Do You Have What It Takes?

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The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau is a  dystopian Y/A novel that follows sixteen year old Cia Vale in her journey to pass The Testing. The Testing is the rigorous series of challenges that will determine if candidates can earn a spot at University and a rewarding career. The Testing is administered from Tosu City where candidates will get to go if they pass.The adolescent protagonist Malencia (Cia) Vale is a strong and quick-witted girl who earned a spot to be considered for The Testing. She wants to make her family proud and wants to do more with her life than become a mechanic. Cia wants to experience more from her life and wants to go on to work in Tosu City where she has always been inspired by the officials that reside there. I feel as though this is a common theme of adolescence. Many teenagers/young adults have a person or figurehead in their life that they admire and aspire to work towards. Once Cia gets accepted into The Testing, her feelings towards the Tosu City officials change. During the first test, Cia's roomate Ryme commits suicide due to all of the stress going on. The death is harrowing for Cia, and the Tosu City officials take the death very nonchalantly. "This event is unfortunate, but The Testing served its purpose. He hopes Ryme's choice to end her candidacy will not impact the results of mine." (Charbonneau 94) The reactions to the death were what really began to shift Cia's perspective and made her lost respect for the institution she once admired. I feel as though adolescent's can relate to this aspect of Cia's journey. Many of us think certain people or things are very inspiring and we admire them alot, but in when we get older we begin to see things for what they really are and change our perspectives. Cia continues in the testing and finds out some of the people that she knew and trusted at the beginning were not the same people that she knew in the beginning. Will, a trusted partner of Cia and Tomas since the beginning, turns his gun on the two of them and tries to shoot them both. 

Despite some of the dramatic elements of this story, I think that adolescents should read this novel. It discusses conflicts that many adolescents can relate to. Cia was a motivated young girl who wanted to change the course of her future and she strived to become something more. Even though Tosu City and the officials she once admired and wanted to be like ended up not being who she thought they were, she still knew she was smart and capable and persisted through the challenges. It also makes a mention that sometimes the people we think we trust are not exactly who we think they are. Adolescents especially need to hear this because so many friendships and relationships go down the wayside during this time. Not everybody's friends threaten to kill them of course, but it can be very hard to go through something like that at that age. I think it sends a great message to adolescents and even though its a dramatized dystopian novel, I still think it is a great read.

Comments

  1. toriehicksOctober 14, 2020 at 2:58 PM

    Yes! As being a member of your lit circle, I totally agree with everything that you are saying. I loved this book specifically for Cia's mentality and intelligence when dealing with stressful situations; such as leaving her family at such a young age. This was how I was when I went off to college with leaving my mother. I didn't even think about her looking up to her dad as being a part of adolescence, but it definitely is! Adolescents base a lot of their life decisions on their role models/ the people that they look up to. I like where you say, "...when we get older we begin to see things for what they really are and change our perspectives." This is so true, especially going through high school. Adolescents lose friends, they become people that they once thought they knew but do not anymore, and friendships break apart. This happened also in The Testing. Cia becomes good friends with Will, trusts him, and he stabs her in the back. Sadly, after her memories are wiped, she doesn't see Will's true colors. Hopefully in the next book she will; I cannot wait to read it!

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  2. Logan SandorOctober 14, 2020 at 5:33 PM

    After I read this book I hope to better understand how adolescents today are able to relate dramatized dystopian novel. That connection just doesn't go together in my head. I very much relate to losing respect for things I once admired so dearly. As you grow your perception of things change and your world is no longer hidden by a coat of innocence. This realization can be very traumatizing for adolescents; especially as puberty hits.

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  3. Chelsea KOctober 14, 2020 at 7:56 PM

    “Once Cia gets accepted into The Testing, her feelings towards the Tosu City officials change. During the first test, Cia's roomate Ryme commits suicide due to all of the stress going on. The death is harrowing for Cia, and the Tosu City officials take the death very nonchalantly. "This event is unfortunate, but The Testing served its purpose.”

    Well, isn’t that darkly reminiscent of our own society. One of my biggest issues with our current educational system is the emphasis placed on testing. It not only puts immense pressure on our students but those tests are not (maybe even cannot) be designed to measure skills of substance. They put too much stock in memorization skills and not enough emphasis on critical thinking or creativity. Those Tosu City officials sound unnervingly like some of our elected leaders. Leaders who are so preoccupied with test scores and outperforming other countries that they willfully ignore the ramifications their policies and legislative acts have on both the psyche of students and the integrity of school districts.

    I can easily see this book being used in the classroom to encourage students to learn about the shortcomings in our own educational system. I think it’s a shame that more educators do not construct thematic units that specifically address the history of the American Education System and its many pitfalls. This text sounds like it would facilitate that aim perfectly.

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