Summary
Throughout the chapters 1 through 5 of the book "The Giver", the author has given us many details about Jonas, the main character, and his life in his Community.
The story begins with Jonas, an Eleven, talking about how he felt about the ceremony of Twelves in December. He decided that he feels apprehensive, since he wasn't frightened, he said that he felt frightened when a plane was flying to close to the community and that the pilot was released. During the evening tradition (sharing the feelings of the day), he explains to his family (his parents and his sister, Lily) how he felt about the upcoming ceremony; his father explains to him that during the ceremony he receives his Assignment and he also explains that he brought a newborn child from the Nurturing center to take care of him (the baby's name is Gabriel, but no one should no yet until the ceremony where the parents receive the child they asked for). Later, his sister, who was a Seven, was talking on how Gabriel had light eyes, just like Jonas, though Jonas ignored it until he realized the newborn child did have lighter eyes than everyone there. His mother starts talking to Lily about how a awful Assignment being a birth mother is, since they only give 3 births and then they do Labor work until they reach the House of the Old. Jonas starts thinking about what Assignment should Lily be in, and decides she should be a Speaker, and give reminders, alerts and announcements to all the people in the community, that way no one gets embarrassed.
That afternoon, he started looking for his best friend, Asher, to complete their volunteer hours together; every individual from the community, from Eights to Twelve, have to complete special volunteer hours, wherever they want, to prevent a clouded future. He finds that Asher and Fiona, another of Jonas's friend, are together in the House of the Old, which he later decided to join. At the House of the Old, Jonas and his friends had to wash old people, where Jonas talked to Larissa, an Old, and found out that during the release of the Old, there is a big celebration with a lot of speeches and a big toast. The next day, during the morning ritual of sharing dreams, Jonas tells his family that he had a dream about the House of the Old, and had a feeling of wanting Fiona to get in a tub with him, which he has found weird and new. His mother explained to him that he had a Stirring, or a bad feeling (people there viewed it as a disease) and that it could go away if he took pills each day from now on.
In class, we just discussed this part, which I find really interesting. Here, no one from this community has ever seen an animal before, we can infer. This is why Lily is amazed by the strange name of the stuffed animal. Therefore, comfort object are very special because since there are no animals in that community, people could view the strange shape of the comfort object as mythical. The question I have is, why is there no animals in this community? Was it always that way? Or did the governor "ban" animals for some reason?
This book so far, is really interesting and I am glad we are reading something so interesting in class.
The story begins with Jonas, an Eleven, talking about how he felt about the ceremony of Twelves in December. He decided that he feels apprehensive, since he wasn't frightened, he said that he felt frightened when a plane was flying to close to the community and that the pilot was released. During the evening tradition (sharing the feelings of the day), he explains to his family (his parents and his sister, Lily) how he felt about the upcoming ceremony; his father explains to him that during the ceremony he receives his Assignment and he also explains that he brought a newborn child from the Nurturing center to take care of him (the baby's name is Gabriel, but no one should no yet until the ceremony where the parents receive the child they asked for). Later, his sister, who was a Seven, was talking on how Gabriel had light eyes, just like Jonas, though Jonas ignored it until he realized the newborn child did have lighter eyes than everyone there. His mother starts talking to Lily about how a awful Assignment being a birth mother is, since they only give 3 births and then they do Labor work until they reach the House of the Old. Jonas starts thinking about what Assignment should Lily be in, and decides she should be a Speaker, and give reminders, alerts and announcements to all the people in the community, that way no one gets embarrassed.
That afternoon, he started looking for his best friend, Asher, to complete their volunteer hours together; every individual from the community, from Eights to Twelve, have to complete special volunteer hours, wherever they want, to prevent a clouded future. He finds that Asher and Fiona, another of Jonas's friend, are together in the House of the Old, which he later decided to join. At the House of the Old, Jonas and his friends had to wash old people, where Jonas talked to Larissa, an Old, and found out that during the release of the Old, there is a big celebration with a lot of speeches and a big toast. The next day, during the morning ritual of sharing dreams, Jonas tells his family that he had a dream about the House of the Old, and had a feeling of wanting Fiona to get in a tub with him, which he has found weird and new. His mother explained to him that he had a Stirring, or a bad feeling (people there viewed it as a disease) and that it could go away if he took pills each day from now on. Text Responses
During these chapters of the story, many things have occurred which I find really interesting:
"But suddenly, Jonas had noticed, following the path of the apple through the air with his eyes, that the piece of fruit had - well, he couldn't adequately understand - the apple had changed. Just for an instant. It had changed in mid-air, he remembered. Then it was in his, and he looked at it carefully, but it was the same apple. Unchanged. The same size and shape: a perfect sphere." (24).
After reading this, I feel just like Jonas did in that moment. After trying to think what this meant, I still feel confused and curious about what had happened to the apple. Jonas here couldn't explain well what had happened to the apple, though I can tell that it was very hard to explain what the apple had done. What did happen to the apple here? What did Jonas mean by stating that it had changed?
" 'What is his comfort object called?' Lily asked, picking up the stuffed creature which had been placed beside newchild in his basket.
Father glanced at it. 'Hippo,' he said.
Lily giggled at the strange word. 'Hippo,' she repeated, and put the comfort object down again.
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| From the part of the book above, we can tell that in this community, there are no animals. |
Final Thoughts
I think that this community is impressively strict, where everyone follows rules, obeys what they are told to do, and are given specific Assignments in which they are supposed to dedicate their lives until they are too old and go to the House of the Old. During these chapters, we begin to see how life in Jonas's community is. Additionally, this community has many rules and traditions all the citizens should follow, just like sharing feelings and dreams during the evening and the morning; people in this community also follow extreme rules that mostly show equality and strict schedules. For example, since everyone's life is important and everyone is equal, no one is allowed to brag nor talk about other people's differences. I wonder why does equality matter so much in this community, I mean, they have no mirrors there because looks don't matter. I find it fine that everyone should treat everyone the same but, people shouldn't take it so seriously. Also, the schedule for all components of the community is very strict and organized, since everyone follows the same rules, because everyone is equal, and has their own Assignment which they have to work in until they reach the House of the Old. The government for this community must be really strict and organized, with a lot of power over its citizens; the citizens from this community are really controlled, in my opinion. Why cant citizens chose their own life (Child, Assignment, bike, etc).This book so far, is really interesting and I am glad we are reading something so interesting in class.
