The Final Journey

What I read:
Its been almost a year since Jonas started his training.  On the day in which his father says that he will release a twin baby, Jonas goes to the Giver and they both watch the release happening.  While Jonas watches the tape, he sees that one of the babies is injected with something lethal.  He realizes that being released actualy means getting killed.  He feels horrified at what his father does at work. He never knew about it before.





Jonas realizes that Gabriel will be released also.  The Giver and Jonas create a plan so that Jonas and Gabriel can escape and leave the community forever.  Jonas sneeks out of his house during the night with Gabriel.  The journey is very difficult.  There are long roads on his bicicle, long walking distances, and weather problems.  Finally Jonas sees a bunch of lights in the distance.  Next to him there is a red sled.  He gets on the sled with Gabriel and they ride down towards the lights.

What I thought about:
"The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain.  It's the loneliness of it.  Memories need to be shared" (154).

The quote struck me because its actually true because the Giver kept those memories for 10 years.  Now Jonas and Gabe will have those memories until they die unless they share them.  The loneliness is because for a long time they don't have anybody to share happy memories with.  When I can't share happy memories, it feels like I can't express my feelings.  So its really hard for me to think of what it would be like for the Giver to never be able to share.



"Listen to me, Jonas.  they can't help it.  They know nothing... It's the way they live.  It's the life that was created for them.  It's the same life that you would have, if you had not been chosen as my successor " (153).  


This is something that the Giver tells Jonas when Jonas cries after seeing his father kill an innocent baby.  The giver reminds Jonas that its not really their fault that they murder people because they are ignorant.  Its hard to think about what they people do and now how to feel about it.  One the one hand, they are killing inocent children and other people which is totally unfair and horrible.  On the other hand, they don't even know what they are doing so its sort of hard to blame them, although you can feel hatred towards them.

What I conclude:
Its hard to know to know exactly what happens at the end of the book.  We don't know if that is actually a town that Jonas sees or if it is an illusion.  When I first finished the book, I thought that he actually reaches the town, but the more I think about it, the less sure I am about it.  I think that's why this is such a good book.  You can debate it with people.

I also think that this is a good book because I can think about that their distopian world and our world can be similar and different in many ways.  Its really difficult to decide if a society that is so peaceful like theirs is actually better than ours knowing that they still do things like kill people unfairly.  It makes me wonder if its better to no know what's going on, or to know the truth.

All and all, I really liked this book a lot.  I recommend it to people who like to think and compare and contrast.  One of my favorite parts was when Jonas starts to se color and the apple.  Its exciting to read that and not really know what he sees, but know that something cool is about ti happen.

Dark Memories

What I read:
Jonas continues his training with the Giver.  He starts getting darker memories past on to him.  For example, the last horrible memory that he gets is been the middle of a war with thousands of soldiers dead or wounded.  In a different memory, he also breaks his leg when riding down on a sled.  

Jonas and the whole community have a free day because its a holiday.  One that day Jonas goes to find Asher.  He finds his friend in the meadows playing war.  When Jonas walks into the middle of the "battle field" Jonas's friends points an imaginary gun at him and start shooting him.  This reminds Jonas of the horrific memory of the real war that he has seen.  When Jonas asks them to stop playing war, Asher gets upset because he doens't understand how bad war really is.  Fiona tries to cheer Jonas, but instead Jonas goes to the Giver.  Jonas talks to the Giver about love.  The Giver tells Jonas the story of what happened to the last failed receiver before Jonas.  Her name was Rosemary.  Rosemary did the same training as Jonas but when she got her first dark memory, she asked for release.  She never came back.








Something else very important that happens in these chapters in that one night Gabe sleeps in Jonas's room.  When Gabe wakes up Jonas goes to his crib to calm him down.  Jonas starts patting and rubbing his back.  Then a memory comes to Jonas and he suddenly losses it.  He realizes that he has past it on to Gabe by accident. 







What I thought about:
"They have never known pain, he thought.  The realization made him feel desperately lonely, and he rubbed his throbbing leg.  He eventually slept.  Again and again he dreamed of the anguish and the isolation on the forsaken hill" (110).

Pain is obviouslly negative.  No one likes pain.  But its important to think about how pain can make us learn.  Without pain there wouldn't be relief.  Without pain you can't really know what comfort is just like without night night you can't really know what day is.  This quote is important because when Jonas learns about war and pain, he basically starts to lose his friends.  That's because he feels so alone and isolated from other the rest of the community because he feels like he can't express himself. He can't tell them what he really things and feels.





"Jonas started at them.  Meaningless?  He had never before felt anything as meaningful as the memory" (126-127).


This memory is about love.  Jonas asks his father "Do you love me?"  The father's response is that he shouldn't say that word because its meaningless.  Jonas realizes that nobody in his community knows that love is.  I think that this is shocking because how do you get married when you're not in love?  More importantly, parents can't tell their children that they love them because they don't even have love.  Its sad to think about a world with no love in it.




What I conclude:

This book has changes a lot since the beginning.  At first the society looks well organized and like a nice place to life.  But now we realize that everyone is color blind, there's no love, and there's no real families, since there can only be four members in each family and no one has grandparents, or even know what grandparents are.  While it would be great to live in a world without war, it would be hard to live in a world with no real families and with no love at all.  

The New Receiver

What I read:

Finally its Jonas's Ceremony of twelve.  He sees his friends get assigned, but instead of finding out his position, the community skips him and go on to the next person.  Everybody is surprised and confused by that.  At the end of the ceremony, Jonas is given his assignment as the Receiver of Memories.  He doesn't really know what that means at first.  When he reads the rules, he is surprised about the last one, which says "You may lie.".





On his first day of training, he meets an old man who was the Receiver and is now the Giver.  To start of, the Giver tells Jonas to lie down on a bed.  When Jonas feels the Giver's hands on his back, the Giver passes on a memory to Jonas.  The memory is of riding on a sled down a snowy hill.  Then Jonas learns about what his training will be, which is having memories past on to him.  He figures out that people in the community don't have memories of their own and that there is a much bigger world out there.  When he asks the Giver why everyone cant have memories of their own, he learns that its because there are some positive memories, but there are negative ones also.  For example one of Jonas's first memories is how nice the sun feels.  Then he is given another memory about getting a sunburn that hurts lot.



What I thought about:
"Thank you for your childhood" (56).
This is the line that is said to everybody in the Ceremony of twelve right after they receive their assignment.  This line strikes me because everybody in the ceremony is turning twelve and there already finishing their childhood.  In my opinion, acting like an adult when you're twelve sounds shocking and impossible to actual do.  Once this line is said, to me it felt like everybody that turns twelve can't be a child anymore and ha to live up to expectations and responsibility.

"He had never, within his memory, been tempted to lie... Now Jonas had a thought that he had never had before.  This new thought was frightening.  What if other - adults- had, upon becoming Twelves, received in their instructions the same sentence?  What if they had all beeb instructed: You may lie?" (71).

When Jonas starts thinking about telling lies and telling the truth, he starts wondering if everyone he knows is telling lies.  If they are, then what Jonas understands about his community turns out to be a lie, too.  He also starts thinking that the world is no what he thinks it is.

What I conclude:
As Jonas starts realizing the truths about the world, it reminds me that it is also hard to know what the world is really like.  This is a difficult lesson for Jonas to learn because he already leaned about some wonders of the real world and some hardships.  Life is like this too.  As we grow up we change opinions, ideas, and view points.  Its not always easy to accept changes for anyone, and it doesn't seem like it will be easy for Jonas either.

Dreams and Pills

What I read:
Jonas and his sister Lily are having their ceremonies.  Lily is now old enough to get a bike of her own and the begin with her volunteering hours.  The night before the Ceremony of the twelves, Jonas has a dream that is sexual.  In the dream, he's thinking about his friend Fiona.  He tells his parents and they tell him that it's normal to have "Stirrings,", but that they have to be treated and that he has to take pills to not have the stirrings anymore.





At one of the ceremonies, there is a couple that lost their son Caleb.  Caleb died in the river when he was four years old.  They are assigned a replacement child also named Caleb.  Everyone in the community acts like this is normal.

Jonas continues to be nervous about his ceremony which is coming up.  He's really nervious and you can tell that he is from the way that he acts.

What I thought about:
"Jonas was glad that he had, over the years, chosen to do his hours in a variety of places so that he could experience the differences.  He realized, though, that not focusing on one area meant he was left with not the slightest idea - not even a guess - of what his Assignment would be" (28).

When I read this quote, it demonstrated to me how nervous Jonas is about his Ceremony and his assignment.  Also, I felt nervous about what assignment Jonas will get because if he gets assigned a job that he doesn't like, then the story would be told in a different way.










"Jonas knew about the pills.  His parents both took them each morning.  And some of this friends did, he knew... It was the sort of thing one didn't ask a friend about because it might have fallen into that uncomfortable category of "being different."  Asher took a pill each morning; Jonas did not.  Always better, less rude, to talk about things that were the same" (37-38).

Jonas didn't know about the stirrings, so he didn't know about the pills.  Basically, he didn't know what the pills where for.  Because he didn't know, he didn't want to talk to Asher about them.  This is sort of like our own society.  Some people have something personal that they think is different from other people and so they keep it a secret.  In this quote, Jonas says that he hasn't told his friend that he's not taking his pills.



What I conclude:
At this point, its still uncertain what assignment Jonas will get.  I cant wait to find out! Also, I wonder if he'll get any more stirrings, or if because of the pills he won't feel like that anymore.  What will happen to Jonas if he has a different dream next, even if it's not a stirring.  I can tell that some parts of Jonas's world are connected with ours.  As example of this is when he doesn't talk to Asher about his pills.  This reminds me of the differences around the world, but the way that people have trouble talking about those differences.  Sometimes its hard to talk about things that are difficult to say.

Jonas's Future

What I read:
At the beginning of The Giver, Jonas is an eleven.  He is thinking about his upcoming Ceremony of the twelve in December.  At the ceremony he is supposed to be told what his future will be.  His parents tell him what their experiences were and what future they were given by the Community.

Meanwhile Gabe, a newborn, is in Jonas's house.  Its not official because its illegal to have more than two children in a family in their society.  But Gabe is staying there anyways.

Also, we meet Jonas's best friend Ash or Asher.  Jonas and Ash toss an apple around in a game of catch.  For one second, Jonas thinks that he sees something strange when he looks at the apple.  He's not sure what it is, but it's already happened before 4 times.


What I thought about:
"Instantly, obediently, Jonas had dropped his bike on its side on the path behind his family's dwelling" (2).

Once I read this quote, it demonstrates how everyone in this society is obedient and listens to orders.  This is very different than our world because not everyone acts that obediently.  Some people do, but no everyone.  It seems like in their world, everyone is totally obedient.  Even people like Ash who have some problems following directions get in line with what the society wants.



"Almost every citizen in the community had a dark eyes... But there were a few exceptions... No one mentioned such things; it was not a rule, but was considered rude to call attention to things that were unsettling or different about individuals" (20).
Unlike the last quote, this quote actually does remind me of our society.  The reason is because there are actually more people with dark eyes than light eyes.  Also, and more importantly, this quote reminds me about racial differences and how some people have trouble being open about them.







What I conclude:
I cant be certain exactly what this book will be about.  However, I think that there will be many connections between our society and the society in The Giver.  I also think that there will be many differences between the two societies.  I'm excited to know what future Jonas will be assigned at the Ceremony of Twelve.  I want to understand more about what Jonas saw when he looked at the apple.  Last, I want to know about the changes in Jonas's house now that Gabe is staying there.