Theme RL2

Malencia Vale is the main character of the dystopian novel "The Testing". She lives in her home in 5 lakes colony with her 3 brothers and mother and father. Her father had been tested in the past but he remembers nothing from it due to the memory wipe they do to the testing canidates following to the final examination. Cia has just graduated and she wasn't picked for The Testing, until a meeting held by the magistrate lets her and 3 other graduates from the colony know, they will be Tested. Specifically Cia writes "a wave of excitement washes over me", however, she is yet to know what waits for her in Tosu City where she will be tested. The Testing is split up into four parts. Over the course of the next couple weeks she see's the Testing take place and see's the wrong answers that are penalized with death. She soon realizes that she regrets wanting so badly to have a chance at the university if it meant seeing the death of her friends. The final exam is the hardest as she is dropped off outside of the city and is forced to fight for her life as she attempts to make it back to Tosu City. Her friend from 5 lakes named Thomas finds her and they fall in love over the course of the final test. They eventually find their way back and they lose their memory but not before Cia records all the happenings of the Testing in her brothers transmit communicator. After they are accepted into the university Cia is about to go to bed but she presses a button on the communicator and listens to herself describe what she went through over the course of the last month.




 This is the theme "sometimes you want something you don't need" that the author, Charbonneau, wants us to see. The text shows this when it reads "Only, I no longer need to imagine. The twitching stops. His muscles go slack as his chest stops its rise and fall. Malachi is dead." (Pg. 113) She wanted to be tested so bad but it already resulted in one of her friends deaths and she regrets wanting to go.