Fear, even from the most honorable...

Jonas in front of all of his society was selected as the receiver of memories. For many people this job is an HONOR, but for Jonas it is more than that. Being the receiver of memories does not only mean receiving memories form back generations, but gaining wisdom out of them. He is realizing that his society is not really how he thought it was, everything is always the same, people do the same things every day. They have the same routine for every single day, it is like their lives are written down.  Jonas has been receiving memories from The Giver throughout his training and as time goes on, the Giver is giving him more painful memories like the memory of poaching were there’s this beautiful elephant and they kill it. Another really painful memory that the Giver gave Jonas was the memory of war, the Giver was suffering so much with this memory that he asked Jonas to take it away from him, now the Giver does not have this memory any more. Jonas now has it, and he will suffer as much as the Giver did, that’s why the giver was so sorry for him. Like always, after the painful memories come the pleasurable ones. The Giver decided that after that awful memory he had given to Jonas he would only give him pleasurable ones for some time.  He gave him his best and happiest memory, FAMILY. With the memory of family Jonas felt LOVE, love is one of the words he and the citizens of his community are not allowed to say or feel. With baby Gabe things have been different, since he is sleeping with Jonas he is getting better every day, but what they don't know is that he is sleeping better because of the memories Jonas gives him every night. With time, Jonas is getting better at his ability of seeing beyond and we can see that he doesn't only want to be the receiver of memories, he wants to change the world. Jonas no longer sees his world like he used to, he wants to live in a world where there are COLORS, grandparents, where everybody have memories of their past and most important of all, a world where there is love. 

 Just imagine....

 

Throughout reading The Giver I have read a lot of things that include fear on them. In Jonas society even though we can’t see it, under all of those happy and perfect society, people live in fear. They live under the fear of being released. When the Giver is training Jonas he told him this quote………..

“When you become the official Receiver, when we´re finished here, you´ll be given a whole new set of rules. Those are the rules that I obey. And it won’t surprise you that I am forbidden to talk about my work to anyone except the new Receiver. That’s you, of course” (103).

This quote made me realize that as time passes by and we start seeing that people are scared of being released. That’s one of the main reasons why the community is so organized and perfect, because everyone is afraid to stand up for themselves and say what they think is right. The only ones permitted to do this are the elders and by that we can also infer that they are selfish because they lead a simple community because if they let everyone suffer with memories it will be harder to control them.  The Giver is the most honorable person in his community and even by having such honor, this quote tells us that he is scared of talking about his work. By seeing that even the most honorable person in their community is afraid to talk, I came up that the world they live in is not as perfect as it stems and we can see that there is DISTOPIA. While reading it I thought that the community in which they live in is so strict with every citizen that they are afraid to have freedom of speech.  

Jonas for the first time did not take his pills, something about the memories told him to throw the pills away. I think that he not only threw the pill away because his memories told him, I think he threw them away because he wants to feel something, he wants to feel how it is living in a world with love. I also think that Jonas is a very brave boy and although he knows all the risks form doing bad things, he is going to rebel. He will not only start to make things for himself, like not talking the pills, he will make a CHANGE in his society. But is he ready to take this risk? Sure, because everybody is capable to do good things and make the world a better place!

THE WORLD FORM A DIFFERENT PRECPECTIVE

Jonas lives in a world where DISTOPIA takes over his society. A world where everyone is the same and you don’t have the choice of individuality. Every one is the same and at each ceremony, until kids are twelve, each year they have new gifts like bikes at age of nine. Although we can’t see this, we all know that there are certain classes were some jobs are better than others like the committee of elders who have their principal leader, the Chief Elder.  But in Jonas case, at his ceremony of twelve, he was selected a very important and honorable job, THE RECIEVER OF MEMORIES. The first memory that The Giver gave Jonas was snow, he made Jonas feel like he was sliding a sled in a mountain full of snow and this memory made Jonas feel pleasure. After giving him the memory of SNOW he gave him the one of SUNSHINE, but The Giver added some pain to it, he made Jonas feel the pain of SUNBURN.  When Jonas felt the sunburn it hurt a lot and this made him realize what the chief Elder had told him, you will also feel physical pain. The Giver told him that this is just a little sunburn pain but in time he will feel real pain and by this Jonas will understand the relationship between pain and pleasure.  What will happen to Jonas? Will he have enough courage to feel that kind of pain?

While reading the giver, Jonas “ability to see beyond” start happening more frequently. When he got to the Annex, the first thing he did was tell The Giver about his experience with Fiona’s hair and how it changed. The Giver told him he was starting to see the color red and that eventually he will start seeing all of the colors, just like he does now and he tells him……

“I’ll tell you another day. Now we must work. And I’ve thought of a way to help you with the concept of color. “Close your eyes be still, now. I’m going to give you a memory of a rainbow.”

At first his quote made me wonder many things but the most important and confusing part was, why he would give him the memory of a rainbow? Does this dystopian society see all black and white? After analyzing it I came up with the conclusion that Jonas ability of seeing beyond is to have the ability to see colors rather than black and white.  The Giver will help Jonas by giving him the memories of all the colors and by doing this, Jonas will start seeing all of this amazing colors that surround him and the world will change for him just as the apple, the crowd and Fiona’s hair did.

Every time I pick this book to read it, there is always new things to discover, new things that keep me flipping pages faster and faster. But after reading the part when Jonas will receive the memory of a rainbow, made me predict something, when Jonas receives those memories the world will not be the same as it used to be. Everything will be strange and new, he would see the world from another perceptive, he will see the real color of all things and for me colors are the ones who put happiness and life to the world. Jonas will not only see the world from a different point of view, he will feel what is like living in a world full of happiness and life!

            LET'S SEE THE WORLD IN A DIFFERENT WAY!

The Receiver of Memories

As you all know from my previous blogs, I am reading The Giver. From now on I’m going to blog all my thoughts and new discoveries from the book. In the chapters that I have recently read, a lot of things had happened. As it commonly happens with all kids in the community, Jonas had his first stirrings for Fiona, to prevent them, his mother started giving him pills to eliminate his feelings. The days of the ceremony had started and Jonas was very nervous about his ceremony, like other years, the first day was form the ceremony of the ones until the ceremony of the eights, luckily Gabe didn’t have enough weight to be given to a family unit, so he is going to stay one more year in the nurturing center with Jonas father. The next day the ceremony of the nines, tens, elevens and twelve’s took place. The Chief Elder gave the twelve’s their assignment but when it was Jonas turn she skipped him, at the end of the ceremony she called Jonas to the stage and apologize to him and everybody for her actions.  She told everybody that Jonas wasn't assigned, he was selected to be the receiver of memories because he had all 5 things a receiver must have and most of all, he had the capacity to see beyond. The Chief Elder also told him that his training will include a lot of physical pain, Jonas was not sure he was the right person to be the next receiver.

 

"I think it's true," he told the Chief Elder and the community. "I don't understand it yet. I don't know what it is. But sometimes I see something. And maybe it's beyond."

(Lowris 64)
Before reading this quote the Chief Elder had told Jonas that he was selected as the receiver of memories because he had the capacity to see beyond, Jonas didn't understand this, he thought he didn't have this capacity. But when he looked to the crowd to see their faces and reactions they changed, just like the apple did. When Jonas said this quote I think Jonas finally knew what it meant to see beyond. He might still don’t know how to use it but he knows that in some way he is different than the other citizens in his community and that maybe he was given this capacity because he would be the next receiver of memories.

The last chapters I have read form The Giver, where the most important because I could see that the committee of Elders and the receiver of memories saw Jonas as a special boy and because of that, they selected him to be the new receiver of memories. After reading this chapters I came up with a prediction, if the receiver of memory is one of the most important in the committee of Elders, then Jonas will soon know all the true secrets about his community, and by saying this he would not only know each of the secrets of the citizens of his community, he would also know all of community’s dark secrets.
 

You will never know someone until you know their feelings

From what I have recently read in chapter 1 through chapter 4 in the previous week, The Giver has made me question about many things in Jonas society and in the way he lives. In this few chapters Jonas lives in a society where every year there is a ceremony in which, as every kid grows a year older, they have more freedom to do more things. At the ceremony of the twelve, the community of elders choose your assignment. Jonas family is made of his father, mother, younger sister and him, because in his society the families can only have one girl and one boy. Jonas is feeling apprehensive because this year it's his turn to be assigned for a job and this means his volunteering hours are ending and he wants to spend the last hours volunteering with his best friend Asher, so they do it in the House of the Old helping the elder bathe. Also in these chapters the author talks a lot about releasing people, this is basically throwing people out of the community for a certain reason. Jonas father is a Nurturer and he takes care of the babies until they are one year old and are received in a family. But there is this baby that Jonas father nurtures, his name is Gabriel, he might not pass the ceremony of the ones because he is not growing fast enough and maybe he will be released.

When I was reading these chapters I read a quote that said “The Elders know Asher,” his mother said. “They’ll find exactly the right assignment for him” (Lowry 17). This quote made me think more about the relationship between Jonas society and the Truman Show that we watched, because in both societies there is someone that knows you very well and knows what’s best for you. In this case the Elders have so much control of society, that they know exactly what assignment goes to every twelve year old. In the Truman Show Christof has known Truman since he was a baby and he knew what was the perfect job for him just like the Elders did with Asher. Even though this made me connect to the Truman Show, I also think that maybe this statement is wrong because you can’t know someone just by watching them all day. In my opinion Cristof and the Elders really don’t know the feelings of the characters to know what’s right or wrong to them.

Click here to watch Christof talking with Truman!

Finally, from what I have read so far from The Giver, it has been a very interesting book to read because it has made me question a lot about Jonas society and the way they live. Also because I could feel Jonas feelings while I read and The Giver is one of the first books that has caught my attention, I can see that there is a lot of dystopia in Jonas society because they have all these types of rules and they are always being controlled by the Elders. If you want to see what happens in the next chapters keep reading this blog!

PRE-READING THE GIVER

 

Lowry on the dedication page said "For all the children to whom we entrust the future." I think by saying this statement Lowry is trying to tell to the youngest generations that the future depends on us. Also in our actions, because we are the ones who are going to live the future and we are the ones that have to make things right from the beginning to have a good life. By saying this Lowry is also trying to tell us that the adults are putting all of their lives on children so they can make a better world.

From what I have seen on The Giver cover page and on its back summery I think that this book will be about I boy who lives a perfect life and he is going to see and feel what's real pain and fear. I think this book would be about that because on the back summery it says that when Jonas turns 12 he would go and talk to the giver that he is the one that knows the truth about pain and pleasure. To me the Giver is the only man in this perfect world that they live in, that has experience pain and happiness, and when boys turn 12 they go to him and he makes them feel pain and the pleasure of life so when they know how it feels. The Giver is the man who makes them realize there is more than the world they live in. I would describe this book as a book that has dystopia because I think that at the beginning the world would seen perfect but at the end it would make us realize its not really perfect for Jonas.

My prediction of the book is that when Jonas turns twelve he would go to see the Giver and the Giver would make him feel real pain and real life pleasure, that this would make Jonas think in a different way about his perfect world and he would want to search for answers. I also think it would make him question everything in his life and that could be a problem.

Chandara. "Quote Posters Of The Month – April 2014." NotedQuote. 20 May 2014. Web. 19 Nov. 2014.