Danny: TG

                In The Giver, the ending is very ambiguous and leaves the reader wondering what really happened to Jonas and Gabriel. Having such an open-ended ending demands that readers speculate and theorize the true meaning of it. Readers have determined that this meaning has multiple reasons, but I think it is important to think about the narrative and then view the ending with the narrative style in hindsight.

                Jonas, much like the ending of the novel, is very uncertain. On the very first page of this page, the narrator says, “Jonas was beginning to be frightened. No. Wrong word, Jonas thought” (1). Jonas begins the entirety of this book, expressing uncertainty about his own feelings. The narrator later says, “He searched for the right word to describe his own feeling. Jonas was careful about his language” (4). Here we can see that Jonas is also uncertain in his word choice. He carefully picks his words, unlike Asher, “who talked too fast and mixed things up, scrambling words and phrases until they were barely recognizable and often very funny” (4). Asher serves to show someone who is certain and confident of his word choice. He shows no uncertainty, but rather brash confidence.

                At this point, it should be noted that Jonas, who struggles to conform to society, is uncertain. Asher, on the other hand, who is comfortable in the society, is strongly certain. From this point, the following statement can be made: The inability to be a part of society creates uncertainty.

                And that’s what we see in the last passage, right? Jonas, who was figuratively out of the society, is now literally outside of his community. Thus, the ambiguity makes sense in all manners. Because he has been fully ejected from his society, he no longer has any sense of certainty and assurance. He is left with only his questioning mind and inability to commit to thoughts.

                However, Jonas does grow more certain as he becomes an outcast in his community. This can first be seen when he finally makes a decision on what adjective best describes him. The narrator says, “Apprehensive, Jonas decided. That’s what I am” (6). This line shows that he decides what he is thinking and even reassures himself that he is confident in his thought. Continuing, when Jonas asks his parents if they love him, he decides to lie to them. The narrator reads, “It was his first lie to his parents” (160). Which is interesting, considering when he first read the rule, “he wasn’t quite ready to think about the final rule on the page” (88).

                Jonas comes a long way and through his exiling, he grows in his confidence and certainty. So we can look at the final words of this novel with a new line of thought.

The first sentence reads, “Behind him, across vast time and space, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too” (225). The ‘across vast time and space’ bit is certainly interesting, especially considering this book remains completely linear in its telling. This suggests that Jonas had been traveling in an other-worldly manner, which makes sense considering he left the only community he knew. However, I believe this suggests that his success had happened far before he got to this specific point. That, before this current moment and this current location, that he had already been successful.

The second sentence reads, “But perhaps it was only an echo” (225). Here we are faced with what Jonas once was, while he was a part of the community. This sentence defines itself; it serves to echo what Jonas used to be and how he has grown. Jonas was successful in his mission and this last sentence only serves to cement that thought, as it comments on Jonas’s uncertainty once again. He has made it into another community, so his previous uncertainty comes back into play. Before that however, he was perfectly certain and has realized that he was successful.