Chapter 8
The Chief Elder issues an apology both to the community and to Jonas himself, for the anguish she caused them in skipping over his name. She explains that this is because Jonas has not been given an Assignment. Instead, he has been Selected as the community's next Receiver of Memory. This selection has been years in the making and she refers to a previous failure that Jonas does not know about, but clearly discomforts the adults of the community. She tells Jonas that the Receiver must have intelligence, integrity, courage, and wisdom, skills which they believe he has or will have, in addition to the Capacity to See Beyond. Jonas recognizes that this sight is somehow related to the strange incident with the apple, and experiences the sensation again as he looks to the crowd. The community then honors and accepts him in his new role by chanting his name over and over.
