MAKING IT TO ELSEWHERE



Release of the Twins

Jonas finds himself in the Annex building with the Giver talking and discussing about release. When the conversation ends, the Giver asks Jonas about his interest in this topic. Jonas explains that he is curious about release because that morning his father was supposed to release one of the two twins in the community. The Giver asks him if he would want to see the morning release. He had access to almost any information from the community. Uncertain of the Giver’s offer, Jonas decides to watch the tape. The video stats and Jonas immediately recognizes his dad holding a newborn on his arms. A nurturer that stands next to him holds the other twin. Jonas’s father weights the first newborn, and then the other newborn. Jonas’s father hands one of the twins to the nurturer and dismisses him. Jonas’s father prepares an injection with some sort of liquid. He inserts the needle in his the baby’s head. Soon the baby stops all of its movements. The baby is placed in a very small box. Jonas’s father opens a small door in the wall, very similar to a trash chute, and tosses the box through it, as if the baby were nothing more than trash. Jonas know understands what release truly means. He realizes it is murder. His father just killed a new born and had tossed it like trash. Jonas weeps and weeps. He doesn’t want to face his dad, not after what he had just done. The Giver offers him to stay the night with him. Jonas thanks him and they keep talking. The two of them start to develop their plan, they want everyone to feel again like they once did. Jonas and the Giver plan to restore the memories to all the citizen, the night before the December Ceremony, Jonas has to sneak out of his house and the Giver would order a vehicle and a driver to take him to one of the other communities. The Giver would help Jonas hide in the storage rooms of the vehicle, and that is when Jonas’s journey would begin. When the community notices Jonas absence, the Giver would explain that Jonas had been lost in the river earlier that morning. The past weeks the Giver had collected leftovers from his meals, for Jonas’s journey. Lately, Jonas had received memories of escapes and bravery and courage to help him through his dangerous journey. The night before Jonas’s escape, his father told him that tomorrow morning Gabe would be released. When everyone slept Jonas decided make a new plan. He would flee the community with Gabriel, he rathered

Jonas's escape from the community

take his chances outside of the community than staying there and watch Gabriel get released. Jonas started his journey by traveling at night and sleeps in the woods hidden at day. The search planes that came looking for Jonas and Gabe were numerous. Jonas knew that the planes searched with their infra-red censors, so whenever a plane flew by, Jonas transmitted a memory of snow, a cold memory to Gabe so that the planes would not find them. When the planes stopped coming so frequently Jonas started traveling at daylight. Jonas started to notice something that he had never been able to see. He saw animals, he recognized them from his memories. Jonas knew most of their names. As they kept on moving Jonas and Gabe started to run out of food, Jonas now felt hunger. The days became colder until Jonas realized it was snowing. Jonas can no longer use his bike so he carries Gabe and starts walking. To be able to survive, Jonas transmitted memories of warmth to Gabriel. Jonas finally came to the top of a hill where he found a sled. He took the sled and rode it down the hill. When the sled came to stop, Jonas noticed a house. He recognized it immediately, it was the house of the memories, the house in which there was love and happiness.

“He picked up the carton and carried it to the other side of the room. He opened a small door in the wall; Jonas could see darkness behind the door. It seemed to be the same sort of chute into which trash was deposited at school. His father loaded the carton containing the body into the chute and gave it a shove. "Bye-bye, little guy," Jonas heard his father say before he left the room. Then the screen went blank.”

Why do they just dump the baby like as if it was garbage? Without the memories they do not have feelings, they do not know what murder is. They probably have no idea what they’re doing. Why is the community so cruel? There are two persons that are a like in the community and the solution is to kill one of them? What kind of society does that?

“He forced his eyes open as they went downward, downward, sliding, and all at once he could see lights, and he recognized them now. He knew they were shining through the windows of rooms, that they were the red, blue, and yellow lights that twinkled from trees in places where families created and kept memories, where they celebrated love.”



Did Jonas make it? Did he survive his journey? Or was he just hallucinating before he died? Is this place with love and joy a real place that actually exists or is it just a product of his imagination? Can heaven be represented as this happy place with love and joy?



From my point of view, Jonas survived in the end. Jonas made it to elsewhere, where people had feelings and emotions. One way or another Jonas reached elsewhere returning the memories to the people back in the community. Jonas LIVED!

EXPERIENCING LOVE

 


Jonas went every day to the Annex building, where he met the Giver. As soon as Jonas entered the room he saw the Giver in pain. Jonas offered help and he was ordered to remove his tunic and lie in the bed as usual. The Giver put his hands on his back and the memory started. He found himself in a destroyed landscape, there was a boy in the floor. The boy begged for water and Jonas gave him some. Shortly after the boy stopped moving and Jonas realized he had perished. Now Jonas finally understood what warfare really meant. Jonas is traumatized by this memory, he always thinks about it. Jonas kept going to the Annex building every day.

Memory of War

 Since he had received the memory of war, the Giver gave happy and joyful memories to Jonas. One day Jonas asked the Giver what of all the memories he enjoyed the most. As usual the Giver ordered him to remove his tunic and lie down. The memory came… Jonas was in a room filled with people. He observed a decorated tree in the corner of the room, something that he had never seen before. He noticed that they were old people living with adults and children. Jonas was really confused about this idea. In his community the old lived

Love and Family

apart from the community, they had a special care house. Jonas felt a strong feeling in the room. He felt many feeling he had never felt before. He identified the feeling of love and joy. Jonas woke up from the memory and thanked the Giver for it. He was delighted by this new concept of love. When Jonas got home he asked his parents if he was loved by them. His parents were furious at Jonas for his lack of his “precision of language.” They said it was a meaningless word. Jonas went to bed and while he was falling asleep he decided to feel love… he decided to stop taking his pill. The next day Jonas woke up only to realize that the day was declared an unscheduled holiday. Jonas was excited to have a day off so he went to find his friends. When Jonas found Asher and Fiona he noticed they were playing some kind of game. They were crouched to their knees. They aimed imaginary weapons to each other and made shooting noises: Psssssheeeewww! Jonas realized that this game resembled war. He pictured the boy that begged for water in the memory of warfare. He wanted his friends to stop the game, they had no idea what they were playing. He told Asher to stop playing this game but he wouldn’t listen. Asher said that he was the Assistant Recreation Director, and that Jonas had nothing to do with it. Jonas walked away thinking that they would never understand. That night as usual Jonas heard each family member talk about their day and their emotions. Jonas’s father announced that he would be going to bed early since he would have to release one of the twins in the nurturing center. The next day Jonas went to meet the Giver as usual. Jonas had wondered something he had been meaning to ask the Giver. He asked the Giver about the last receiver of memory and everyone described it as a “big failure.” The Giver tells Jonas that about ten years ago there was a girl whose name was Rosemary. Rosemary was chosen just like him, in the ceremony of December. Her training with the Giver started just like Jonas’s.

Rosemary asked for release?!

First the memories were happy and joyful. But when Rosemary received the memories of pain, she changed, as if she was traumatized. Rosemary applied for release and when she was gone, the memories went back to the people. It was chaos, the people of the community had the memories for a while until the Giver took back all the memories. Since then the receiver in training may not apply for release.

"Who were the old people? Why were they there?" It had puzzled Jonas, seeing them in the room.”

Jonas is confused because he has never seen old people living amongst the other citizens. In Jonas’s community the old are sent to “The House of the Old,” which is a place where old people live after they have retired. But why does the community does this? Why won’t the Elders allow the existence of family-union? Is it maybe because they are afraid that feelings like love might emerge in the society?

“It was a game he had often played with the other children, a game of good guys and bad guys, a harmless pastime that used up their contained energy and ended only when they all lay posed in freakish postures on the ground. He had never recognized it before as a game of war.”

Why would the kids of the community play his game if they didn’t even know what it is about? IF they don’t know what warfare is, how can they play a game about it? Jonas is the only one that knew the real meaning of this game that is why he asked Asher to stop playing that game.

Jonas has many things yet to discover. Jonas is probably going to do something to change how things are in the community. Jonas is already wondering how wonderful things would be in a world with love, colors and joy. He is determined to change things in the community. He wants people to feel and see things just like he does.