The Giver and Jonas are talking about release. The Giver explains to Jonas that even if they wanted, neither of them were allowed to apply for release. That rule was added to the instructions after the failure ten years ago with the selected Receiver whose name was Rosemary. The Giver told Jonas that he felt love for Rosemary and didn´t want to cause her pain. So, during five weeks he only transmitted to her pleasant memories, but then he had to transmit to her painful memories. He decided not to transmit her memories of physical pain, so instead he gave her memories of emotional pain. After that, Rosemary wasn´t being herself anymore and was always sad without any laughter. So, she applied for release, and The Giver never saw her again. Jonas wonders what would happen if he floated off or drowned in the river: the memories would go back to the community, but The Giver could help them deal with the pain.
Jonas tells The Giver about the twin baby his father was set to release that morning. The Giver asks his Attendant for the tape of the release of the baby that morning and watches it with Jonas. In the tape, Jonas sees his father weighing both twins and handing the heavier baby to a nurse to take him back to the Nursery. Jonas keeps making comments so The Giver gets annoyed and keeps telling him to be quiet. Then, Father gives the other baby an injection in a vein in his head. Slowly, the baby stops moving, Father puts him in a box and sends him down the garbage chute. Jonas feels extremely angry and confused!!!! The Giver says that he watched the tape of Rosemary´s release but he turned away when she asked to inject herself.
Jonas spends the night at The Giver´s since he still refuses to go back to his father. The Giver says that release is death for everyone, including the Elders, and reminds Jonas that both of them are the only ones in the community with real feelings. So, Father didn´t know he was causing death to the baby, he was only following instructions, which Fiona is being trained for as well. The Giver and Jonas come up with a plan to change Sameness! Jonas must escape to Elsewhere, knowing that he can never come back, and then all his memories will be released to the community, and they won´t be able to pick a new Receiver because there is no one available currently. Jonas really wants The Giver to come with him but The Giver doesn´t want to because he wants to be in the community when the citizens get the memories back, to help them deal with the pain. Then, the citizens will acquire wisdom thanks to the memories, and Sameness will change! The Giver also admits that he is too weak and too old to go with Jonas on the journey, he can´t even see colors anymore! Jonas reminds The Giver that some time ago he told him that when he was young the capacity to see beyond had come differently to him. Jonas asks how? The Giver tells him that his capacity didn´t start with seeing colors, but with hearing music. So, he decides to transmit a memory of it to Jonas. However, Jonas refuses to take the memory away from The Giver. Back home, Jonas pretends everything is okay with his father. At school, he keeps going over the plan which consists: during the next two weeks he will get ready to escape and receive some memories that will give him courage. Then, the night before the Ceremony of Twelve Jonas will sneak out of his house and leave his bike and clothes by the river. Then, he will go into the Annex where The Giver will be waiting. Jonas will leave a note to his parents saying that he left for an early ride along the river, they will be waiting for him but then it will get late and they will go to the ceremony without him. No one will notice his absence since they are all focused on the ceremony. Then, The Giver will order a vehicle, send the driver away and hide Jonas in the truck. Eventually, the community will realize Jonas is missing and will ask The Giver for help. He will tell them that Jonas accidentally drowned in the river and he will help them deal with the burden of the memories. Jonas keeps insisting The Giver to come, but he says he needs to help the citizens and after that be with his DAUGHTER Rosemary.
The plan doesn´t work as it was supposed to. Jonas had to escape that night, two weeks before the ceremony. At dinner, Father announces that next morning they will have to release Gabriel. So, at night Jonas escaped in his Father´s bicycle which has a baby seat attached and took Gabriel with him. He did not have time to go back to The Giver or say bye. Days go by and Jonas keeps pedaling. Well, he and Gabriel sleep during daylight and pedal at night. They follow this routine because search planes fly over the landscape during daylight looking for him, so he and Gabriel hide while they sleep. When he sees the planes he tries to hold on to the memories of cold so that the heat devices the planes have to detect humans can´t detect them. As the days go by the planes become less frequent until they finally stop coming. The further Jonas gets away from the community the more memories start fading away because they are being released on to the community.
Jonas notices that the landscape starts changing, the road is narrower and there are much more stones, which by the way make the bike fall over and Jonas sprain his ankle. He starts traveling at daylight since the search planes are gone. The landscape changes more each time that he even saw a bird for the first time in his life, aside from the memories. They start seeing more and more animals. Gabriel and Jonas are running out of food and start getting very hungry, thankfully Jonas was able to catch two fish in the stream. Jonas starts to wonder that if he would have stayed in the community he woudn´t be hungry, but Gabriel would have died and Jonas would be starving in other ways such as starving for color and emotion! Then, Jonas sees hills which he is excited about! But, it´s extremely cold, he´s on a bike with a sprained ankle, and starving! Gabriel starts to cry, and Jonas is concerned about saving him.
Jonas feels he´s very close to Elsewhere, but he´s afraid he´ll die before getting there. Finally, they reach an extremely steep uphill, but Jonas can´t pedal up since it´s snowing and he has a bad ankle! So, he lets his bike down, reaches for Gabriel and starts walking up, it´s sooo hard!! Every now and then walking up the hill he gives Gabriel the memory of warmth so that the cold goes away for some time, but after a while it immediately comes back. Jonas is feeling peaceful remembering about his friends Asher and Fiona, and his family, and The Giver.They finally reach the top and Jonas recognizes the place, it was the place of his first memory. He notices the sled and grabs it. He starts sledding down holding hard on to Gabriel, he tries to stay conscious and with his eyes open. He looks ahead and sees lights and colors, he know it´s a place of love. Then, he hears music for the first time, he knows there are others downwards waiting for him. Jonas thinks he just heard music from behind too "but perhaps it was only an echo."
TEXT RESPONSES:
To a quote I would like to respond to is to the following which The Giver says in response to Jonas´ outrage of seeing his father kill the baby:
"Listen to me, Jonas. They can´t help it. They know nothing."
Wow! I really would not like to live in this extremely safe yet fake and untruthful community, how horrid. They effort themselves so much to create a safe community knowing nothing. I think that the Giver´s and Jonas´ plan was a good idea, because all the memories will go back to the citizens. Yes, they will have to carry on with the pain, however they will acquire so much wisdom which will help them make better choices, such as not killing people.
To another quote I would like to respond to is to the last phrase of the whole book:
But perhaps it was only an echo.
I was left so confused by this quote! I got so stressed because it doesn´t tell you what finally happens. The fact that perhaps it was only an echo can be an indirect quote to tell us that Jonas died, in peace. Or he probably didn´t die and got to the place of love where he was being waited, but by who?!?! I predict that Jonas was in such peace yet weakness and starvation that he died. But, he died at his best moment, sledding downwards with a person he LOVED.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
In conclusion, Jonas and The Giver finally decide to make a change, to get rid of Sameness. Jonas has to leave much earlier than what they had planned, since Gabriel was going to get released. Jonas goes through a tough time trying to get Elsewhere because he and Gabriel start to starve, he sprains his ankle, and it´s very cold!! The landscape is wonderful filled with animals. The climate starts to change as well and it starts to snow. Jonas leaves his bike and walks a steep uphill carrying Gabriel, they are finally close to Elsewhere. They get to the top and go downwards on a sled, it´s hard to stay conscious! Up front there´s a place of love, the place he´s aiming towards. He hears music, suddenly he hears music by behind but it was probably just an echo... It´s hard to find people as brave as Jonas to do something like this for the people he loves and for his community. The community will finally be like it used to be millions of generations back, with real FEELINGS!! It was time to make a change...
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