The Giver Essay: Character Analysis

Human's are not perfect, but in Jonas's community you can say that they are because nothing goes wrong, you can even say it's a normal community even though normal isn't very descriptive. Jonas has changed through The Giver by Lois Lowery in multiple ways, but now he has a better understanding of them and why things are the way they are. He knows that his community isn't like the past because he was chosen to be the receiver which he had no idea what he would have to do, but over time the Giver gets him through everything. He gets memories about the past and he isn't allowed to tell anyone about them because the community doesn't want the people knowing about what the past was like. Jonas will be getting memories that will include pain, which

Jonas doesn't have a choice of getting to ask to switch jobs because that is one of the rules of being a receiver. '''It hurt a lot,' Jonas said, 'but I'm glad you gave it to me. It was interesting. And now I understand better. What it meant, that there would be pain''' (86). Jonas gets memories of pain but not just physical pain like in his community. Jonas now gets emotional pain from the memories and emotional pain can't be relieved by a pill like a physical pain can. The giver had mentioned to Jonas that he will get painful memories and this had been one of them. However in the process of getting all of the memories Jonas will have to experience extreme pain. "Then, the first wave of pain. He gasped. It was as if a hatchet lay lodged in his leg, slicing through each nerve with a hot blade. In his agony he perceived the word 'fire' and felt flames licking at the torn bone and flesh. He tried to move, and could not. The pain grew" (109). Jonas becomes a better receiver because he knows that he must get a lot of pain. He has to deal with it to protect the community even though he wants the community to know about all these memories. In fact the people in Jonas's community don't have the ability to see color. "Once, back in the time of the memories, everything had a shape and size, the way things still do, but they also had a quality called color" (94). Jonas doesn't tell anyone about being able to see colors, but he did try to see if Asher managed to see the color red. This is a good and bad memory because Jonas will now be able to see color, but he can't enjoy them because nobody else knows what color is. Jonas was anxious to know what he was going to be assigned and when he gets to be the receiver he had no idea what he would have to do, but throughout the