Characters In The Giver

Equality, the harsh rules, and the secrecy negatively impact society in The Giver and proves that if equality is wrongly understood, it can have a bad impact on society. The impacts are shown clearly in many ways throughout the beginning of the novel in the society. The citizens all have to go through a day when they are “a 12” when they get chosen for their jobs in the future. The protagonist named Jonas is chosen to a very special job named the receiver. The point of this job is to receive the memories of the past to keep them from being released to the society around. There are many painful memories and happy ones. In one of his first happy memories, Jonas sees his first-ever glimpse of color and starts to have different thoughts about the black and white world around him. He reacts to the memory and says “‘But I want them!’” Jonas said angrily. “‘It isn’t fair that nothing has color!’” (Lowry 122). After this and

Despite the fact that he could be killed if he was caught. Jonas also wanted to release the memories into the community to make it a better place. Jonas looked to The Giver for advice, and The Giver was almost like a father to him. Jonas normally followed the rules of the community for what was right and what was wrong except when he ran away. Jonas learned that the rules of the community were harsh, once he had his knowledge he got from The Giver, he kind of made his own rules. The Giver shows lots of moral courage because he helped Jonas run away despite the potential consequences of getting released. Also the Giver took the risk of giving Jonas the memories when the previous receiver ran away because the memories were too much and then those memories were lost. The Giver has all the knowledge from the previous generations so he uses that to decide what is right and

Before he got the memories of color, he had small snippets of color thrown at him. he thought of them as odd but never pondered on it. When he saw the apple or Fiona's hair. They were small things compared to the memories he received. He was color blind, never a thought about them until the memories. He wanted the color, He stated “But I want them!” Jonas said angrily. ‘It is not fair!” . He said it as he had no choice over the colors “then there aren’t any choices.” He may be thinking about so acutely. Say the color of a tunic. But he is right in broader terms too. He has no choice over any thing until he becomes the Receiver of Memories. He learns the world is not all sunshine and lollipops. He coveted over the colors, he wanted them.

Lowry, herself even says “she didn't think of “The Giver” as futuristic or dystopian or science fiction or fantasy, it was just a story about a kid making sense of a complicated world” (Ulaby). In his own way, Jonas served as his own protagonist as his mind attacks him with questions and uncertainty. Community elders also pose as a sort of enemy, keeping people away from the truth. Moreover, Lowry also included other characters to contrast Jonas. Firstly, his friends, Asher and Fiona show up as foils. When Jonas learns the reality of release and war, he looks at his friend in horror. Even the Giver reinstates “Fiona is already being trained in the fine art of release” (153). Giver tries to comfort Jonas by saying “listen to me Jonas they can’t help it. they know nothing... it’s the life that was created form them, it’s the same life that you would have, if you had not been chosen as my successor” (153). This shows how Jonas remains set apart because he was selected as the successor. Rosemary, the previous “Receiver of Memory” shows up as another foil. Although Jonas never met her, everyone, even the elders, compare him to Rosemary. They hope they did the make the same mistake again and watch him closely. All of Lowry’s characters are created to support Jonas’ role in the

They open his eyes to war and killing, but also color and animals. “Jonas braced himself and entered the memory which was torturing The Giver,” (Lowry 118). Jonas was courageous when he took on a terrible memory of war so that The Giver would not be in misery. After watching a recording of his father preforming a release, he had constructed a plan of escape with the Giver. “And he had taken Gabriel, too,” (Lowry 166). He not only bravely ran away, but took Gabriel with him so he would not be

At the start of the story Jonas is feeling nervous about the ceremony of twelve's, where the children are given their assignment. This is where for the first time in the children's life, they will be doing something different then every other person in the community. Jonas is given the very special occupation, which isn’t really an occupation at all, of Receiver of Memory. He is the only one that can have memories of what life was like before sameness. The memories are given to him by The Giver, who was the current Receiver of Memory. The Giver must transmit all memories of history (the good,

Jonas is very mature at the beginning of the novel. For example, he volunteers at many places, plays games, goes to school every day, shares his dreams and feelings, and most importantly follows the rules.

Jonas was selected as the next Receiver of Memory. Upon his training, he discovered and felt things that not all people in their society know. He realized a lot of things about the world. He discovered there is something more with the world than what he has known of. And as he felt things, he realized the things that are wrong with their idealistic society.

Jonas is the protagonist of the novel and a third-person narrator tells the entire story from Jonas perception of things. He is intelligent, curious, caring, and his thought process is very mature for being 11-13 years old. A good quote portraying both his matureness and his intellect is “If everything's the same, then there aren't any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things”(97). This is also one of the first signs that he is displeased with the community. Another quote showing his courage and curiosity is "It hurt a lot," Jonas said, "but I'm glad you gave it to me. It was interesting. And now I understand better. What it meant, that there would be

Gun ownership is on the rise and even college students want firearms now. Since 1999 college students owning firearms for protection has increased over 19 percent (DiMauro 17). With this rise whether or not these numbers should increase has become a heated issue. As of now 26 colleges allow concealed carry on campuses, totaling in over 70 campuses(Burnett) and many others are in consideration. Organizations such as Students for Concealed Carry are at work to educate the public on the truths of how on campus carry would to some degree benefit college students, professors, and all visitors. Firearms can be and should be allowed on college campuses primarily because it is a not only a fundamental right guaranteed by the constitution but also

He describes, “back in the time of the memories, everything had a shape and size, the way things still do, but they also had a quality called color.” (Lowery 94) Jonas cannot understand why he is beginning to see the color of red, although the Giver says there are a lot of colors. The Giver tells Jonas, “When you mentioned Fiona’s hair, it was the clue that told me you were probably beginning to see the red.” (Lowery 94) “Jonas looked at her. She was so lovely. For a fleeting instant he thought he would like nothing better than to ride peacefully along the river path, laughing and talking with his gentle female friend.” (Lowery 135) Jonas secretly likes Fiona. Jonas’s special emotion that he didn’t understand makes Jonas see red that represents love. So, the color of red symbolizes love. Now that he sees colors, he can experience all kinds of emotions.

     Jonas is helping his family take care of a problem newborn. His name is Gabriel, he had problems sleeping at the Nurturing Center. Jonas helps Gabriel sleep by transmitting memories to Gabriel. They become really close. Jonas finds out that Gabriel is in danger of being released. He talks to The Giver and finds out that release means the same thing as death. Jonas gets really mad knowing that his father killed the babies. That was his father’s job. Jonas wants to create a plan to change the community forever.

The Giver knows that the burden of memory is too much for Jonas to bear, so he and Jonas plan Jonas’ escape. In the escape, The Giver plans to leave Jonas with memories of courage and strength so that he can make his journey to freedom. The plan changes when Jonas finds that Gabriel, an infant the family had been caring for was going to be “released” the next morning. Upon hearing the news, Jonas takes Gabriel and flees The Community. The book ends with Jonas hearing music, which symbolizes finding his

Jonas goes through a lot while receiving the memories from The Giver. He first gets happy memories such as the sled, but then The Giver has to give him painful memories. He first receives the memory of physical pain from sunburn (Lowry 86). The pain is minimal compared to the memory of a broken leg (Lowry 109) and an injured arm during a war. During the war memory, he sees death (Lowry 119, 121). He experiences grief when he receives the memory the shot elephant (Lowry 100). Most haunting of all are the memories of the release of old and the part his father plays in the release of new born (Lowry 150). These trials at first horrify Jonas but he learns to deal with the

In chapter 18 Jonas asks the Giver “ Do you ever think about the release ?’’ which got him even more curious about the true meaning. When Jonas becomes aware of what release actually means he gets into conflict with what his father does. His disturbed reaction to when his father its “releasing’’ a twin, which was very dramatic, “ he killed it! My father killed it!’’ Later in chapter 18, the Givers explain to Jonas about Rosemary and how she became an individual because of the emotions she was receiving, but the community didn’t allow anyone to have feelings. Because of the impact of the emotions she has received, she wanted to be released, which lead her to not conforming her society. What this tells us is that communities are made up of authoritarian rules that have impacts on