Character Analysis Of Jonas In The Giver By Lois Lowry

Jonas is the protagonist of the novel and a third-person narrator tells the entire story from Jonas perception of things. He is intelligent, curious, caring, and his thought process is very mature for being 11-13 years old. A good quote portraying both his matureness and his intellect is “If everything's the same, then there aren't any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things”(97). This is also one of the first signs that he is displeased with the community. Another quote showing his courage and curiosity is "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

As humans, we have an emotional depth unlike the people of Jonas' communtiy. Everything is already done for them but with this, there are many flaws such as not feeling love, compassion, empathy, fear, and sadness. One example of having no real depth of feelings is when at the Telling of Feelings session, Lily explains how she “felt” angry when a boy from another community was not following the rules of her community. Jonas’ family reassess this by telling

One of the genuine common traits of a true hero is their selfless nature. They give more importance to the well-being of others over their personal self. If it were not for this trait, heroes would not have the desire to help others in need. This quality is portrayed by Jonas to Gabe: “… he forced the memory of warmth into the thin, shivering body in his arms” (Lowry 221). Jonas gives the memories of warmth to Gabe near the end of the book as they were climbing up the hill. He gave the memories to Gabe in order to keep him warm and not let him freeze in the cold weather; he helps Gabe so he doesn’t have to suffer the pain. Jonas proves his selflessness by being more concerned about the well-being of Gabe rather himself. Jonas’s selfless nature also was shown when he volunteers his time to working with the elderly that need help bathing themselves (Lowry 38). Jonas could have volunteered in other areas of the community that are not as uncomfortable as bathing elderly adults, yet he didn’t because it’s not about the appearance of others, it’s about their well-being and needs. If heroes didn’t acquire this trait they would not be able

With Jonas’s job as being The Giver, truth is a very important aspect. Being The Giver, he learns about the real, and whole truth. The Giver is the one who keeps all of the memories of truth. Without it there would be no reason to have a Giver. Another way that the truth works in the role Jonas was given would be that if Jonas leaves the community, all of the memories that he had received would be then distributed to the people of the community. When The Giver and Jonas come up with the idea that everyone not knowing the truth is wrong, they send Jonas away so that everyone receives the memories. There are many ways in which the truth works in the role that Jonas receives, such as when the Chief Elders ask The Giver for advice when they are in times of trouble. Here is a great example of what I mean, “And when I am called to The Committee of Elders, I appear before them, to give them counsel and advice”(Lowry 130) The truth is used in many other ways in Jonas’s job as well, and these are only a

Jonas accepting his society because he's unaware of emotions of the other people in his community. Jonas follows the rule of having the share your feelings everyday. Not telling

In my opinion, Jonas left the community because of the memories and the reality presented to him by The Giver. After realizing the truth, he wanted to alter the perspectives of the citizens in the community by releasing his memories, he believed that the way people lived without any knowledge of the world surrounding them was wrong, and wished to live a more meaningful life when he left.

After receiving his assignment as a receiver, he, “Now, for the first time in his twelve years of life, Jonas felt separate, different. He remembered what the Chief Elder had said: that his training would be alone and apart… upon leaving the Auditorium, he felt the apartness.”(65) The words used in this quote such as separate and different gives off a sense that he was lonely. Lonely is a common feeling used on characters who are outcasts which connects that Jonas is an outcast. After Jonas and Asher(his best friend) congratulations were exchanged, "Right! See you!" Asher called back. Once again, there was just a moment when things weren't quite the same, weren't quite as they had always been through the long friendship. Perhaps he had imagined it. Things couldn't change, with Asher.(66) In this quote Jonas visually saw that his best friend was hesitant. Giving a notion that makes him now an outcast.He was now an outcast among his friends, family, and the

Jonas is just another member of his community. He spends his life following the rules that his community has imposed him. In all his life, he has blindly followed the rules and has never questioned them. For that reason, it comes to a shock when he receives new instructions that go against everything he has been taught:

He accepts the role and begins training with The Giver. As time goes by, and he has received numerous memories, he starts to realise how cruel his society is. (SIP-A) In one of his later memories, we see The Giver pass on the memory of a rainbow. Jonas starts to learn about colors and vibrance. (STEWE-1) Jonas is first given the memory of a rainbow. “Days went by, and weeks. Jonas learned, through the memories, the names of colors; and now he began to see them all, in his ordinary life (though he knew it was ordinary no longer, and would never be again)” (Lowry 97). He felt good about what he was seeing, for a good amount of time at the least. (STEWE-2) But, Jonas starts to change his mind, and wonder why people don’t have color. He realizes that people can make choices without having the government do it for them. “‘If everything's the same, then there aren't any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things! A blue tunic, or a red one?’” (Lowry 97). Yes, Jonas does agree with The Giver after the fact that decisions can be dangerous. But, Jonas still likes the thought of decisions and colors. (SIP-B) The main reason Jonas decided to flee from his society, is the way that they handled releases. His father had been lying about the process for all of Jonas’s life. (STEWE-1) Jonas asks The Giver about release because of the release his father was doing that

Jonas wanted to live a different life. In his journey, Jonas travels with Gabriel, the child that was being nurtured by his family. He needed to saved him from being “released”. Together they faced danger and fear but it was just the beginning of a new life in the land of Elsewhere.

Jonas starts out with a very low understanding of what it means to be mature. He has no knowledge of pain, love, or any other emotion. He proves this by acting like a normal child. He plays with his friends after volunteer hours. He attends school on a regular basis. Jonas is a stickler for the rules. He has been told that it is wrong to not follow rules and that there

Jonas’ has had a variety of interesting experiences throughout the book. The Giver by Lois Lowry is about Jonas and he goes through many changes in his life with some help from the Giver. Jonas’ experiences develop a theme over the course of The Giver by teaching the reader for every action there is a consequence. Although some readers may believe that there will not be a consequence, Jonas’ experiences show that there are good and bad consequences for everything you do.

Jonas has changed from being feelingless and as the story goes on he develops feelings.

Winning doesnt show someones true character, what you do after the loss is what defines someone. Jonas faced many conflicts and what he did afterward is what showed us, the readers who he really was. After the problems jonas became a more angry with the society, rebellious, and smart person who who cared about the rest and wanted to make a difference and help the community be a better place without the people as much as they were.

From Jonas’ point of view, bravery is defined as the ability to volunteer to do something in order to help the life/lives of someone or a group of people. He believes that bravery is sacrificing your life in order to save others. For example, on page 118, it states, “I’ll come back tomorrow, sir,’ he said quickly. Then he hesitated. ‘Unless, maybe there’s something I can do to help.’ The Giver looked up at him, his face contorted with suffering. ‘Please,’ he gasped, ‘take some of the pain.’.......The hands came, and the pain came with them and through them. Jonas braced himself and entered the memory which was torturing The Giver.” This quote proves how to Jonas, bravery and courage is when you unexpectedly volunteer to do something painful or dangerous in order to reduce the pain and danger of someone else. In this quote, Jonas volunteered to take some of The Giver’s burden away from him. Here, he was being brave. According to page 143, it also states, “And he, Jonas, would never have done it-never have requested release, no matter how difficult