The Giver

The book has finally come to an end. Jonas found his friends playing a war game on a holiday and he tries to stop them from playing it and Asher gets mad at him, but it's helpless, they can't understand what war really is. The next day, The giver explained Jonas what happened ten years ago with the last Receiver, Rosemary, he said that after she saw loss, she was released and the memories she had were set free. Jonas learned what release was when he watched a tape of his father releasing a baby twin, he realized that the baby was killed and he was angry at his dad. The giver tried to explain that nobody knew that release was murder, and that's why they were ok with it. Jonas stayed with The Giver that night and they plan something so the memories are all set free. The plan is this: at the Ceremony in December, Jonas will sneak out of his dwelling at night and will go to the Annex where The Giver will be waiting for him with some food and supplies, then Jonas will go to elsewhere in his bicycle while everybody goes to the ceremony, The Giver will place some if Jonas' clothes beside the river so everyone will think he drowned, when Jonas reaches the edge of elsewhere and crosses it, all the memories he had will be set free and everyone in the community will have them, so The giver must stay there to help everyone handle all the pain. The next day, when Jonas goes home and finds out that Gabe will be released so he leaves that night to be able to save him, he grabs his father's bicycle and the leftovers from the family units' dinners. He goes to elsewhere, where he has to hide from searching planes and manage to survive and keep Gabe alive, he gives him strength with happy memories. By the time he reaches the snowy part of elsewhere, he starts feeling weak, but then he found a sled and he sled down a hill just like in his first memory, he reached the edge of elsewhere safe and with Gabe and he sets all his memories free, he finds a home where he heard music for the first time and he believes that maybe, he heard music from far away, from the place he had left.

"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. But he knew such times had been taken from him now. He shook his head. After a moment his two friends turned and went to their bikes. He watched as they rode away" (Lowry 134)

 The previous quote shows how Jonas' life has changed since he became the new Receiver. He started seeing all the colors and he started feeling. He was able to feel because he stopped taking his stirring pills and he had been feeling for four months. When Fiona asked if he wanted to go on a ride beside the river, he wanted to say yes, but he knew he couldn't because now he had feelings for her. If Jonas went with Fiona in the ride, it wouldn't have been the same as before, because before, Jonas saw Fiona a s his friend and he felt good around her but now, he started to like her, and the created tension and made Jonas feel awkward around her. But this this quote means that Jonas' life changed completely, he now has a different perspective of life, and he wasn't blind anymore, he felt things, he saw things and he knew things that no one else did, he saw the world and he wasn't going back to living a fake life. I think that what Jonas did was the right thing to do because that way he's proving that he can't be controlled or manipulated.

"The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared" (Lowry 153)

I chose this quote because I think it shows a lot about Jonas' relationship with The Giver. After The Giver tells this to Jonas, he says that he is now sharing the memories with him and that he doesn't have to handle the pain by all by himself. It shows how they both care about each other, how they both love each other and they want the other to be safe. I think this is important because caring for each other is what makes a family grow in a healthy way. In some way, Jonas and The Giver have become family, specially because they don't know who their blood relatives are so they need someone they can trust and rely on. This quote shows the importance of sharing because by sharing, you help other people and you help yourself, it also shows the importance of love because with love you can create so much, you can create magical things that feel nice and they give you strength and courage to keep going in your life. If you have someone to truly love, and someone who loves you, you can't give up.

It's so good to have finished the book! I'm glad I liked this book because if I hadn't liked it, it would probably have been really boring for me to read it and answer the questions I was asked about it. I think that Lois Lowry is a very good writer because the way she wrote this book shows us how creative she is, I mean, she created a whole world that isn't like in fairytales, where there's magic or somewhere where the impossible happens, she created a more realistic community that is more similar to our actual world than the other worlds created. This book has many messages to give us, one of them is that we have to fight for what we think is right,  Jonas almost died trying to save his community, he almost starved, froze, but he was brave, and he survived, and he was alive. I would really recommend this book because it's a really good book and once you start it, you just want to keep going until you reach the end without even realizing. I think that if anyone is going to read this book, read it before you watch the movie, that way, you will create a different world in your head, you will imagine differently and that will make the book even more special for you.

I decided to include the trailer of the movie here.