The Giver - Original Writing

Jonas goes through a lot while receiving the memories from The Giver. He first gets happy memories such as the sled, but then The Giver has to give him painful memories. He first receives the memory of physical pain from sunburn (Lowry 86). The pain is minimal compared to the memory of a broken leg (Lowry 109) and an injured arm during a war. During the war memory, he sees death (Lowry 119, 121). He experiences grief when he receives the memory the shot elephant (Lowry 100). Most haunting of all are the memories of the release of old and the part his father plays in the release of new born (Lowry 150). These trials at first horrify Jonas but he learns to deal with the

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

“Color.” It’s all around us, we see it every day of our lives, everything has color, but the people in Jonas’ community didn’t know this. They had no clue what color was or that it even existed. Their society was hue less, hopeless, and everything was the same until the new receiver of memory changed that for everyone. In our world choice is a big part of our everyday lives we make many choices a day, do I want this or that, green or blue, this shirt or that shirt? But in The Giver choices were made for them, what they wear, how they act, what they say, what they eat, and what they do for a living. Imagine all that stuff being chosen for you. Everyone would be dressed the same, act the same,

Imagine living your life with no feelings, no choices, and no individuality; that is what it is like living in Jonas’ community. Visualize being only one of a few that knows what the world used to be like with joy, excitement, sadness, and fear; but you cannot change anything. All you can do is receive more memories of freedom, love, war, and happiness. Would that not haunt you? You can just watch the people of the community and know moat of humanity has been stropped of them like a band aid on a cut after it has healed, and only a scar is left; but the skin will never be the same.

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

Jonas receives memories of color, something that is absent from his community. He realizes how absent his community really is. Jonas hurts inside to tell people in his community what they are missing. The only person that he can really open up to is The Giver. They grew really close, and it became like a grandfather, grandchild relationship.

Jonas is very mature at the beginning of the novel. For example, he volunteers at many places, plays games, goes to school every day, shares his dreams and feelings, and most importantly follows the rules.

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

Jonas lives with his parents and one sister. His parents were allowed to have only two children, a boy and a girl. It was one of the many community rules that couldn’t be broken.

Jonas has to learn more about death and pain than he already has. Death was something that wasn’t talked about in the community. The community “releases” members when they are old or if there is a set of twins or something wrong with a baby. Release is something celebrated within the community. Jonas had no idea that what release really means is to murder someone. He watches the release of a baby boy who was part of a set of twins born into the community. His father is the one performing this release because his father is a nurturer. This knowledge left Jonas devastated and in shock that his father could do something so terrible. He leaves the Giver’s and tells him that he can no longer continue receiving the memories. He takes a few days and collects himself. Fiona, his childhood friend talks him into to going back. Love is another emotion new to Jonas. He falls in love with Fiona. Falling in love is a big step that usually happens in adulthood. Another thing Jonas does that proves his progression in maturity is he decides to leave the community. When you grow up, you leave your mom and dad’s house which is how I connected this part of Jonas’ life with that of a real life

Individuality is not known in jonas’ world until he receives a memory and unfolds the real definition of

The main character, Jonas gains more knowledge and wisdom of the world and the community around him, from the memories that the Giver gives him from the beginning and end of the book. When the Giver is explaining to Jonas the color red and the seeing beyond he says “When you receive the memories. You will have the capacity to see beyond. You’ll gain wisdom, then along with the colors. And lots more.” This concrete detail shows that the main character is starting to see the color red in different places. It also shows that Jonas is seeing beyond and will see all the colors in the near future. This sentence shows that the Giver already sees all the colors and has gained lots of wisdom from the memories generations back and back. It also shows that the memories will give understanding and intelligence to the receivers. In The Giver after when Jonas receives the memoryof hunger he asks “Why

Jonas, the main character of The Giver, is perceptive from the beginning, which separates him from the others of the community. For this reason, Jonas is assigned to be the Receiver. His perception of the world around him only grows with his new assignment. As the Giver, the man who apprentices Jonas, transmits memories to Jonas he learns of all that is missing from his society; color, emotion, and most of all, choice. Jonas expresses his frustration when he says, “‘If everything's the same, then there aren't any

The Giver is in many ways Jonas’s coming-of-age story. Jonas reaches maturity only when he is given memory, and through memory, experience. In this way, Jonas becomes more mature at twelve than the "adults" of his community. But The Giver also teaches Jonas the wisdom to recognize his own shortcomings. Jonas truly becomes an adult at the

Jonas was special like the giver, he began to hear beyond a long time ago. Despite, that capacity first appeared in a different way. Jonas could see beyond and saw color for the first time in a apple; on the contrary, the giver heard music. He was a old man who had wife and a daughter he loved more than everything. Unfortunately, his daughter died in a way that made him feel the worst. As his father Rosemary was special but differing from Jonas she could not live with what she knew and applied for release. As a result, he felt it was his fault for giving to her a big weight and not realizing it was getting to the point of death. In general, he was like those grandparents that tell us stories and experiences. For this reason, they loved each other, they shared everything. Furthermore, they could only talk to each other what happened in that room. Summing up, the giver was a wise man who sacrificed himself for his society. More men like him are