One day Jonas shows up at The Giver´s room and finds The Giver in a lot of pain who begs Jonas to take some of it away. So, The Giver transmits Jonas a memory of warfare, where he is in a battlefield. He is lying on the ground and is missing a big chunk of his arm while he sees his mate die slowly next to him. The Giver feels guilty for having transmitted such a terrible memory, apologizes, and looks away.
After receiving such a memory, Jonas doesn´t want to go back to the Annex, he just wants a normal life again. But, The Giver transmits many great memories to Jonas to make up for transmitting the memory of warfare. He gives him memories such as a birthday party where Jonas feels different and special, riding a horse where Jonas feels the bond between animal and human, sitting beside a campfire in the dark where Jonas feels the joy of being alone. Finally, Jonas asks The Giver which is his favorite memory, and he decides to transmit it to Jonas. He transmits the memory of love in which Jonas lives the scene of Christmas morning. The Giver asks him what he saw and he answers that he saw family "grandparents". Jonas tries to describe an emotion he felt that he can´t find its name, The Giver tells him it´s LOVE. He felt warmth as well. Back home, Jonas asks his parents if they love him. They seem disturbed and startled by the question, and they answer that he has to take care of his precision of language. Jonas is confused, WHAAAT?? His father says that love is a meaningless and obsolete word. Then, they asked him if he understands what they mean and he agreed, which was his first lie to his parents. In the middle of the night, Jonas whispers to Gabriel how everything could be different, how everything could be different with love. The next day, Jonas DECIDES to throw his Stirrings pill away and stop taking it.
The next morning, Jonas´ family hears over the speakers that an unexpected holiday has been declared for the day, and they all cheer in joy! Meanwhile, Jonas has stopped taking his pills for four weeks now and starts having some inappropriate dreams. Jonas also starts seeing color all the time. He also starts feeling deeper emotions and realizes that the citizens have shallow emotions. Jonas finds Asher and Fiona playing with some other kids a game where they are pretending to shoot and kill each other. Jonas begs them to stop playing the game, since he´s felt how war is like! Asher gets angry and starts arguing with Jonas. Then, apologizes. That night, Lily shares about her day and Gabe who has just learned how to walk stumbles around the room saying "Gay" trying to say "Gabe". It´s almost December again, which means that Lily will become a Nine and will be able to have her own bicycle. Father says that tomorrow the twins will be born, and he will have to decide which one is sent Elsewhere. Lily wonders what would happen if one twin was sent Elsewhere, but both twins ended up with the same name, and on a visit they would mix up, and the wrong twin was sent back to the other community. She also questions what if each citizen of the community had a twin Elsewhere.
TEXT RESPONSES:
I would like to respond to the following quotes between Mother, Father, and Jonas:
"Your father means that you used a very generalized word, so meaningless that it´s become almost obsolete," his mother explained carefully.
Jonas stared at them. Meaningless? He had never before felt anything as meaningful as the memory.
I don´t understand how they don´t have love in the community!!! Don´t couples love each other? How can you be married to someone you don´t love? I think Jonas is starting to sense the Sameness and how unfair the community is! He is feeling angry and confused, because now that he´s felt amazing emotions such as love, the emotions felt in the community are too shallow. I predict that Jonas is going to change Sameness in the community, something amazing is about to happen.
To another text I will respond is to the following in which The Giver and Jonas talk about what he felt during the memory of Christmas morning:
"What did you perceive?" The Giver asked.
"Warmth," Jonas replied, "and happiness. And- let me think. Family. That it was a celebration of some sort, a holiday. And something else- I can´t quite get the word for it."
I wonder how and at which point of the memory Jonas perceives the new words. Perceiving the words by himself is part of the capacity to see beyond, or is it wisdom, or is it another capacity unmentioned? I question myself how does he perceive the names and how do the names get to him? It´s so hard to believe that in this community they don´t know these names which we use almost every day!
FINAL THOUGHTS:
In conclusion, Jonas has been receiving completely new emotions which have led him to think about the shallowness of the community. He has felt pain such as war,but has felt pleasure with beautiful memories such as Christmas morning! He´s mad about the Sameness of the community, and thinks it´s unfair that certain emotions were taken away! My biggest prediction is that Jonas will change each citizen´s life by taking Sameness away!
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