There are seven rules which Jonas has to observe. They pose some questions about what is Jonas going to do. The first two rules seem to be very normal and could be the same ones for other new Twelves as well.
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.
These two rules could be made because maybe all the school and training stuff exhaust Jonas and the Elders want him to be fit and rested all the time.
The third rule allows Jonas to ask any question to anyone.
3. From this moment you are exempted from rules governing rudeness. You may ask any question to any aaaaacitizen and you will receive the answers.
In a community like the one Jonas lives in this gives the person who is allowed to ask these questions a little more freedom. But the rule doesn't make Jonas exited at all. Isn't he he curious about someones feelings or dreams? Does nobody have any secrets in the community?
4 .Do not discuss your training with any other member of the community, including your parents and aaaaaElders.
Jonas isn't allowed to share his experiences with anybody. That doesn't fit to the things we know about the community. He talks normally with his family about everything and shares his feelings with them.
5. From this moment on you are prohibited from dream-telling.
I guess this rule gives a foreshadowing about what will happen later in the book. Jonas doesn't dream very often or has special dreams, so there must be s change with his dreaming.
6. Except for illness or injury unrelated to your training, do not apply for any medication.
Like the Elder said in the Ceremony of Twelve: “The training required of you involves pain. Physical pain.”(p.53 ll.27/28) Jonas' job has something to do with pain and maybe this pain plays an important role there.
7. You are not permitted to apply for release.
His work must be very hard and maybe he'll find out something about his community that makes him not want to live there any longer.
The last rule is:
8. You may lie.
Jonas isn't allowed to talk to anyone about his work. This rule could protect him a little bit from the curiosity of the other community members so that he won't become an outsider.
I can see from your productiveness that Saturday apparently was also a rainy day in Datteln as well as at mine... ;)
ReplyDeleteThe overview about the rules that are given to Jonas after his selection and their explanation are very helpful. I think those rules are really strange and I agree with you, that some of them might -as you said- foreshadow the further action of the book.
PS: These (plural!!) two rules