Jonas and Lily have a great life. They are provided with nice parents who enjoy them, their physical needs are met, and they receive friendly support from their community and school as they grow. They are like every other child in the community, too; everyone has a home with food and water to drink, and each child is treated with respect and has access to all the benefits society can offer. They are also taught respect and to take responsibility for their actions. For example, if anyone is late for school and keeps the class waiting, he or she must apologize to the class and the class must answer back that they accept the apology. All of these lessons that the children learn have good qualities that teach them to respect life, others, and themselves.
Comfort objects are given to newborn babies and are recycled after the child becomes eight years old. These are plush toys like teddy bears; Lily's is an elephant. Lily's parents keep her elephant on a shelf during the day and only give it to her when it is time to go to bed. In chapter two, Lily's mother reminds her that the comfort object will soon be taken away and given to a baby, so she should learn to sleep without it.
One can infer the community is set up to nurture kids very well. The stages of growth and development that children go through seem logical and natural based on basic human needs. Each year, a child loses one thing, such as a comfort object, but gains something else, such as pockets in a jacket, which helps them learn responsibility for smaller, personal objects. Symbolically, this helps children let go of one stage in their life and accept the next one. This practice also teaches children to accept appropriate changes in life as well as structure and obedience to the rules.
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