The Giver Essay Example
Period 8
The Giver The Giver is told from the perspective of a eleven year old boy named Jonas. Jonas lives in a “flawless” futuristic society. The society is free of conflicts, pain, fear, hunger, and hatred. Jonas ultimately uncovers the secretes about the community, making him question his and his communities ignorance. Throughout the book the main character Jonas dramatically changes as do the settings of the book. In the book the main character Jonas goes from being just another robotic and ignorant member of society to a open minded individual. In the beginning of the book Jonas does not question the traditions and customs of society. For example, in the book it says “Jonas laughed. It was one of the rules that was not taken very seriously, and it was almost always broken. The children almost always received their bicycles at nine; they were not allowed to ride bicycles before then.” (Lowry, p. 17) Even though Jonas realized how stupid the rule about bicycles was he was to closed minded to question it. Also Jonas tells the readers “ There were only two occasions of release which were not punishments. Release of the elderly, which was a time of celebration for a life well and fully lived; and the release of the new child, which always brought a sense of what-could-we-have-done.” (Lowry, p. 19) Jonas is to ignorant to realize traditions such as release are their to mask painful emotions associated with things such as death. In other words release is death. Once Jonas begins to receive memories and information from the Giver, he starts to understand how senseless he and other members of society truly are. For example Jonas says “The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.”(Lowry, p.57) This quote proves that Jonas has now become an open minded individual because he is basically saying that the memories aren’t the problem, but the way the community has chosen to deal
The Giver The Giver is told from the perspective of a eleven year old boy named Jonas. Jonas lives in a “flawless” futuristic society. The society is free of conflicts, pain, fear, hunger, and hatred. Jonas ultimately uncovers the secretes about the community, making him question his and his communities ignorance. Throughout the book the main character Jonas dramatically changes as do the settings of the book. In the book the main character Jonas goes from being just another robotic and ignorant member of society to a open minded individual. In the beginning of the book Jonas does not question the traditions and customs of society. For example, in the book it says “Jonas laughed. It was one of the rules that was not taken very seriously, and it was almost always broken. The children almost always received their bicycles at nine; they were not allowed to ride bicycles before then.” (Lowry, p. 17) Even though Jonas realized how stupid the rule about bicycles was he was to closed minded to question it. Also Jonas tells the readers “ There were only two occasions of release which were not punishments. Release of the elderly, which was a time of celebration for a life well and fully lived; and the release of the new child, which always brought a sense of what-could-we-have-done.” (Lowry, p. 19) Jonas is to ignorant to realize traditions such as release are their to mask painful emotions associated with things such as death. In other words release is death. Once Jonas begins to receive memories and information from the Giver, he starts to understand how senseless he and other members of society truly are. For example Jonas says “The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.”(Lowry, p.57) This quote proves that Jonas has now become an open minded individual because he is basically saying that the memories aren’t the problem, but the way the community has chosen to deal