The Testing discussion

The TestingThe Testing
The Testing, by Joelle Charbonneau, is a story where a girl named Cia travels from her home, Five Lakes Colony, to Tosu City where she progresses through dangerous challenges and tests. In Cia's version of Earth, war has destroyed much of the planet, with destroyed cities and contaminated water, so The Testing was made to find leaders to guide people in the Earth's restoration. When she makes it to where she is staying during the tests, she is welcomed with lots of food and a nice room. Cia has mixed feelings about the place after she goes to her first test, which were written exams about history, science, math, and reading. The problem wasn't the exams, but the rooms. Rooms with white walls, floors, and ceilings were the same rooms from her dad's nightmares, which made her fearful of what was to come. After the exams, they went to do their second test, which was a hands-on examination to test if you knew which plants in a box were edible. There was an option to stop if you weren't sure, but most guessed if they were unsure. The second part of the test was to repair a pulse radio which could broadcast images and sound. Cia noticed one of her friends named Malachi was swaying and their shoulders were twitching. Then he touched a metal box inside of the broken pulse radio and it embedded a nail into his eye, ultimately killing him. After this test, Cia began to think that her dad's dreams actually happened and began to feel more frightened and mad because the testing workers didn't even try to help her friend. After that test was the third test, where you were paired in a group and you had to find who excelled at which type of questions to go through a door and answer them. There was an order in which you had to answer them. Cia's group had questions for each other to find out who could answer the fastest and whose answer was the most accurate. She began to have suspicion for the first member in her group when she found scribbling on the answer page in his notebook. Eventually leading her to find out that the test was based on trust and that the door she would walk into would be a trap. She chose to leave through the exit door which turned out to be the right answer because her room would've had a trap inside of it. After the next meal, they were told of the fourth test which would be a journey back to Tosu City from places far away. This was difficult for Cia and her friend Tomas, which she found while traveling. They had to face rough terrain, mutated animals, bloodthirsty contestants, and dangerous traps. There were many points of the journey which were clearly main points, like when they found each other, when they found someone named Will, and when a strange man gave them food and water in bags. Testing workers placed traps around this large area that looked tempting like crystal clear ponds. When they first started traveling together, Tomas went to one of those crystal clear ponds with fruit around it and other valuable items, but when he did, it triggered an explosion and nearly killed him, but he was treated back to health. An important character in this test was Will. When they met Will, he was in need of food and water, which he was given. Will helped them in their journey after this and tagged along with them until he eventually left. Then Tomas and Cia rode their bikes a lot every day until they just barely made it to Tosu City alive. Before they arrived they were attacked by candidates but they were eliminated before they could do anything too harmful. Also Will returned with a hovering vehicle which he fixed, but Will wasn’t there to help. Cia encountered a candidate at the start of the test. He had a crossbow and tried to kill Cia, she responded by shooting her gun and hitting him. It turns out that Will was the crossbow shooter and he had deceived them just to get ahead. Cia then shot Will twice and Will ran away. Tomas was very weak after that, but Cia was able to bring Tomas and herself to the end, passing the fourth test. Everyone that came back went to hospitals where they were properly treated, and after that they sleep and wake up on the day of the interviews. Cia received a vial of a drug to repel the drug that makes you tell the truth during the fourth test. She decided to drink it and go to breakfast where she found out Will survived. Then they talked to each other while eating their breakfast. Soon after their names were called and they had to go inside of an all white room for questioning. She drinks out of a glass that they tell her to drink which has a metallic taste indicating some sort of drug. She starts telling only the truth but then the counteractive drug takes control and she is able to lie again. After questioning, she goes back to her room and soon later receives a note that says “pass”. Then she feels a pinch on her neck and falls unconscious. She wakes up in Tosu University, unable to remember anything from the tests, knowing that she failed to avoid the memory wipe. Three weeks later, attending the University with Tomas everyday, a girl named Stacia knocks on her door, reminding her of her birthday party, which was an hour away. At her party, someone tells her she had a gift from her family, which was a cast iron pot with dried roses and a note that said that her brother was sorry for his behavior on the night she left and that he wanted his transit communicator back. Cia then grabbed the device out of her bag and noticed the button on the back. She pressed it and listened to her voice recordings from the testing, shocked at what she heard. The End.

Identify at least 3 literary devices and how they are used in the novel
One literary device used in the novel is imagery. Whenever Cia went somewhere, the novel always provided spot on details about where she was and what it looked like. When she walked along the paths in the fourth test. The novel really showed that the terrain was rough, crooked, and destroyed. Another way literary devices were shown in the novel is how the novel is narrated in first person. When novels are like this, you can tell what she is going to do, what she thinks, and also her thought process. The final literary device I noticed was Symbolism. Each candidate had a token-like coin which each person carried throughout the tests. They represented the candidates themselves and their colonies of which they were from. These are the three literary devices I noticed reading The Testing.

Describe major characters and setting and their significance to the plot
One major character in the story is Cia. Cia is the actual main character in the story and narrates the whole story. She is important because she is the one who made important decisions for herself and others that could’ve put their lives at risk. Another major character is Tomas because he helps Cia throughout the entire story and is a very close friend of Cia’s. He also gives her emotional help because she has a friend to talk to because she feels really sad throughout the book for the reason of her friends and other candidates dying right in front of her. Another major character is Will. Will started off as a fun loving character who needed help and helped Cia’s group in return, but he later turned against them because he thought killing Tomas and Cia would better his odds at passing. These are three characters that I feel are the most important throughout the whole book.

How does the theme relate to the characters in the novel?
I feel as if the theme of this book is What Makes a Leader. Every character in the testing experiences this no matter if they won or failed. Everyone was given a chance and while some became eligible to become leaders such as Cia and Tomas, other contestants who didn’t still experienced the theme based off of what happened in the tests. Cia experiences this theme the most because she had to find out what she was made of when she was traveling back to Tosu City. Cia was truly the leader of her group during the fourth stage and expressed this greatly. Cia constantly found out about all the traps and where her group shouldn’t and should go. She ultimately led Tomas and Will to success while showing testing workers that she was the best leader. This is why the theme relates to the characters in the novel

How does the theme relate to the setting?
I think that the theme relates to the setting because of the testing environment and rooms where each candidate was tested for leadership skills. Each place tested leadership except for the written exams which just showed actual knowledge which were things like history, math, reading, and science. The setting that showed the theme the most was the seven hundred mile stretch from Chicago to Tosu City. This place forced people to step up for their group or friends and lead them down the right path. In this story, Cia played her cards right and was a good leader. This is why I think the different settings of The Testing related to the theme of the story.

Identify connections between the theme of the novel and yourself, other works of literature, or the world
I think that there are a few connections between this story and the world. This story has people go out of their comfort zone and guide others which is what some people do on a daily basis. It also connects to the world because there are large places like Tosu City that have more governmental power over other colonies and cities. The Testing also connects to other works of literature because the main characters always win. In this story, Cia faced many hardships but eventually won in the end. The Testing also connects to me because I try to be a leader in my everyday life no matter how hard it is to do so. This is why the story connects to me, other works of literature, and the world.

How does the theme relate to the story?
I think that the theme of the story relates to the plot because the story is about finding what people can be leaders of the country after war has taken place and the earth is in shambles. The theme is what makes a leader and the plot is trying different tests and processes to literally find what things are needed to find leaders. In this case, Cia and her friends were the leaders because they were able to pass the test and attend the university while others who failed either perished or were sent out of the testing building. These are the reasons for why I think that the theme relates to the plot of the story.