In Joelle Charbonneau’s post-apocalyptic novel The Testing, the main character Cia goes through a physically and mentally tasking test to decide her fate. In the division of Five Lakes, Malencia, also known as Cia, and her family live in their small post-apocalyptic home. The education system is similar to the current American education system, but there is one major difference; The Testing. The Testing is a prestigious series of tests that only the brightest and most valiant are chosen for. These tests directly affect their fate, because Testing candidates often do not return from the tests. During Cia’s Testing, she finds herself in a conflict between none other than herself due to a hard decision she must make on whether or not to save herself
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When Cia is chosen as a participant of The Testing, she is ecstatic, all of her life aspirations had become true. After sprinting home to tell her parents, Cia’s dad asks to have a one on one conversation with her. The pair sit down and begin to converse about the cruelty of The Testing. Cia’s father, who remains unnamed throughout the whole novel, knows extremely well how cruel Testing can be thanks to his experience as a candidate. The Testing is designed as an extremely competitive competition, the stages slowly phase out the weaker competition. This style of competition was especially cruel to Cia’s dad because he had to watch a loved one die right in front of him. Following a quick explanation of the best friend he lost during The Testing, Cia’s father further elaborated, “I.... was changed forever. After losing Jacobi the way I did, I knew I would never be the same once I got out of that torture they call The Testing” (23). With this first-hand knowledge from her father, Cia engages in The Testing with incredibly high caution. She wholeheartedly decides to watch her own back and trust no one. However, Cia quickly abandons these ideals when she sees her friend Tomas at The Testing …show more content…
An example of this is when Tomas admits he is in love with Cia. Throughout the entire test, every participant of The Testing has worn a bracelet that is rigged with a microphone. Tomas and Cia realized this quite early in the testing, so they have been exceedingly cautious of the bracelet. When they decide to stray away from their group during a part of the test, they snap off their bracelets and leave them behind. Tomas reveals why he left the bracelet behind when he says, “Because the first time I tell you that I’m in love with you, I’d rather not share the moment with the administrators” (245). This declaration of Tomas’ love for Cia alludes to the conflict of the novel, which is Cia deciding to stay with Tomas instead of winning it all. The foreshadowing of the love between the pair perfectly establishes a link between this event and the resolution. In the final stage of The Testing, the twenty five remaining competitors are dispersed in a circle of land with weapons scarcely placed around the battlefield. As time passes, the circle begins to wane at a rapid rate, which forces the competitors to violently battle because if you are caught behind the circle’s force field, you slowly die. Cia and Tomas stick together throughout the entire stage, and eventually, the two of them are the only competitors remaining. As previously mentioned, The Testing is structured as a survival of the
When Cia is chosen as a participant of The Testing, she is ecstatic, all of her life aspirations had become true. After sprinting home to tell her parents, Cia’s dad asks to have a one on one conversation with her. The pair sit down and begin to converse about the cruelty of The Testing. Cia’s father, who remains unnamed throughout the whole novel, knows extremely well how cruel Testing can be thanks to his experience as a candidate. The Testing is designed as an extremely competitive competition, the stages slowly phase out the weaker competition. This style of competition was especially cruel to Cia’s dad because he had to watch a loved one die right in front of him. Following a quick explanation of the best friend he lost during The Testing, Cia’s father further elaborated, “I.... was changed forever. After losing Jacobi the way I did, I knew I would never be the same once I got out of that torture they call The Testing” (23). With this first-hand knowledge from her father, Cia engages in The Testing with incredibly high caution. She wholeheartedly decides to watch her own back and trust no one. However, Cia quickly abandons these ideals when she sees her friend Tomas at The Testing …show more content…
An example of this is when Tomas admits he is in love with Cia. Throughout the entire test, every participant of The Testing has worn a bracelet that is rigged with a microphone. Tomas and Cia realized this quite early in the testing, so they have been exceedingly cautious of the bracelet. When they decide to stray away from their group during a part of the test, they snap off their bracelets and leave them behind. Tomas reveals why he left the bracelet behind when he says, “Because the first time I tell you that I’m in love with you, I’d rather not share the moment with the administrators” (245). This declaration of Tomas’ love for Cia alludes to the conflict of the novel, which is Cia deciding to stay with Tomas instead of winning it all. The foreshadowing of the love between the pair perfectly establishes a link between this event and the resolution. In the final stage of The Testing, the twenty five remaining competitors are dispersed in a circle of land with weapons scarcely placed around the battlefield. As time passes, the circle begins to wane at a rapid rate, which forces the competitors to violently battle because if you are caught behind the circle’s force field, you slowly die. Cia and Tomas stick together throughout the entire stage, and eventually, the two of them are the only competitors remaining. As previously mentioned, The Testing is structured as a survival of the