The Giver: Pleasure and Pain (chapter 13-16)

A New Beginning

Jonas and the Giver, the only two that know the truth about
the world

     Jonas had started to see colors more often. He sees the reds, greens and all the colors we can see. Also Jonas is trying to make people see his memories, such as Asher and Lily but he is not successful. In one of his sessions with the Giver, Jonas questions himself of the importance of the Receiver, and the Giver explains that the community has them so they were the only ones that felt the real pain of the world and if in time of need, they could consult them for the wisdom of the past memories. Then in another session the Giver finally shows real pain to Jonas, when he returns to the snow sled this time he buckles over and hurts his knees, face and basically almost all of his body. Since that moment on, the Giver gave Jonas some memories of pleasure but he started to give him also memories of pain, real pain. One night mother was complaining of Gabe being unable to sleep and Jonas took care of him for that night. When Gabe awakens, Jonas gave him a memory, by accident, to make him sleep and told no one about it. The next day when he goes to the Annex he finds the Giver in terrible pain and wants to help him, and he gives Jonas a memory of warfare, of death. For the next few days the Giver tries to give Jonas only good memories to apologize about the incident of the warfare memory. By the end of the last chapter the Giver gives Jonas a memory of what I think is Christmas, love and family. And when Jonas sees this he decides to stop taking the pills.  

Jonas and Gabe, both able to see memories

Real Pain

     I had been thinking of the pain that Jonas had been feeling in the Annex. But what really illustrates the pain he feels is:

     “From the distance, Jonas could hear the thud of cannons. Overwhelmed by pain, he lay there in the fearsome stench for hours; listening men and animals die, and learnt what warfare meant.

Finally, when he knew that he could bear it no longer and would welcome death himself, he opened his eyes and was ones again on the bed” (120)

This had left me thinking, what is pain really like. Sometimes I think that when Jonas experienced warfare he was feeling pain physically, but especially emotionally. He should have been devastated by the death of all the people dying around him, and also his own injuries. I feel the same each time I read this quote, I feel as if nothing is worth living for any more. I can´t think of how brave Jonas must be to bear all this. I would have been devastated and I would have wanted to quit, and now I feel that Jonas is the most courageous of all the people I had seen or read of.  

Warfare, the worst memory Jonas had experienced

Final Thoughts

Current day community, one
community I love

     Having reading this chapters make me love my community even more than before. I could not imagine being tormented as Jonas is either. I would not be able to leave everything I had here to something that seems better, for now I know that Jonas community is not as good as it seems. Even if Jonas is tormented I think that the Receiver is fortunate to have the memories, for all the pain there is he or she also feels the freedom and pleasure that no one else feels. I feel that Jonas is completely different from me, except that I too like to care for small children. I will always be remembering this when I think that my community is a disaster, but the reality is that my community is perfect compared to Jonas one ,in my own eyes.       

Jonas community, an emotionless world that I
would hate to live in 

The Giver: Memories, New and Old (Chapter 9-12)

A New Life:

After the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas went home where he read the instructions for being the Receiver of Memories. Some of this instructions were that he could only take medications unrelated to training, he may lie, he is banned of dream telling, he can ask personal questions and other things that gave him more individuality and liberties than most of the community other inhabitants. When he went to see the old Receiver, he went with Fiona as the Annex is behind the House of the Old. When they met, the first thing Jonas saw was he looked old, his house was very furnished, and he had clear eyes such as Jonas. When they had met, Jonas received his first memory by the Giver, the memory of snow sliding and then the one of sunshine and sunburns. We learned that there was a Sameness in all the community, and everything was meant to be the same. Jonas leans that he can start to see in colors, unlike his community that sees in black and white. He sees the color red, such as Fiona’s hair and the apple. That’s how the week ended, showing us memories of the Giver, and new major memories of Jonas. 

Jonas, the Reciver, and the Giver, with an apple
representig the red color that Jonas is starting to see

New Thoughts:

When Jonas experienced the snow, snow sledding and other things in the Annex he was exited but…

“There was no way to describe to his friends what he had experienced in the Annex room. How could you describe a sled without describing a hill or snow; and how could you describe a hill and snow to someone who had never felt height or wind or that feathery, magical code” (89)  

I can see what Jonas is feeling, for I had the same experience. Once I felt that exiting feeling of the full speed, downhill travesty. Not wanting for it to stop and pushing myself to keep going. However when I start hearing people talking about their experiences I feel like telling how snow sledding is like, but it is not easy to describe it. Most people know as much about the substances for snow sledding as the people of the community. I can´t help but feel that only experience can describe what I felt, like Jonas, and no words are truly precise for this. 

How Jonas seems in my mind while he sleds

Final Thoughts:

I think that the Giver will try to give Jonas the possibility to change the way of thinking of some of his close friends and family. Jonas will try to change the thought in the community of what is good and what is bad. However the Chief Elder and the other Elders will try to stop him and threaten him. They will threaten him with torturing Fiona, Gabe, and his family. And when Jonas neglects, someone will try close to him will treason him, Asher. Asher will put Fiona and Jonas family unit against him, he will sabotage Jonas tries to eliminate Sameness. But Jonas with all his new memories and the influence of the Giver will change some people minds. When things seems to be going in Jonas way, Asher will again see the truth in Jonas ways and be his friend again, but the Chief Elder will try to keep everything in Sameness. She will drive Jonas and his follower to Elsewhere, were he will need to find a way to survive……..

The Chief Elder, a person that I think
that will do anything to conserve Sameness

Jonas and his freinds, the first people
I think that will defy Sameness

  

The Giver: The Selection (chapter 5-8)

     In this last week I had read the chapters five through eight, and all of them gives us a better insight of the community, its rules, inhabitants and Jonas. When Jonas have his first Stirring, he is given a pill to negate it from happening again, even if he enjoyed it was a rule to take them. Then when the ceremonies began at the Auditorium, they started giving the first day the newchildren that became Ones, Gabe has a second year for nurturing, and the Eights had new jackets and started volunteer hours. In the second day of the ceremonies they began by giving the Nines their bicycles, and so on with the Ten and Eleven. When the Ceremony of the Twelve began, they started giving the Assignments to the new Twelves, such as Asher being Assistant Recreation Director or Fiona being a Caretaker of the Old, but they skipped Jonas. However after the Ceremony the Chief Elder said that Jonas have been chosen as the new Receiver of memories and he would be taken as apprentice by the old one, all the community chanted Jonas name giving him a new, a different life as the new Receiver of memories.

     I had been asking myself, what does this quotes means "He saw the others in his group glance at him, embarrassed, and then avert their eyes quickly. He saw a worried look on the face of his group leader." Does it means that they thought that Jonas was in trouble, or would be released in public? Did they thought that he had been taken over for being a disgrace for the group and community? Or did they thought that he would be punished for something he had made to the Chief Elder or to anyone of the community? Finally, did they thought that maybe Jonas was going to be given a serious chastisement that would change him forever?

     After reading this four chapters I had started to think, is that the Receiver is praised by people but at the same time people fear his job and look reluctantly to be with him. Even the Elders are reluctant to be around him because he had experiences that no one comprehend, and no one comprehend him. People also see in awe to the Receiver as he always have the answer to everything, and is just with everyone. However his apprentice, meaning Jonas, is seen with the respect the Chief Elder is given and at the same time people start to become scared of him as they think that he is already different from the community, in general. Finally, the Receiver accepts this from an early age, and with time he or she starts to accept that they are not a hundred percent a part of the community any more. 

The Giver: The Begining (Chapter 1-4)

Summary:
     The story starts with a plane flying near the community, scaring most of the people. The Speaker says for everyone to take cover and leave their bicycles. Once the plane is out of sight the Speaker tells the community that the Pilot-In-Training will be released for his error. After this Jonas, the protagonist, start telling how the community works. One of this is the nightly routine in which the families share their day feelings with each other. Jonas little sister, Lily, told of how a boy that came from another community had different rules than from their community. The Father told of how a small baby by the name of Gabriel is not up to the standard and some people want to release him, however he want to give him another opportunity. Finally Jonas tells he is apprehensive because of the upcoming ceremony of the Twelve. His parents want Lily to go to sleep so they can talk in private to Jonas to tell him of the Ceremony. They tell him that in the ceremony he is going to be given his Assignment, or job. They tell him o calm down that the Elders have been watching him and were looking for the perfect Assignment for him. After this he starts to calm down and feels more comfortable about the upcoming Ceremony of the Twelve. Later on Father brings baby Gabe to the house so he can have extra support and can stay the in the community. He has light colored eyes like Jonas, while most of the community has dark eyes. Here when Jonas is seeing how they taking care of the baby, he remembers of the time he was playing catch with his best friend, Asher, and out of nowhere it changed. He took the apple home to see if it changed again, but the Speaker told him indirectly that it wasn't allowed to take the apples from the Recreation Area. Later in the story he goes to make some volunteer hours to the House of Old so he can have some time with Asher, as soon the volunteer hours would be over. A worker of the House of the Old told him that they had a release that morning, and that he could help in the bathing center. Their Jonas baths and talks with an old lady of the name Larissa. She tells him that when Roberto was released that morning he looked happy and that he was going to be missed. She tells him of old people that were not as interesting and popular as Roberto and most old fell asleep in their releases, such as the release of Edna. They start to talk of how the Elders could enlarge the Releasing Room so more people could go their, but Larissa says "Right" sarcastically.



Text Response: 
 "Here you are, Lily-billy," he said. "I´ll come help you remove your hair ribbons."
     "Jonas and his mother rolled their eyes, yet they watched affectionately as Lily and her father headed to her sleeping-room with the stuffed elephant that had been given to her as her comfort object when she was born. His mother moved to her big desk and opened her briefcase; her work never seemed to end, even when she was at home in the evening. Jonas went to his own desk and began to sort through his school papers for the evening´s assignment."(19)

     I can connect this to my own childhood as when I was over Lily´s age I always asked for my stuffed animals to my dad and asked him to tug me in for the night. While we went to my room my brother and mother usually felt the same way as Jonas and his mother. Usually when I went to sleep in that tender age, everyone used that time to make the work they did not did when I was awaken. I always asked for a comfort before they tug me, usually it was to be with me when I prayed. Over the years when I became over Jonas age and my uncle tugged up one of my cousins I used the time to make the homework that I did not ended when I was taking care of them. My mother is a lawyer such as the mother of Jonas and always seems to have work even in holidays. In the end everything that happened to tug up Lily happened with me too or I did something like Jonas when I was older.


Final Thoughts:

     After reading chapter 3 and 4 I started to predict what will happen next. One thing that I predict is that in the ceremony of the Twelve, Jonas will be thought to not be given an assignment, but the assignment that will be given to him will be of the Giver. I also think that Jonas will try to change some things as the new Giver. I think that he will be driven away by the Elders as they want to keep everything the same. I would think that this way JOnas will find out what is realising and were people go after being released.    

The Giver: Pre-Reading Post

   
1.     I think that the book is of a world that really is a dystopia. This world is "perfect" for most of the people and none of this people knows what real feelings are. But there is a person known as the Giver that knows all the good and bad feelings. Jonas is the Giver of his time period, and he was trained by the last Giver. His world appears perfect, but Jonas knows that there is more things to add to it. This book appears to be made for young people, especially for teenagers. The book appears to have inner conflicts as much as outer conflicts, trying to connect with the readers feelings and connecting to their personal life. For this book is the beginning of the young people dystopia books, and this one started with a young boy having the real burden of the world in his shoulders. In conclusion, I think that the book is a complete dystopia and it is connected to all the young people emotions and feelings.    

2.     I think that the author meant that all young people will have a roll in the future, and our roles will shape the world. This decisions that we will make will either make it a batter place, or a worse place such as the one described in his book. The future is entrusted from generation to generation, and each generation either makes it a better place or a worse place. This is why the author says " To whom we entrust the future", it means that we are the future, and that we will shape it either for bad or good.

3.  I think that the book is about a world, were everything is chosen by a few people, which want to make the perfect world. This people think people should not feel fear or any kind of feeling apart from the sense of working and doing what they want. But in each generation there is a person called the Giver, for he knows the true significance of life. This person knows what fear is, what happiness is and all the feelings that had been lost. This person knows the pro and cont of life, he knows the good and the bad part, and this person is always different. Each Giver shows the next Giver all he or she knows, but Jonas wants more. He wants to give people back the feelings, all good and bad making his world a imperfect one, but a real one. However people will try to stop him, and few people will help him. But in the end he will accomplish his goal, and give humanity back its imperfectness, but make their lives real.