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Saturday, July 24, 2010

3:47 PM

Stirrings. He had heard the word before. He remembered that there was a reference to the Stirrings in the Book of Rules, though he didn't remember what it said. And now and then the Speaker mentioned it. ATTENTION. A REMINDER THAT STIRRINGS MUST BE REPORTED IN ORDER FOR TREATMENT TO TAKE PLACE.

He had always ignored that announcement because he didn't understand it and it never seemed to apply to him in any way. He ignored, as most citizens did, many of the commands and reminders read by the Speaker.

"Do I have to report it?" he asked his mother.

She laughed. "You did, in the dream-telling. That's enough."

"But what about the treatment? The Speaker says that treatment must take place." Jonas felt miserable. Just when the Ceremony was about to happen, his Ceremony of Twelve, would he have to go away someplace for treatment? Just because of a stupid dream?

But his mother laughed again in a reassuring, affectionate way. "No, no," she said. "It's just the pills. You're ready for the pills, that's all. That's the treatment for the Stirrings."

Jonas brightened. He knew about the pills. His parents both took them each morning. And some of his friends did, he knew. Once he had been heading off to school with Asher, both of them on their bikes, when Asher's father had called from their dwelling doorway, "You forgot your pill, Asher!" Asher had groaned good-naturedly, turned his bike, and ridden back while Jonas waited.

It was the sort of thing one didn't ask a friend about because it might have fallen into that uncomfortable category of "being different". Asher took a pill each morning; Jonas did not. Always better, less rude to talk about things that were the same.

Now he swallowed the small pill that his mother handed him.

This extract is found on pages 37 to 38 of "The Giver".

During one significant morning ritual when the family members told their dreams, Jonas shared about him dreaming of trying to get Fiona to take off her clothes and get into a tub. Jonas had said that the strongest feeling he felt in his dream was the wanting. His mother then told him that the wanting he had felt was known as Stirrings in their community.

The Stirrings had to be reported and treated as mentioned by the Speaker. The treatment for the Stirrings was the pills. The pills that were to be taken as treatment is a wonderful example to prove that in Jonas's society, feelings and emotions are rejected. The Stirrings or the wanting shows us that feelings and emotions actually do exist in Jonas's society, however, the community does not want the people to have strong feelings we experience daily in our lives. Therefore, they made everyone who started to have the Stirrings take the pills. Also, in this extract, we find that the true intention of having the dream-telling ritual each morning is truly to monitor the Stirrings. This proves that the lack of feelings and emotions is one of the features of Jonas's

Next, this extract shows that the people of the community were under full control. The Speaker had mentioned that "Stirrings must be reported in order for treatment to take place". Jonas did not know exactly what the treatment was about and thought that he would have to go somewhere else to have the treatment. even though he was reluctant to have the treatment as he did not want to miss the Ceremony of Twelve, which was an important Ceremony to him, he still inquired about it and reminded his mother about the treatment. This shows that the people of the community were under total control of the Speaker and were obedient.

Lastly, this extract shows yet another feature in Jonas's community, and that is there was no individualism. Before Jonas experinced the Stirrings, Asher had already begun taking the pills. Jonas had the urge to question about it, however, he did not because that would had fallen under the category of being different. This shows that there was a lack of individualism in his community and also, this evidence shows that the people were obedient to the rules of their community as Jonas did not inquire about Asher's differences.

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