Jonas lived in a world that looked perfect but if you took a closer look it wasn't all that flawless. They lacked certain qualities that are vital to some people in our world. Things like love, warmth, and actual feelings are missing from Jonas's world. Yet, Jonas lives in a world with no violence which greatly affects our world in a negative way. To Jonas, the things that his community was missing seemed greater than his perfect community, and that is the main reason he ran off. Part of his plan was to expose the community to the qualities they have been missing and how they can impact the community. We all dream in a world where everyone is safe and secure. Most people think that those two elements are the key to happiness, but I wouldn't give up as much as the people in Jonas's community have. War and violence are terrible things but I have learned that love not only holds people together but gives them the strength to keep fighting. In the end, love rules out being safe and secure.
The Giver and Jonas develop a plan that will have an enormous impact on the community. Jonas would leave the community, leaving the community to deal with the memories. The Giver will stay and help the community get through the memories that will affect them greatly, most in a bad way because the community has depended on the memories to be held with the Receiver. Jonas's absence will change the community and their perspective on daily life. Jonas learned about all of the things that community never got to experience such as color, sunshine, snowflakes, war, and even love. He felt that the community was shielded from these aspects and they needed to experience it and to get rid of sameness. This is the main cause of the formation of the plan. The effects of this plan will surly have an effect on the community. Although they will have the Giver to help them get through they will experience so many different things so that for the first time in their life, they will feel unstable. Everyone will have different perspectives because that is one of the things the community could not control, opinion.
Chapter 14: In Chapter 14 Jonas experiences real pain during his training sessions, he also realizes that that he has the ability to transmit memories to Gabriel. "They had never known pain, he thought" The mood of this chapter is mainly dark because it talks about experiencing pain for the first time. It came as a shock to me because I live in a world where pain is common. I also was surprised because we learn about the ability that Jonas has and this causes many questions to appear such as "Is Gabriel the next Receiver" Chapter 15: In Chapter 15 We learn that the memories can cause the Giver indescribable pain, and Jonas experiences a new level of pain, warfare. "A dull blankness slid slowly across his eyes. He was silent" We learn in Chapter 14 that Jonas is starting to experience pain but this pain is a whole new level. Jonas is not only living through physical pain in these memories, he is also living through emotional pain after seeing someone dying. He lives in a community where they will never understand pain like this and this seems to hurt him mentally. Chapter 16: Jonas is beginning to feel restless about being the Receiver of Memories, he wants his childhood back, and for the first time Jonas experiences love. "Still, I did like the light they made. And the warmth" The mood of this chapter is brighter compared to the previous two. Jonas is exposed to real human like feelings in his colorless, heartless world. Jonas asks his parents if they loved him but instead they correct him on the precision of language. This seems like it hurts Jonas tremendously. Chapter 17: Jonas looks at the community differently because of his new memories, and there is talk about releasing one of the identical new children. "His childhood, his friendships, his carefree sense of security, all seemed to be slipping away." I personally felt pity for Jonas, everyone else's jobs don't seem to affect them mentally while Jonas is overwhelmed. His childhood and perspective was completely taken away. It is as if the honor of being the Receiver of Memories isn't worth it anymore. Its hard to imagine a world without color. It would be like living in a black and white television, where everything is monochrome and nothing has variation. Without color the world would be a very boring place because colors not only make things brighter but also more diverse. Walking outside usually fills someone with adrenaline and excitement, the vivid green leaves of the trees would immediately catch someone's eyes. Instead turning your head up to look at the leaves would be replaced with a vision of clumps that are the same dull color. Most of nature's beauty would be gone flowers and magnificent views of great big rivers would lose their essence and moments would be harder to capture. The blue hue of the sky and the scorching yellow of the sun would never fully be appreciated. As well as nature being taken away we would also lose diversity. Today we live in a world where people are many different colors. People also have a variety of choices when it comes to color. If you looked at two shirts they would both look the same rather than two separate colors, making each shirt different and unique. This would apply to many other things, you could see an apple or a peach and wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
In the Ceremony of Twelves, Jonas was assigned the Receiver of Memories. According to the Chief of Elders, Jonas has been selected for a job that has great honor in the community. We are told that he will endure horrible pain. The previous chapters hid this information really well. Jonas being skipped over and being specially selected rather than assigned for this job was a complete surprise and a plot turner. There was one clue that stuck out to me. When Jonas was throwing the apple to Asher, he noticed something change. Lois Lowry didn't go into too much detail about what Jonas saw and it didn't seem to affect the plot a lot. I predict that Jonas will struggle a little bit in being the Receiver but he will find a way to pull through. I think that Jonas will experience new things and it seems already that his job is different in unique ways.
Chapters 1-7 have already given us so much information about the Giver, yet not enough at the same time. My previous predictions have changed a lot since the Ceremony of Twelves. The book described the Ceremony of Twelves and how the Elevens would be given their Assignments. From that information I predicted that something would change in the Ceremony of Twelves in a negative way. The people in the community would try to fight back and rebel, they would be breaking rules that used to be so strictly followed. Everything would be seen from Jonas's point of view and how the rebellion affects his family. There is something special about Gabriel, and I assumed that maybe he is the Giver. He may have some kind of power to end the rebellion. As for the old man on the cover of the book, he may be the leader of all the communities, the one that controls everything. My predictions are now completely altered now that I have read chapter 7. The Ceremony of Twelves went fine, nothing changed except for one plot turner. Jonas had not been given an assignment. Now I am led to believe that Jonas may be the Giver. He is there to save the communities from some future danger and this is his assignment. But, the assignment is top secret which was why he wasn't called at the Ceremony of Twelves.
Right away from reading even the first couple of pages of the Giver, I could clearly see the differences comparing our world to Jonas's. Their perspective on how children should be raised and lifestyle is completely different from ours. Certain objects, routines, and activities that are in our daily lives are left out of Jonas's altered world. Something that seems strange to us may seem normal to him and vice versa. An important item that was left out in the Giver was their type of transportation. People in our world get to places in many different ways (Car, Bus, Airplanes, Subway) but Jonas's main form of transportation is bike. There is only one other reference of transportation so far in the book and that is the cargo plane that drops off supplies to the community. At first I thought that bikes were only used by children but the book says that "Lily waved to her friends from the back of Mother's bike, and Jonas rode beside her". Another significant item that is missing in the Giver is modern technology. Jonas seems like any normal teen boy and Lily seems like any normal little girl, their personalities seem like kids and teens in our world. There is no evidence in the book about the time period because it is a made up world with probably a made up time period. Lois Lowry is clearly making a statement by leaving modern technology, transportation, and many more items out of this story; she is telling us how their society is different from ours. It makes the book more interesting not to mention how greatly some of those items would effect the story plot.
"It was almost December and Jonas was beginning to be frightened." This was the chilling opening sentence of Chapter 1, the Giver. Right away the sentence intrigues you and questions start to form. Why is Jonas frightened? What is so bad about December? When hearing this sentenced I imagined Jonas being in the middle of something (A class in school, a sport, at home ect) and his mind is distracted. Then, he realizes that December is coming and he is struck with fear. Maybe he all of the sudden becomes alert, or his heart rate quickens and his breath gets faster. This makes me feel frightened as well. Although Jonas is a fictional character in a fictional book, the opening sentence immediately makes me worried for him, even if he is not real. This sentence creates a dark tone for the book. I believe that this book will be darker and more mature than what we are used to. From this sentence and the first chapter, the book takes place in a fantasy world where we walk through Jonas's shoes. So many things from his world are extremely different from our world. Terms, people, way of life, birth and even death stuck out to me and made me compare my life to his. Never the less I am excited to read the next chapters of The Giver and find out why the Ceremony of Twelfths is so nerve racking.
-She was born in Hawaii
-She has lived all over the United States and even Japan -A Summer to Die was her first novel for young people -She now lives in Maine with 2 daughters and 2 sons -She had a sister who died of cancer when she was younger -She tried to block out bad memories from her forgetful father -Her books deal largely with families -She has won a Children's Book Award -She has won two Newbery Medals for The Giver and Number the Stars -Lois graduated from Boston University and later took a degree at the University of Southern Maine -She is a free lance journalist and a photographer aside from being an author Rules in a way do confide people but we would fall apart without them. There would not only be complete chaos but people could do anything they wanted without the concern of others, that is an important pro in having rules. The vast majority of people must follow the rules in order to maintain a civilized society, but there will always be a couple of rebellions. Of course, in the past there have been times where rules have gone too far. People have been confided in what religion they could practice for example; this has resulted to violence. Fortunately the past is in the past and we have learned from our mistakes, but history can repeat itself. Rules teach people many things and refrain people from doing things that are bad. Sometimes rules are not only used for obedience but for guidance and discipline. Rules can only go so far though, there will be people that will try to break them. There are no rules for friendship, that is something we must leave to itself. We cannot force it like forcing love, when power rules love disappears.
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