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Individuality in the giver
Why are memories important to the giver
A summary about the giver
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Jonas’ Decision
Jonas had to make a hard decision in Lois Lowry’s “The Giver”. Jonas makes the choice to leave the community, which is selfless and is the right choice for the community. Jonas’ decision is right for the community because the community has no memories other than the ones they have accumulated in their lifetime. Without the knowledge of the memories, they can not make very logical decisions. Jonas must leave the community in order to share all the memories with the entire community.
Jonas thinks the community can help benefit Jonas by taking the memories. Jonas can barely sustain the pain of the memories. He thinks that the community can rely on one another to get through the hardship that is the memories. This is because
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Not only did Jonas make the right decision, he was also selfless while doing it. Jonas’ decision was selfless because he put his own life at risk for other people’s benefit. Jonas not only risked his life, but he went without the Giver and without all of his training being completed. Jonas also saved Gabriels life by taking Gabriel with him when Gabriel was scheduled for release. Jonas also was scared at the end of the book, not because he was going to die, but because he could not save Gabriel. This furthermore proves why Jonas’ act was selfless and ultimately right for the community.
In conclusion, not only was Jonas’ act selfless, it was ultimately right for the community. This is because Jonas is releasing the memories to the community. The community can benefit from keeping the memories because they can use them to logically make decisions. Jonas can benefit by having the burden lifted from his back. People will be able to sustain the pain of the memories because they have each other's company. Jonas’ act was selfless because he did this on his own, without all of his training being completed. This is why Jonas’ acts are selfless and good for the
Jonas, the protagonist, is assigned the job of holding memories for the community. This is so that not everyone has to experience sad or painful memories. The Giver's job is to transmit these memories to Jonas and, in doing so, reveals the wonders of love, and family, and pain, and sorrow to this young boy. Jonas begins to resent the rules of sameness and wants to share these joys with his community. After receiving his first memory, Jonas says, "I wish we had those things, still." (p. 84)
Without memories, nobody can make the right decision, which will lead to a bad choice. Without memories, one cannot shape his or her future. In addition, when Jonas describes the pain he feel when experiencing a sunburn when, “‘It hurts a lot,’ Jonas said, ‘but I’m glad you gave it to me. It was interesting,”(Lowry 86). This quote show that Jonas does not understand
At this point, Jonas has realized what release really means. He finds out that the little baby Gabe that has lived with his family is being released at the very next morning. And the large plan that has been made with The Giver, to get rid of sameness within his community can’t be carried out because he knows that he must save Gabe’s life. He starts to really understand what it means to truly live and truly love. He knows he loves Gabe and, therefore he must sacrifice himself in order that Gabe might live. So, he quietly leaves in the middle of the night, and takes Gabe with him and they leave the community. Jonas is running for their lives because he knows they’re being hunted down. He hopes that they will just give up and assume that maybe
Jonas decides to leave and change the lives of his people so that they can experience the truth. “The Giver rubbed Jonas’s hunched shoulders… We’ll make a plan” (155). Their plan involves leaving sameness and heading to Elsewhere, where Jonas knows the memories can be released to the people. He has a connection with Gabe, a special child who has experienced the memories, unlike the rest of the community. Jonas has a strong love for Gabe, and he longs to give him a better life. “We’re almost there, Gabriel” (178). Even with a sprained ankle, Jonas keeps pushing forward because he wants everyone to experience what The Giver has given him. He wants them to have a life where the truth is exposed. His determination allows him to make a change for a greater future in his community. This proves that Jonas has the strength to change his community for the
He starts to believe that a world of sameness where no one can decide or make choices for themselves is boring. Lois Lowry is warning readers that living in a world of sameness is not something to create as it is boring and dull, but if the world follows conformity and does not value diversity and difference enough, society could become that of Jonas’s. When he turns twelve, his job for the rest of his life is decided as the Receiver. His job is to receive all the memories the previous Receiver has held on to. While this is beneficial for Jonas as he is able to leave the society and his job of the Receiver behind and get freedom, the community is left without someone to take the memories from The Giver.
You know everything about the past and the present from your life, but the citizens of Jonas’ community don’t. Everything is hidden from them, except for Jonas and The Giver, who have all
In The Giver, Lois Lowry uses Jonas, The Giver, and Gabe to develop the theme that memories are essential to human life. The author uses Jonas to show that memories are needed for human life. To be able to have happiness, and wisdom the memories of the past are essential. Jonas says, “‘I liked the feeling of love,’ he confessed. He glanced nervously at the speaker on the wall, reassuring himself that no one was listening.
Since Jonas was selected to be the Receiver of Memory, the Giver game him the memory of the rainbow. As you can see Jonas has accomplished many things throughout his journey. Jonas has changed by the end of the story. Jonas has changed because before he became the Receiver of Memory he was terrified of what his job would be like. Jonas got tougher by using the memories that the Giver gave him.
As Jonas receives these memories, he ponders how their community would be different if they could make more choices. For example, after the Giver transmits Jonas a memory of family, Jonas thinks how crazy it is that they have generations and he says about his community, “‘What if they were allowed to choose their own mate?’”...”’Or what if’”...”’they could choose their own jobs?’” (124). Jonas then thinks if people should make these choices, and things that could go wrong if they did. For instance, while he is thinking about how crazy these choices are, he says, “‘I can’t even imagine it. We really have to protect people from wrong choices’”(124). People in his Community don’t choose their own spouse, the Community leaders assign them a spouse and children if they want. Jonas’s Community is brain-washed into not having opinions or choices. Although they have no divorce and wrong choices, Jonas would rather have choices and a real
Jonas misses the way it was before he had memories where there was no pain or feeling, because everything was innocent. But he understands that although there was innocence nobody feels true happiness.Jonas thinks: “But he knew he couldn’t go back to that world of no feelings that he had lived in so long” (Lowry 131). Jonas wishes he could go back when everything was innocent and when he had no burden of pain, but although there was innocence the bad memories were stripped away to avoid the feeling of pain but also leaves everyone emotionless. But he knows it can never be the same again because of all the knowledge he gained from memories. He learns that memoires need to be valued, even the painful ones. Jonas feels that his community can change and things could be different. He thinks they should live in a world with memories. Jonas says: “Things could be different. I don’t know how, but there must be some way for things to be different. There could be colours [...] and everybody would have memories [...] There could be love” (Lowry 128). Jonas wishes that they could all have memories because everyone would be able to experience love. Love is one of the most important things in human life. He knows that there are bad memories, but without them, he wouldn’t be able to enjoy the good ones. Eventually, with his feelings
He later decides to leave the community. This matters because since that knowledge caused Jonas to be the catalyst of change. Therefore, it was very important, and without it, the change to actually being a human instead of a robot never would have been made, and the community would have never known emotion. Basically, the memory of love brought about the change that was the solution to the conflict of the whole story. In this case, knowledge is definitely better than
However, Jonas realizes that without memories, a person can’t learn from mistakes, celebrate accomplishments, know love or happiness or any other deep emotion, or grow as an individual. He also learnt that when there is no pain without memory, there is no true happiness. This leads to the importance of individual. When people are unable to experience pain, their individuality is devalued. People learn from memories and gain wisdom from remembering past experiences.
But the Giver argues and asks “Do you know what is means to love someone? Possibility of love? With it comes hope, faith and a beautiful feeling. “ But the commander says that people are weak, selfish and when people have the freedom to choose, they choose wrong. Giver believes that in this community “people are living the life of shadows, of faint, distant whispers of what once made us real.” People are living in the shadow, because their right to choose is taken away. The movie does not show what happens after Jonas crosses the boundary of memory, but we can hope that after everyone got memories back they found the real
However, as Jason’s training teaches him, this is not the case. His teacher, the Receiver of Memory, who tells Jonas to call him the Giver, transmits memories of the distant past to him. It is through these memories that Jonas discovers the meaning of snow, war, pain and love. The Giver tells him that these things existed before the people chose to go to “Sameness”. Ever since, they gave up those things in exchange for a world free of discrimination, crime and pain. However, realising the importance of wisdom gained through experience, they chose the Receiver to bear the burden of all the memories for them. Overwhelmed by all this information and being forbidden to share it with anyone, Jonas grows increasingly embittered against hi...
Jonas always tells his dreams. He always was there for chastisement. He always shared his feelings at the evening meal. He also always took his pill every morning. “Now he swallowed the pill his mother handed him.”(Page 38). By the end of the book Jonas is rebellious. He stops taking pills for emotions that he is supposed to take everyday. Jonas stays at the Giver’s house when he sees his father kill a baby. Jonas also tries to escape from the community when Giver creates a plan to escape from the community which Jonas barely follows because of Gabe’s release. “But your role now is to escape.” (Page 162). This means that Jonas has to escape and the Giver must stay to help the community after he is gone.