Chapters 3+4+5: Other strange things of the community Jonas lives in

In my summary of the chapters one and two I told you at the end something about the differences of Jonas' culture and ours. In the chapters three, four and five I noticed more strange things, which I want to explain to you now.

First I want to tell you some similarities. The little children have something which is called "comfort objekt". I guess it is something like stuffed animal (Kuscheltier) for us.

They also have a almshouse, they call it House of the Old. But in distinction from our culture you don't die there. When you had a successful live you come into the Releasing Room. Nobody knows what exactly it is.

Now I start with the differences. At the beginning of chapter three you get to know that Jonas' eyes are different from nearly all the eyes from the other community members. There are only two other persons who have pale eyes instead off dark ones too: a female Five and the newchild who belongs to Jonas' family unit now (of course it is not a full family member, because Jonas' parents allready have two children, it is somethink like a foster child.) When Lily mentions this to Jonas he fumes at her. „It was not a rule, but was considered rude to call attention to things that were unsettling or different about individuals.“ (p.23; ll.12-13)The children were not educated to develop their own personality, they should be like all the others, nothing special.

Then, when Lily talks about her wish to become a birthmother, you get to know that the parents don't raise their own children. They've got special birthmothers for that who are allowed to give birth to three children and after that they have to do hard physical work until they get to the House of the Old. They don't even see their babies.

The next thing is that there are announcements for every offence against the law. These announcements are made by a Speaker and have to be made through something like loudspeaker, because all the people in the community can hear them. And without saying any name everyone knows who broke the rule.

When the children become an Eight they get free hours in which they can do what they want. They should use this freedom to help the community and test different jobs they are interested in.

In the mornings the families have a special ritual: they talk about their dreams they had last night.In chapter five Jonas dreamed of a girl called Fiona. He wanted to wash her (like he does to the Olds when he is at their house) and he wanted her to be naked. Only for the Olds it is allowed to be seen from someone else naked. His mother called this dream the beginning of the Stirrings. He has to take a pill so that this won't happen again, which he has to take every day from now on.

At least here are some rules from the community:

1.You are only allowed to ride a bicycle when you are older than nine.

2.You are not allowed to take any food home.

3.Hair ribbons are to be neatly tied at all times.

At the end of the post here are the, I think, two most important questions to these chapters:

1. What exactly are Sterrings (For me it sounds like to have some romantic feelings for a person) and why aren't you allowed to have them?

2. How do they make babies when not even doctors are allowed to see naked people?