Training Jonas!

SUMMARY:
Jonas continues with his training along with the Giver. The morning after Jonas receives the memory of sledding down the hill he does not share it with his family, since he was not allowed to. He kept thinking about the memory, he kept feeling that he wanted to reach something, but he did not know what that something was. When he gets to school all of his classmates are talking about their assignments and their training, and he is mad since he can´t share his training hours. Then, he heads to the annex along with Fiona, and it seems as if she is expecting him to talk about his training hours but he does not. Instead, Fiona explains about how the old have discipline wands as well, and the ton of rules they have. When Fiona goes through the door into the House of Old Jonas noticed her hair change as well as how the apple and  the crowd had changed. When he got to the annex he immediately asked the Giver about it. So, the Giver told him that it was a case of seeing beyond but that to him it happened quite different, and asks him if he looked down at the sled when the memory was transmitted to him, Jonas answered that he did not. So, he recalls the memory and looked down at the sled, there it was, changed, just like Fiona´s hair. Then, he also made him look at the books, they changed as well. The Giver explains to him that he is starting to see the color red. He says that before Sameness existed everything had a quality called color and that the color that he is seeing is red, that there are all kinds of colors. The scientists have not gotten completely rid of color, but only the people who have the quality to see beyond can see them.

Weeks go by and Jonas can see all the colors! AWESOMEEEE!!! He thinks it´s unfair that colors were taken away, they are so beautiful! Jonas tells the Giver that he believes it´s completely unfair and wrong that citizens are not allowed to make choices, such as deciding to wear a red or a blue tunic. However, the Giver tells him that the risk is that they may pick wrong decisions, therefore it´s unsafe. Jonas agrees with that. Jonas tries to make Asher see color one day, the color of the flowers, but it did not go well, even worse when he touched Asher which is considered rude in the community. The Giver transmits Jonas the memory of poachers killing an elephant, and for the first time Jonas sees men with different skin tones. After the poachers killed the elephant and took his tusks, the elephant´s mate finds him and roars in sadness. That night he tries to tell Lily that back in the past elephants used to exist, but of course it didn´t work either! Finally, Jonas asked The Giver if he has a spouse or can apply to one. The Giver answers that he does have a spouse, but that she is now living with the Childless Adults. Then, The Giver mentions about advising the Committee of Elders, he wishes they would ask for more advice. He says that ten years ago when the last Receiver failed, the memories did not come back to him and they were released to the world and everyone had access to them. So, that is when the Committee of Elders realized how important it was to have a Receiver to suffer instead of everybody else. Sometimes, when Jonas gets to training The Giver is in extreme pain so he sends Jonas away, until one day Jonas asked The Giver if he could help by taking some pain away by receiving the painful memory, and The Giver agreed.

The memory The Giver sends Jonas is the memory of breaking a leg. He sends him to the same place where the memory of snow took place, but instead the sled tipped over and he broke his leg. During his following days of training, The Giver transmits more painful memories to Jonas but always ends the day with a pleasant memory such as sailing in a lake during sunset. The Giver transmits Jonas the memory of starvation and Jonas is startled why such horror must be kept. The Giver tells him that it gives him wisdom to advice the Committee of Elders. For example, once the Committee was thinking on having birth mothers have 4 babies instead of 3 so that there are more Laborers. The Giver had to remind them that such a large population would lead them to starvation and even warfare. Meanwhile, Jonas´ father says that soon there will be twins born and that they will have to release one to Elsewhere, the one with less weight. Jonas can´t stop thinking about Elsewhere and about where the elders are sent when they are released. Jonas asks if Gabriel can sleep in his room for a few nights, and his parents agree. In the middle of the night Gabriel started whimpering, and Jonas transmitted Gabriel the memory of the sailboat which instantly calms Gabriel down, but Jonas feels it´s going away from his mind. So, he decides to take some more of the memory from The Giver and transmit some more to Gabriel. Jonas is not sure if he broke a rule or not. OOPS...


TEXT RESPONSES:

To a text I would like to respond is to the following conversation between Jonas and The Giver:

The Giver shook his head. "Those are simply the things that I do. My life is here."

"In this room?"

The Giver shook his head. He put his hands to his own face, to his chest. "No. Here, in my being. Where the memories are."

I wonder if The Giver remembers how life was before the memories, before pain. Don´t the Committee of Elders feel sorry for giving a single person so much burden to carry on his own? On the other hand, they haven´t felt real pain so they wouldn´t know what The Receiver exactly feels. Although, I believe he is so privileged to have all the memories, and be able to live them unlike the rest; except for the painful memories.

To another text I would like to respond to is to the following:

"Well..." Jonas had to stop and think it through. "If everything´s the same, then there aren´t any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things! A blue tunic, or a red one?"

I completely agree with Jonas´ statement! People have the right to make their own decisions, not only the right but the freedom. And from what we´ve read, freedom is not given to the citizens in this community. It´s extremely important that we have the right to make our own choices, because if we make a bad choice we´ll experience the consequences, and learn from it! How can they know something´s right, when they haven´t felt wrongness or when they haven´t done wrong? Yes, it is safer if they don´t get the freedom to make decisions because no wrong will be done, so no pain or danger will be felt. But, the community can improve if they experience making worn choices, because they would know what not to do. It would be beneficial because this community is obsessed with perfection and Sameness. So, if they get the chance to make their own choices they could even create the community they always wanted to!

FINAL THOUGHTS:

In conclusion, Jonas has shown a ton of progress in his training, each time learning new figures from the past. He is having both painful and pleasant experiences. Nevertheless, he is extremely angry with the fact of Sameness, he wants society to be like it used to be in the past, with the freedom to make choices! He has mixed feelings about the society he lives in, it´s painless but it doesn´t grant freedom to citizens which ANNOYS him of course!! Jonas wants to change Sameness, but he doesn´t know how to!