"The Giver" Chapter 9-11

SUMMARY: 

Chapter 9:

After the Ceremony, Jonas feels lonely and senses that people have begun to think of him differently. Dinner is quiet for the most part, although Lily talks about how she will begin volunteering at the Nurturing Center tomorrow, since she has learned a lot from Gabriel, although she remembers that she is not supposed to know his name. Jonas's parents tell him that being The Receiver is the most important assignment in the community, even more important than the job of making Assignments. They remember the Ceremony of Twelve for the previous Receiver, but her name has been prohibited to say, which is the highest disgrace for a name. They say that they do not know what happened to her, but his mother tells him that Jonas has been greatly honored.Before he goes to bed, Jonas reads his folder with instructions. The sheet informs him that as The Receiver of Memory in training, he should go directly from school to the Annex behind the House of the Old each day and then head directly home after Training Hours. It also exempts him from rules regarding rudeness and allows him to ask any question of anyone and expect the truth. However, it prohibits him from discussing his training with anyone, telling his dreams, asking for any medication related to his training, and applying for release. Finally, it tells him that he is allowed to lie. He is startled by the final rule, which goes against all that he has been taught about language precision and not exaggerating. He wonders if all adults are allowed to lie, but he cannot confirm what the others have been told.

Chapter 10:

Jonas accompanies Fiona to the House of the Old, since the Annex is behind the house. When Jonas gets to the Annex, the attendant unlocks a door and allows him to enter, explaining that the locks are to ensure his privacy. The Receiver's living space is more luxurious than others´ dwellings and has thousands of books, unlike other households which only have a dictionary, a volume describing everything in the community, and the Book of Rules.The Receiver welcomes Jonas telling him that he has been The Receiver for a long time, although he is less old than he looks, and that it will require his remaining strength to train Jonas. He explains that his task is to transmit his memories of the past to Jonas, who does not understand why it is so important that The Receiver tells him his memories. The Receiver tells him that his memories are those of the whole world, including previous generations and those from Elsewhere outside of the community. Experiencing the memories gives him wisdom but weighs on him terribly, he gives as an example riding on a sled downhill. Realizing that Jonas does not understand the meaning of terms such as snow, sled, runners, and downhill he decides to transmit him the memory of snow by placing his hands on Jonas´ back.

Chapter 11: 

After a moment of feeling nothing, Jonas shivers and realizes that the air is cold, while he can no longer feel the Receiver's hands on his back. For the first time, he experiences snow, and while part of him is still in the Annex, another part of him is sitting on a sled on top of a hill. Although he has never seen a hill before, he perceives its name. While he slides downhill he enjoys the feeling.  At the end of the ride, the sled slows, and although he pushes to keep sliding, the snow that has built up stops him. Opening his eyes, Jonas finds himself back on the bed in the Annex. Jonas says he feels surprised by the experience, while The Receiver feels a little relieved to have the tiny weight of the memory off his mind. Jonas feels bad at having taken such a joyful memory away from him, but The Receiver explains that he has many more.Jonas asks how long ago the memory was and why the things in the memory no longer exist. He learns that the memory is from the distant past and that Climate Control and landscape adjustments got rid of snow and hills in order to make transportation and agriculture easier. Now, instead, the community has Sameness, which both Jonas and the old man regret. To be The Receiver is to be honored, but they do not have the power or influence to bring things back from Sameness to the way they were. As a second memory, the old man gives Jonas a memory of sunshine, he does not tell Jonas its name, but once again Jonas perceives it. Before Jonas leaves, he asks why the Chief Elder warned him about pain. The man says that he learned from his failure, but Jonas says that he is brave, so the old man returns to the memory of sunshine but adds the memory of sunburn. Jonas thanks him for the experience and says he understands better about the concept of pain. Before he returns home, he asks what to call the old man, since Jonas is now The Receiver, and the old man tells Jonas to call him The Giver.

TEXT RESPONSES:

I would like to respond to the following quote from page 85:

The man sighed. "I started you with memories of pleasure. My previous failure gave me the wisdom to do that."

 I would like to understand more about the previous failure. Mother said that the previous selected Receiver of Memory disappeared, and nobody saw her again. Why wasn´t she seen again and what happened to her? I wonder if the Giver had something to do with the failure, if he did anything wrong. In this quote he says that he is first giving Jonas pleasurable memories thanks to his last failure. Did the Giver first give painful memories to the last selected Receiver and did those memories influence her disappearance?

Another text to which I am eager to respond to is to the following from page 73:

Then she seemed to notice his discomfort and to realize its origin. No doors in the community were locked, ever. None that Jonas knew of, anyway. 

I was really startled by this text when I read it. I wonder why locks are not allowed in the community, except in the Receiver´s living place. The attendant tells Jonas that the doors are locked to ensure his privacy, nevertheless why can´t the rest of the community have its privacy? Why would the rulers avoid privacy? Is it because they want to know what is going on in others´ lives? I believe that the rulers do not promote privacy in the community because they are afraid that a citizen will do something he or she is not supposed to, such as disobeying to the rules or such as doing anything that will change the Sameness in the community in any way. 

FINAL THOUGHTS: 

In conclusion, these three chapters have probably been the most interesting and revealing chapters in the novel since we have discovered the tasks of the Giver and the Receiver. However, both of them must feel pain to transmit and receive a memory, since memories can be both pleasurable and painful. Many times the previous failure has been mentioned but it has not been revealed what happened to the subject, meaning her. In addition, we just discovered that privacy is avoided in the community for some specific reason. Many secret are hidden within and beyond this community which only the Receiver and the Giver are allowed to know and understand.