Skip to main content

What is Asher's assignment in the book The Giver by Lois Lowry?

In The Giver (Lowry), Asher, Jonas' friend, is assigned at the Ceremony of Twelve to be the Assistant Director of Education. As with the other assignments, the Elders have been observing Asher his entire life to choose an assignment consistent with his capabilities. And this does seem to be a very good fit.


Asher is clearly a very nice person, whose "'...humor is unfailing'" (Lowry 55). Everyone in the community knows of his "cheerful disposition" (55). When he does something wrong, he promptly apologizes. He seems to be a very active and athletic person, one who does not like sitting still. He must be chastised even at the Ceremony of Twelves "to sit still and face forward" (53).  These seem like good qualities for an Assistant Director of Education.


The Elders have also taken note over the years of assignments that Asher would not have been well-suited for because of some problems he has had.  As a Three, Asher had difficulty remembering and pronouncing words, so that he confused "smack" and "snack." So, it was clear that Asher would not have been an effective instructor. 


Sadly, the Ceremony seems to be an opportunity for the Elders to point out the children's flaws quite publicly. Even though the Chief Elder ends by thanking Asher for his childhood, she has, in front of the entire community, commented extensively on his flaws. Some readers may see this as gentle teasing, but I have always thought this was rather cruel.  


It is clear that the children are watched closely and given assignments that reflect their abilities and sometimes perhaps even what they enjoy doing.  But I think it would be dreadful to be twelve years old and have my professional fate decided upon for me forever more. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more