Jonas' New Found Feelings in The Giver

Helen Keller once said, “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” Similarly, in The Giver, a dystopian novel written by Lois Lowry, Jonas, a twelve year old boy lives in a “perfect” community. Through the memories Jonas receives of the past from the Giver, he learns that feelings must be felt with the heart, and that they cannot be touched or seen. Jonas’ understanding of feelings develops dramatically after he receives memories from the Giver. Throughout the novel, Jonas learns the true meaning and importance of feelings and compassion, and he evolves from being shallow boy to being compassionate and empathetic young man.

Before Jonas receives memories, he reveals his shallowness through his pointless arguments with his sister, Lily, and his inability to feel real feelings. For example, when Jonas and his family unit are having their evening telling of feelings, Jonas recalls how he and Lily would sometimes “argue[d] over turns, over who would get to go first” (5). This recollection displays that Jonas does not know how to be considerate, and let his younger sister go first. Therefore, he is unable to show selflessness and compassion. Furthermore, Jonas also displays his shallowness when he was remembering how he was frightened about the plane passing over The Community (1). Since Jonas has never truly felt feelings, he is unable to know what it feels like to be truly frightened. This shows that he is shallow, because he is isolated from all emotions; he has never experienced real feelings, only what he thinks to be real feelings. Overall, Jonas is shallow before receiving memories, but, he becomes more compassionate after receiving memories from the Gi...

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...eep the memory, Jonas was being selfless and empathetic. Through Jonas’ pity for the people that he cares about and his selflessness, he portrays his newfound empathy.

Through the memories Jonas receives from the Giver, he gains the ability to experience feelings, which causes him to grow out of his selfishness, and into a more compassionate and empathetic person. In fact, before Jonas receives memories, he does not even have the ability to experience true feelings, which causes him to be selfish. However, after he receives memories from the Giver about true feelings and pain, Jonas starts to become more compassionate. Jonas’ compassion also leads him to become more empathetic towards the people that he cares about. Even though feelings and emotions can sometimes bring pain, without them, the world would be a selfish place with people only caring about themselves.