The Giver By Lois Lowry: Character Analysis

In the book The Giver Jonas and the community have little choices they can make. In America we have lots of choices like how long your hair is, what you are going to wear to school and what color we want to wear. In Jonas’ community they cant even do that. Jonas left the community because he yearned for the freedom of choice. “If every things the same, then there aren’t any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things”(PG97). Jonas wants to be able to pick his own tunic and job, but in the giver community he cant. He wants to pick his own spouse. Jonas is tired of sameness

Everyone was once thought that the Jonas’ society was the most brilliant place in the universe. No war nor death could be found there. In the most extreme case, in order to protect people there to be having a right choice, the way for them to achieve it was not by education, but to restrict them from choosing. Do you want to be living in such a place without the freedom of choice? I guess no one does. Therefore, I learned that freedom is also an important element to build up a balanced community.

Jonas is not able to share the memories with any friends or unit family members and he has to deal with the fact that his friends and his family unit always ask him and he has t lie to them tellings them that they just walk all the time and he learns new

What would happen if you lived in a world with no emotion, no emotion, and no choice? This is exactly the case in The Giver. When a boy, Jonas, who lives in a futuristic community starts to receive memories from the Giver he realizes there are so many beautiful yet terrible things inside and outside of the community. He dosen’t know another way to save the community from sameness except to release his memories to the community, good and bad. Three things that could have been done to the community to avoid this is adding the arts, emotions, and weather.

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

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

In our world, we can decided what we wear like and how we act. Some of us have long hair, others have short, and a portion of us have none at all. Other physical features may be eye color, hair color, height, or weight. Internal differences may be likes and dislikes; the people in Jonas’ community are just the opposite. They follow a strict set of rules and cannot see or realize any differences. This sameness has been enforced by the Committee of Elders for a while. It is like they live in a one-way mirror; but Jonas can see differences and so can the Giver. They can see color while others just see shades of gray. They can see how the community has changed and how it is being controlled. So this one-way mirror has a secret second side and Jonas can now see through it. This begins to get frusterating to Jonas because he is confused about his

From beginning to the end of the novel, Jonas proves he is a serious person. Lowry writes, “He didn't often do volunteer ours with his friend because Asher frequently fooled around and made serious work a little difficult.” (Lowry, 26) Here Jonas does not want to participate in work that requires to be mature with Asher. This is important because it shows that Jonas is very focused and can't

Imagine a world with no feelings, no color, no choice; a world where individuality and freedom are exchanged for security and sameness. This type of world is a reality for Jonas, the protagonist in Lois Lowry’s The Giver. After being assigned the next Receiver of Memories in the community, where he has the capacity to see beyond. As he begins his works, he gains wisdom and through that wisdom, learned that protecting the community from the memories, their lives lacked understanding and feelings. Jonas goes on an archetypal hero’s journey and chooses to risk everything to restore memories and wisdom to everyone in the community. Throughout this novel, Jonas is represented as a hero considering he demonstrates integrity despite living in a

That feeling of love he had developed with Gabe, made him risk anything to save him experiencing death. By having Jonas escape his community with Gabriel, he will find Elsewhere to return the memories to the

Overall, Jonas’s community in “The Giver” is a utopia. It is a utopia because everyone gets a job, no one starves so there basic needs are met, and no one has feelings so they cannot feel pain or sadness. “The Giver” is a perfect example of the definition of a utopia, “an imaginary and indefinitely remote place, and a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions”

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 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

Newberry Medalist, Lois Lowry, reflects her fascination with the stages of life into her many novels that depict young adults coping with the challenges that come with growing up. And like many recognized authors Lowry has been asked again and again, “Where did you get this idea?” For each novel written by Lowry the inspiration arises from diverse occasions from her life. In The Giver Lowry explores the new territory of a fantasy realm of society that is free from pain, disorder, and overpopulation; but in a world without love, color, and memories the perfect society turns to dystopia. (Novels for Students) As an explanation for the origins of The Giver Lois Lowry, in her Newberry Medal acceptance speech, compares her inspiration for the novel to the river Jonas looks into, seeing the world differently for the first time. Her ideas started as a mere spring, trickling in from a glacier; and each of the tributaries came from memories, coming together to make the flowing current of the river. (Lowry)

Jonas discovers what is really beyond his community, beyond all the rules and policies they have to follow; he decides to leave and give all of his memories to the rest of the community so they would know about what they have not seen or experienced before. Jonas discovers that the community has decided too many things for everyone. He realizes Sameness is not right, that it cannot last any longer. He thinks of all the what-ifs. What if the Elders choose a wrong spouse? What if the Elders choose the wrong job for someone?