According to Jonas, what are the benefits of becoming a Seven in The Giver by Lois Lowry?

The benefit of turning Seven is becoming more independent because you get a front-buttoned jacket.

In Jonas’s community, the children are raised collectively until the age of One. This means everyone turns the same age at the same time in December. Jonas’s little sister Lily is about to become an Eight when the book begins. Since Lily is still a Seven, Jonas reminds her of the benefits of turning that particular age.

"There are good things each year," Jonas reminded her. "This year you get to start your volunteer hours. And remember last year, when you became a Seven, you were so happy to get your frontbuttoned jacket?" (Ch. 6)

Clothing is used to designate children by age and adults by occupation. Lily’s new jacket had a “row of large buttons that designated her as a Seven,” while younger children wear jackets with buttons on the back so they have to help each other get dressed. This is designed to teach them interdependence. Relying on others is a foundation of the community. It is part of Sameness, like everyone dressing alike.

Jonas explains the significance of Lily’s jacket.

The front-buttoned jacket was the first sign of independence, the first very visible symbol of growing up. The bicycle, at Nine, would be the powerful emblem of moving gradually out into the community, away from the protective family unit (Chapter 6).

In Jonas’s community, where everything is carefully designed to manipulate the populace, even clothing has a message. The bicycle is important because there are no cars to speak of. The community has few motorized vehicles and all adults use bicycles to get around. Children are slowly given little tastes of independence as they get older, after it has been demonstrated to them that they have to be dependent on the community for everything.

It is interesting Jonas is already pointing out the significance of independence. To most people, a new jacket might not be a big deal. However, the symbolic nature of not having to rely on others is what is at stake here, and Jonas knows that. In his analysis of the importance of the jacket and the bicycle, he is demonstrating an awareness of his community that explains why he was chosen to be trained as the next Receiver of Memory.

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 ...

nouns - what do you call the person who passes the trophies to the prize giver/presenter?

The person who gives out the trophies to the winners are called award presenters. So what do u call the person who passes the trophies to the presenter? Thanks!

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.

Notes

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