be at the very begginning of the book. At the very begginning when the fighter plane flew over the community I thought to myself "Why does a so called perfect world need a fighter plane or possibly even more intruiging a military?". Still now once I've finished hte book I still dont know why the community needed fighter planes. So to me that was a very interesting point in the book as it left the reader grappling with their own thoughts. But the most interesting point of the book was, to me atleast was the idea that only one person could have memmories of their past and also that if everyone had such memmories they would inflict pain upon them. I thought this was very interesting because to me my whole life Ive had memmories and I always knew them to apart of normal life, yet then the author introduces an idea that only one person handles all the memories of he entire communities past. Another thing is that the memmories that I have although I can remember them I can't actually feel how I did when it was realing happening. If I have a painful memmory it doesn't make me in pain. Since memory is such an important thing its hard for me to imagine a life without it and that made me wonder what it was like, and for that it made the book that much more interesting. Since this novel is a fiction there were mostly unbeleivable parts but even through thhat I could find a beleivable part. I found that the most beleivable part of the novel was JOnas reaction to finding out what really happened to people that are released. Since releasing someone is the same as killing someone I understand how upset Jonas must have been, especially finding out that, thats what his dad had done. His reaction was one that I would consider human. He cried and was upset, the auhtor really did a great job expressing Jonas' anguish. This to me was beleivable as that would be the same reaction that a human would have. The most unbeleivable part of the novel would have to the ideal world that the author created. In real life there is no such thing as a perfect world. There is no possible way of extracting someones memories and although you can try your best to take someones personality and individuality away from them you can't. The idea that people would exept the fact that they dont get to gain knowledge in my mind is obsured, as long as there are people there are people willing to fight, flee and make mistakes. That also takes away from the idea of a perfect world as long as there are people they will fight from their freedom and in an ideal world there is no war, no pain and no suffering but in a real world all of those things exist. Thats why I think that this novel is partially unbeleivable. If I had to recommend this novel to anyone I would reccomend it to one of my cousins. The cousin that I would recomend this novel to is 15 and so I thinbk he is at the perfect age to appreciate this novel in its full. Just as I enjoyed this novel I think he would just the same because I think its sutied mainly for people of my age group. At that age we are beggining to understand and interprate a novels full meaning and disect what the author is trying to say, not only in plain english but in metaphors and even the surroundings or occuring events. Thats why I think this book is suited for people of my ages and why I'd recommend this novel to a 15 year old.