Argumentative Essay On The Giver

In the sci-fi novel “The Giver” by Lois Lowry, a teen named Jonas and a baby named Gabriel escape from their dystopian, tightly controlled society. Jonas and Gabe are both special - they both have pale eyes, giving them the qualities needed to become a Receiver - a person in the community that keeps all memories, of love and war alike, while the other people don’t experience any of it. Jonas, in fact, was training to become the next Receiver, but he and the old previous Receiver hatched a plan for Jonas to escape and bring the memories back to the community. Jonas is forced to take Gabe with him because he was going to be killed. The book closes with Jonas and Gabe, starving and freezing, sledding down a snowy hill towards a lit-up house.

A popular theory about what happened to the duo is that they lost consciousness and died on the hill, and the sled ride and house were just Jonas recalling his favorite memories, of sledding and a house during Christmas time, while he died. However there is evidence to contradict this. On page 221, the book states, “The memories had fallen behind him now, escaping from his protection to return to the people of the community.” This is referring to the fact that the memories return to the people of the community once a Receiver is lost for any reason. By this point, Jonas can’t have more than vague wisps of the memories, so he would not be able to relive them this vividly. Another reason to support this is that, on pages 223-224, it says, “‘We’re almost there, Gabriel!’ [Jonas] whispered, feeling quite certain without knowing why. ‘I remember this place, Gabe.’ And it was true. But it was not a grasping of a thin and burdensome recollection; this was different. This was something that he could keep. It was a memory of his own.” This basically confirms that Jonas is experiencing it himself, “making his own

There are many hints toward Jonas’s physical state in this part of the book, one of which is on page 225. “Jonas forced his eyes open as they went downward,” and then proceeds to describe what Jonas is seeing, such as “lights, and he recognized them now. They were shining through the windows of rooms,”. This shows that Jonas’s eyes are open, and he is able to make sense of his surroundings. The lights he sees could be mistaken for him starting to die, but a year easily could have passed since Jonas and Gabe escaped their community, so it is very likely that it is Christmas time and the lights are, indeed, in the houses. Another reason to back up the fact that Jonas’s physical body is just simply not dying is that Jonas is able to experience new emotions, and even a capacity that his tutor, the previous Receiver, described as “hearing-beyond”, a capability to hear music. This is stated on page 225 when the book says, “For the first time, he heard something that he knew to be music. He heard people singing.” If you were dying, your senses would be slowly disappearing. You wouldn’t be able to get heightened emotions or even brand new ones. (Yes, Mrs. Reasner, I googled it.) This shows that Jonas is simply not