The Giver
His whole life is lie. Jonas lives in a “perfect” society, where everything is the same. In Jonas’s society there’s no war, no divorce, love, not even death; however, Jonas doesn’t figure out these things until he gets the assignment of The Receiver. Throughout the novel, The Giver by Lois Lowry, Jonas changes when he goes from a rule follower to a rule breaker. Also, he has no knowledge of the past , to gaining lots of knowledge.
In the beginning, Jonas doesn't even think to break the rules. For example, when Jonas takes and apple from the recreation center there was an announcement “‘this is a reminder to male elevens that objects are not to be removed from the recreation area’”(Lowry 29). Jonas didn't mean to take the apple, but he saw a change in the apple and it sparked an interest in Jonas. Because of this interest, Jonas discovers love and stops taking his pill,” something within him, something had grown there through the memories, told him to throw the pill away”(Lowry 162). Jonas broke a big rule
…show more content…
here, the community made the pill to cancel out all emotions; however, Jonas wouldn't have learned unless he broke the rules. Although Jonas at the beginning of the story had no knowledge of the past, throughout the novel he gained that knowledge.
For example, when Jonas asked the Giver what happened to the things he had seen the Giver replied “‘..They made conveyance of goods unwieldy. Trucks; buses. Slowed them down. So- Sameness’”(Lowry 106). The Community went to sameness because things got hard, Jonas starts to figure out some of the reasons they went to sameness. Another example, when Jonas learns about pain and other things he asks the Giver “‘ Why do you and I have to hold these memories’”. The Giver responds with “‘It gives us wisdom,Without wisdom I could not fulfill my function of advising the Committee of Elders when they call upon me’”(Lowry 140). Jonas learns that even though his training is tough, he will need that training late in future to help others. Overall, no one ever learns anything without asking questions and that’s exactly what Jonas
did. Throughout the novel, The Giver by Lois Lowry, Jonas changes when he goes from a rule follower to a rule breaker. Also, he has no knowledge of the past , to gaining lots of knowledge. Jonas never got anywhere without taking major risks, and asking questions when he didn't understand. Although Jonas eventually gave up; he could have stayed strong, and persevered through his pain.
You know everything about the past and the present from your life, but the citizens of Jonas’ community don’t. Everything is hidden from them, except for Jonas and The Giver, who have all
Jonas decides to leave and change the lives of his people so that they can experience the truth. “The Giver rubbed Jonas’s hunched shoulders… We’ll make a plan” (155). Their plan involves leaving sameness and heading to Elsewhere, where Jonas knows the memories can be released to the people. He has a connection with Gabe, a special child who has experienced the memories, unlike the rest of the community. Jonas has a strong love for Gabe, and he longs to give him a better life. “We’re almost there, Gabriel” (178). Even with a sprained ankle, Jonas keeps pushing forward because he wants everyone to experience what The Giver has given him. He wants them to have a life where the truth is exposed. His determination allows him to make a change for a greater future in his community. This proves that Jonas has the strength to change his community for the
When he lies for the first time, Jonas does it to defend love. Jonas realizes that no one in the Community can be truly happy when they are ignorant to love. The dialogue between characters is very important to the development of the plot, but Lowry additionally uses Jonas’
He starts to believe that a world of sameness where no one can decide or make choices for themselves is boring. Lois Lowry is warning readers that living in a world of sameness is not something to create as it is boring and dull, but if the world follows conformity and does not value diversity and difference enough, society could become that of Jonas’s. When he turns twelve, his job for the rest of his life is decided as the Receiver. His job is to receive all the memories the previous Receiver has held on to. While this is beneficial for Jonas as he is able to leave the society and his job of the Receiver behind and get freedom, the community is left without someone to take the memories from The Giver.
As Jonas receives these memories, he ponders how their community would be different if they could make more choices. For example, after the Giver transmits Jonas a memory of family, Jonas thinks how crazy it is that they have generations and he says about his community, “‘What if they were allowed to choose their own mate?’”...”’Or what if’”...”’they could choose their own jobs?’” (124). Jonas then thinks if people should make these choices, and things that could go wrong if they did. For instance, while he is thinking about how crazy these choices are, he says, “‘I can’t even imagine it. We really have to protect people from wrong choices’”(124). People in his Community don’t choose their own spouse, the Community leaders assign them a spouse and children if they want. Jonas’s Community is brain-washed into not having opinions or choices. Although they have no divorce and wrong choices, Jonas would rather have choices and a real
What made Jonas change through the novel called The Giver? Jonas's life changes as a results of conflict with his dystopian society. Throughout the giver Jonas made multiple decisions that lead to his life change, for example, Jonas forgot to take the medicine and saw the apple turned red mid-air when he had caught it it went back to moral. After Jonas stoped taking the medicine to see if the apple would change again, because of his choice Jonas life changed.
All the people in Jonas’s community feel that Jonas’s selection is a great honor. Despite what the community thinks, Jonas thinks of it as more of a punishment. Being the Receiver is a punishment for the following reasons, the Receiver will lose contact with the outside world, he is also filled with pain and sorrow, plus he can’t quit.
Once Jonas begins his training with the Giver, however, the tendencies he showed in his earlier life—his sensitivity, his heightened perceptual powers, his kindness to and interest in people, his curiosity about new experiences, his honesty, and his high intelligence—make him extremely absorbed in the memories the Giver has to transmit. In turn, the memories, with their rich sensory and emotional experiences, enhance all of Jonas’s unusual qualities. Within a year of training, he becomes extremely sensitive to beauty, pleasure, and suffering, deeply loving toward his family and the Giver, and fiercely passionate about his new beliefs and feelings. Things about the community that used to be mildly perplexing or troubling are now intensely frustrating or depressing, and Jonas’s inherent concern for others and desire for justice makes him yearn to make changes in the community, both to awaken other people to the richness of life and to stop the casual cruelty that is practiced in the community. Jonas is also very determined, committing to a task fully when he believes in it and willing to risk his own life for the sake of the people he loves.
Jonas is the protagonist in The Giver. He changes from being a typical twelve-year-old boy to being a boy with the knowledge and wisdom of generations past. He has emotions that he has no idea how to handle. At first he wants to share his changes with his family by transmitting memories to them, but he soon realizes this will not work. After he feels pain and love, Jonas decides that the whole community needs to understand these memories. Therefore Jonas leaves the community and his memories behind for them to deal with. He hopes to change the society so that they may feel love and happiness, and also see color. Jonas knows that memories are hard to deal with but without memories there is no pain and with no pain, there is no true happiness.
When he becomes 12, he goes through a huge ceremony and all the elders assign them their jobs. In this community, there is no lying, stealing, racism, pain, sunlight, or color. Jonas was chosen to be The Receiver, and he didn’t know what to do because this job was such a big deal. Jonas then goes through training with the current Receiver, who is now The Giver. Training consists of The Giver passing down the memories from when the community was not what it is today.
In the book, The Giver, Jonas is portrayed as a kind, curious and rebellious individual with a keen sense of awareness. The beginning chapters revealed Jonas as a very naive and compliant person, similar to everyone else in his community. Instances, when he was a child and got reprimanded for small misunderstandings, made him like this. However, throughout the book, Jonas has grown into an independent and determined person, someone who wants to make a change. Jonas finds new strengths in his character which forms him into someone spectacular and distinctive.
No one truly comprehends what he experiences, but they understand that he obtains wisdom from the memories he holds. As Jonas learns from the memories, he asks the Giver. “Why do you and I have to hold these memories?” to which the Giver responds, “It gives us wisdom.” (139-40). The Giver emphasizes that he does not hold power in the community, but wisdom. By understanding the past actions and emotions of humankind through war, famine, disease, and pain, he can prevent them from occurring again. He is a staple in the community and an adviser to the council due to his abilities to make decisions based on the mistakes and repercussions of the past. Memories are what allow people to create context for future actions and provide insight to possible outcomes of those actions, which is why the community turns to the Giver for advice. Jonas remembers an event in the community where a pilot flew a plane over the city instead of away from it. The city council panicked under the circumstances and asked for advice from the Giver: “I used my wisdom, from the memories. I knew that there had been times in the past—terrible times—when people had destroying others in haste, in fear, and had brought about their own destruction” (141). No one else is able to have the same understanding and wisdom as the Giver, and later, Jonas, and no one really seems to notice any lacking in their life at the same
Did my parents have sleds when they were young? Did you?’ The old man shrugged and gave a short laugh. ‘No,’ he told Jonas. ‘It’s a very distant memory. That’s why it was so exhausting- I had to tug it forward from many generations back’” (83). Jonas asks the Giver why they don’t have snow, and if the Giver had it or his parents, but the Giver told him it was a distant memory. Jonas is very curious about what it was like and he also gets really curious about other things to. (STEWE-2) Jonas starts being curious again, but this time it is about if the Giver has a spouse, “‘Giver,’ Jonas asked once, as they prepared for the day’s work, ‘don’t you have a spouse? Aren’t you allowed to apply for one?’ Although he was exempted from the rules against rudeness, he was aware that this was a rude question. But the Giver had encouraged all of his questions, not seeming to be embarrassed or offended by even the most personal. The Giver chuckled. ‘No, there’s no rule against it. And I did have a spouse. Your forgetting how old I am, Jonas”(102). Jonas learns a lot about what it was like before the community even existed, and he starts to get a lot of unnecessary. (CS) This is how Jonas is different from the rest and learns many new
In the book “The Giver” Jonas is a character of many great traits, but one of his traits that stands out throughout the book is his bravery. He shows bravery when he takes on the challenge of being the next receiver of Memory which takes physical and mental pain. He shows how brave he is when he runs away from his community with Gabriel on his father’s bike, as well as when he faces his father everyday after knowing what his father does to “release ” people.
Jonas changes from the beginning of the the book to the end of the book in many ways. One example of Jonas changing is in the beginning of the book when he was honest. Jonas began to lie throughout the book and was no longer honest. “ Jonas has,