Love Discovered---Chelsea

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                Lois Lowry did an amazing job in The Giver with the message about life. There are many insights I took out of this novel when it comes to life without individuality, memories, and love. When Jonas is given the assignment of being The Receiver, it starts to highlight the simple things in the world people might take for granted and not appreciate like color.  “Because it is a memory of a time when color was. -It was so-Oh I wish language were more precise! The red was so beautiful! (95)” Labeling the term for what he was seeing before understanding color starts to give Jonas the connection of what life should be about. After establishing the colors, he saw the world he lived in and it would never be the same again. He starts to get angry with the realization of the lifeless world he was living in. “Well..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? But it’s all the same, always. (97)” It is sad and gloomy this revelation, just like the gloomy colorless world he lives in with no choice.

                The simplistic comparison Lowry makes with love and fire is written beautifully. “He could feel that there was a risk involved though he wasn’t sure how. ‘Well they had fire right there in the room. There was a fire burning in the fire place. And there were candles on a table. I can certainly see why those things were outlawed. Still… I did like the light they made. And the warmth. (126)” It illustrated the unknown personal experience of love in Jonas’s life, but also a familiar knowledge that love is safe and warm to have in a cold environment that is artificial emotionally. It makes the reader see how simple a candle light can be, but also the enormous effect in how much light it can give in a dark room.

                The first lie he ever told his parents involved love. His parents rebuked that word and so he chose this moment to lie and say he understood why it should not be used. He begins to realize this life he was given with no choice, was all fake and the memory that was not even his, was enough and powerful enough to make Jonas want to walk away from it all.

                Although Lowry does not flat out say this is the reason why Jonas left earlier than planned, I recognized that love is what made Jonas leave early. Finding out that Gabe would have to be released gave Jonas the green light and confirmation that this world he grew up in was not the world he wanted to be a part of any longer.  He wasn’t given the memory of bravery and courage as planned, but from his own internal feelings of bravery, he boldly took matters into his own hands. The beginning of a journey solely based on Jonas’s own choice.

               

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 11, 2017 at 8:36 AM

    I love the way Lowry expresses hidden messages, and a strong overall message in this book. I agree that individuality, love, and memories are heavily stressed in this novel to make it what it is. I love the quotes you chose to express this!

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