What are some challenges that show up in the rules/careers of the characters in The Giver?

One challenge a person has in a career is Jonas’s father. Jonas’s father is a Nurturer, which means that he takes care of babies from the time they are born until they turn One and are assigned to families. He has a little boy who is not growing fast enough. Children are assigned numbers and not given names until they go to families, but Jonas’s father breaks the rules.

"I feel a little guilty about this. But I did go in this afternoon and looked to see if this year's Naming list had been made yet. … I looked up number Thirty-six … because it occurred to me that it might enhance his nurturing if I could call him by a name. Just privately, of course, when no one else is around." (Ch. 2)

Jonas is fascinated that his father would break a rule, but he does it because he is worried about the baby. Rules about babies not being assigned to families also cause his father problems because he does not feel that the baby is well cared for at night. He asks to take him home, and permission is granted.

The problem is that babies who do not meet certain growth requirements are released. Although Jonas’s father does not seem to realize the gravity of it, that the baby is being killed, he does not want to see him released and tries to prevent it. It is a particularly inhuman rule.

When Jonas is chosen Receiver of Memory, he finds that the biggest challenge in his job is the rule that he can’t share his training. He wants to talk to people, but he doesn’t think they could comprehend what he is talking about. The memories are so different from the community’s experiences. He also is flabbergasted at first by the rule that he can lie, but he comes to understand that one. He lies to his parents when he asks them if they love him and they laugh at him.

"Do you understand why it's inappropriate to use a word like 'love'?" Mother asked.

Jonas nodded. "Yes, thank you, I do," he replied slowly.

It was his first lie to his parents. (Ch. 16)

Jonas is frustrated because he can’t explain to them that he does understand love, and love is real. It has just been eliminated from his community, with all other strong feelings, in the name of Sameness. His parents and sister will never understand real emotions, and will never have them. Jonas feels quite alone.

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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