Words+Included+and+Excluded+from+Jonas's+Dictionary

 Journal # 2 Words Included and Excluded from Jonas's Dictionary By Audrey A.    Although there are many words in Jonas’s dictionary, there are quite a few meaningful words that probably wouldn’t be found in Jonas’s dictionary. Two words that are used quite often in Jonas’s world that would definitely be found in one of hid dictionaries would be //rules,// and //fairness/sameness.// Two words that are hidden from the community that would never be found in a dictionary in Jonas’s world are //color//, and //emotions//. Jonas’s world is very predictable and organized by using many rules, and having things the same and fair, and words like //color//, or //emotions// could destroy that organization.   The word //rule// comes up very often in Jonas’s world. His community revolves around the many rules that it has. Some of the rules are crazy and really dumb, where as others have great purposes and make a lot of sense. If there were not nearly as many rules in Jonas’s world or community, it would not be as manipulated, and the elders that were in control would not have as much power. Community members would also be doing things or living differently than other community members. If there were no rules, life would be extremely scary, very chaotic, and different for every individual.   More words that come up often in Jonas’s life are //fairness// and //sameness//. Everything is fair and the same for Jonas. They don’t have birthdays, and they don’t ever get presents from their families, no matter what. The children have ceremonies as they move into their next age group, and at these ceremonies each child receives the same thing for jealously purposes. Every child receives the same thing to keep everything fair. Also every family unit’s home is the same, as if each home is a replica of another, therefore there is no arguing about who has more money or who is better that the next. There are also many rules regarding fairness and sameness. There are words that are not included in Jonas’s dictionary, though.  For instance, the powerful elders took away things like //color// from the rest of the community. Everyone has had the ability to see color taken away from them, and now each member of the community only has the ability to see in black and white. Therefore, no one knows what color is, which is sad because colors are so beautiful, and life would be so dull and boring without color. Color can also be important because different colors symbolize different things. Red on occasion means stop, and yellow on occasion means yield. They would know this if they could see color. Colors can also symbolize many different emotions that are not found in Jonas’s world.   People do not have //emotions// where Jonas lives. They don’t even know what emotions are, and they don’t really know what they feel like. While Jonas was receiving memories from the giver he learned what love was, what pain was, what hunger was, and many more emotions that no one else in the community had experienced before. Also, during the nightly ritual of expressing their feelings, they are not really talking about real feelings if pain of happiness. The community does not know what emotions feel or look like, because it has been taken away from them. Although Jonas world does not know of emotions and color, they are living a safely planned and well organized life.   All four of these words are very important in our world, but for Jonas’s world to remain the same, and different from ours, emotions and color had to be taken away. His life is very predictable and perfect, unlike ours where almost nothing can be predicted, and nothing is ever perfect. Perfect and predictable don’t exist in our world, and emotions and color help keep it that way. Even though we are messing and dealing with two totally different lifestyles, there are positive and negative features of both.