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.