Why did he kill the baby?
He's relieved that they don't weigh the same saying that if they had they would "have a problem" and then kills it!!! What would he have done if they had actually weighed the same? And why did he kill it???
shareHe had to kill the baby, because he was a twin. There could only be one of those babies in the world, therefore the other was released.
sharethat doesn't explain anything. why there could be only one of those babies?
shareIt would confuse the community.
sharethat's just plain stupid. they are not idiots, they just don't have emotions. how could twins confuse anybody?
share"Well, they can't have two identical people around! Think how confusing it would be!" Jonas chuckled.
share
so what? that quote doesn't explain it. they wear same clothing so they look very similarly anyway. and when have twins (ideal of 'sameness') they suddenly think that would corrupt the society? how? they are not idiots. they can find a way to distinguish 2 fricking twins. that's not a problem you resolve with a murder.
doesn't make sense.
Of course it doesn't make sense. This was a seriously corrupted society.
Sameness wasn't about everyone looking the same. That would be too confusing to the community. In fact, having two identical people would, in fact, be different and it was taboo to mention any differences. having a twin would make the those two people different.
The fact that they execute people for any crime (or series of three crimes) not related to murder is barbaric. There is no violence, hatred, or sex crimes. They kill any infant who doesn't grow properly. Gabe was given a rare reprieve because he wasn't sleeping through the night or advancing fast enough. That is hardly a reason to kill a baby. The lesser twin also gets the needle. The elderly get the needle in order to assure they don't become a burden.
Believe it or not, the manner of execution in the Giver was better than in Gathering Blue. There they take the handicapped or the nearly dead to the fields to die, basically starved and exposed to the elements. This includes babies.
Bob
It's what the Elders of long ago decided to do. Period.
If you insist on looking for an answer, consider this. They're all supposed to be the same. Nothing at all unique. So, all of a sudden, you have twins walking around. They would stick out like a sore thumb because there are no twins in their community. People would look at them and wonder. People in the community aren't supposed to wonder. They're supposed to just accept what they see without question.
Because that's how the Elders of the old days decided it would be.
It's what the Elders of long ago decided to do. Period.
If you insist on looking for an answer, consider this. They're all supposed to be the same. Nothing at all unique. So, all of a sudden, you have twins walking around. They would stick out like a sore thumb because there are no twins in their community. People would look at them and wonder. People in the community aren't supposed to wonder. They're supposed to just accept what they see without question.
Because that's how the Elders of the old days decided it would be.
Well by that theory, wouldn't it then be reasonable to assume that anything can be perceived as normal as long as that object in question is introduced and included in society to allow people to become accustomed to and adapt to said object? If the real issue stems from things needing to appear normal, then in this situation, the twins would have had to have been embedded within society from the beginning to allow everyone's brains to process them, and therefore perceive them as 'normal'. The Elders' failure or choice to do this will result in them 'sticking out like a sore thumb' as you say. But it begs the question as to why they would choose not to allow twins being a normality in their society, if it indeed was a choice and not a failure.
share
Twins are rare enough that it would always be at least a little abnormal, so it was easier to just eliminate the issue
shareUh, dude called an elephant a hippo-- they sure as hell were idiots.
And cultural stupidity around twins isn't an invention of fiction-- in real life people believe strange and often preposterous things about them. Some places, they think twins are a 'bad omen' and an abomination. It isn't much of a stretch to suggest that a society of people who've stopped reproducing naturally and who have glaring issues with the concept of personhood should have a weird and repulsive approach to them.
I'm an island- peopled by bards, scientists, judges, soldiers, artists, scholars & warrior-poets.
Remember that people were not allowed to have relatives or familial relations. This was in place to eliminate favoritism towards relatives. Everyone is worth the same to you if nobody is related. Twins would be uncannily related to each other. They can't have this. The twins might favorite each other over others which would lead to problems.
Also remember that they didn't know they were killing them. They were sent away to Elsewhere. The people were indoctrinated to believe elders and faulty people got to go to a farm somewhere. They didn't think they were murdering anything. Murder didn't even exist as a word.
Think about it. Children in the Giver society aren't born and raised the normal way. Specially chosen breeders receive IVF and give the baby away after birth. Every family unit of one man and one woman then receives one male and one female child, not more and not less. Now twins have very strong bonds between them, this isn't superstition, this is proven fact. Imagine those twins being placed into 2 different families, growing older and running into each other. This would cause a lot of confusion and may disrupt their accepted view of what a family constitutes.
And yes, they killed the lighter twin who was assumed to be less fit physically.
According to Son (the fourth book), from what I have been told, the birthmothers are the biological mothers who are injected with sperm of unknown fathers. Who they get the sperm from and how they get it isn't stated as far as I know.
As for the families in the Giver, in the book they don't necessarily receive one male and one female. The couples can apply for a only one child. Asher received a sister only the year before and Fiona received a brother that year. Another of Jonas' age mates received a replacement brother to make up for the boy who died the year before.
So a couple may only get one child, none, or technically have three. The only thing is that if you have two, a couple raises a male and female, never the same sex.
As for twins, they would be the same age so they would go to school together and more than likely sit together every year during the ceremonies. They would know each other. What's funny is that Lily imagined that everyone in their community had a twin who lived Elsewhere and the confusion it would cause, especially if both twins were given the same name.
Bob
Twins are evil spawn.
shareDarwinism, the one who is heaviest survive making him/her the strongest. The lighter baby would be considered weaker and there for is exterminated.
shareThen what did he mean by it would have been bad if they weighed the same? He was relieved their weights were different. What would he had to have done that was worse than killing it???
shareI think maybe if they weighed the same they woudont know which one to release. Or kill. I don't know if they would then kill both, or make a random choice.
shareThat had been my thinking. They had some rule for determining which twin would be optimal but if they were equal it would prose the uncertainty of which one to dispose of. Choice seemed to be the root of everything this society set out to eliminate. Everything else was what you needed to get rid of to not inspire wanting to make a choice.
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"Hey, don't be mean, 'cause remember: wherever you go... there you are."