Chapter 16 and 17 most important things

At first Jonas doesn`t want the memories and the job ,because of the pain. But than the Giver gives him wonderful memories and he lern different feelings like love and the importance of a family. He learns about the grandparents and a "real family". He recognize that the family can't love him. They don't know that feeling and so Jonas feels alone. Nobody understands him and his feelings. There is no love in the community. This makes him really sad. Jonas mother sais that she feels sad. But Jonas knows that she doesn't feel really sad. He feels attracted to Fiona. Maybe he loves her. In the evening he gives Gabriel some memories. So he can sleep faster and quiet. One day Jonas reaches the playing field, and his groupmates are playing a game which he can now recognize as being a game of war. This makes him sad, because it isn't a funny game. War is horrible. But they don't know it without the memories. Jonas ruined the game and Asher is angry about this. Than Jonas thinks about his friendships and his childhood. He whishes to be a child again without provide.

The Giver

The picture shows Jonas and the Giver. You can see the face of the Giver with many wrinkles and a long, white beard but just the back of Jonas. The Receiver puts his hand on Jonas shoulder. We think he transmitted him the memories of the "world". The Giver looks weak and tired. Maybe its really exhausting for him to transmitted him the memories. You can't see Jonas face so you can't conclude of his facial expression and how he feels in this strange situation.  It seems a bit mysterious and secretive.

By Kevin and Sophia

Development of Jonas

The old Receiver of Memory called "The Giver" has the same pale eyes like Jonas, wrinkles on his face and looks tired an very old. He explains that his job has wearied him, making him look older than he really is. The job is very exhausting. The Giver needs to devote his remaining energy to training Jonas. He will give him not his own memories, but the important memories of the whole world. The real past of the world and other things that Jonas didn't know before. He will give Jonas all those memories from the Receiver before him. The Giver can't explain him the memories, Jonas has to see them with his own eyes. The Receiver puts his hand on his back. He transmits a memory in which he drives down a hill ( he didn't know what a hill is )on a sled throught the snow. It is a liberating feeling. He feels great in this new memory. A place of peace. In the second memory he notices the sunshine from the sky. From time to time he feels a pain. A sharp pain. A sunburn. This is his first kind of pain in his life.

One day Jonas sees Fionas hair changing. The hair changes like the apple. The Giver explains the change with the colors. His first color is red. In the future he will see more colors. As time passes, Jonas learns the names of colors through the memories. The Receiver gives him a memory of a rainbow. So he can see all the colors.

Jonas gets a new view of the world. His opinion changes. He can't understand the sameness in his community. The people makes the decision of this kind of society a long time ago. But why? Was it really a good decision for the peolpe? Jonas is frustrated. He wants that the citizen gets the same chance to see the real. The beautiful color, the hills, the sunshine, the snow... He tries to change it. But he fails. Once, he tries to transmit to Asher a memory of the color red, but Asher can't understand, becoming uncomfortable with Jonas's touching him. In the community, it is rude to touch someone else who is not within one's family unit.

My own Comment:

I imagine that jonas will change the community. He is more and more frustrated. He will share his memories with the people. The lovely colors and the great feelings. He notice that the people have not the chance to decide about themselves. They all lives in a illusury world. Maybe he will start to change the world and will make a revolution in the future?

Jonas feelings

Dear diary

I have never felt so different. I hear the people whisper. Whisper about me. It is really unpleasent for me. But I can also understand them. It is a strange situation. I want to get out ! But I can't. It is my destiny. All the questions in my haed. They makes me more and more crazy.

My new rules for my work as the Receiver of Memory confuse me. I'm exempted from rules of the community. Normally I have to tell my dreams every morning. And now it is forbidden? Why is it forbidden to tell my dreams? Will my dreams change? Horrible dreams? Secret dreams? I'm also not permitted to apply for release. Maybe I'm too important. I guess it is a very important job in this community. I would wonder if they want to release me. I can't break the rules, because I'm exempted from rules. I may lie. But the first time will be difficult to lie. It is particulary difficult for me to lie to my parents. But sometimes I have to do it. I hope that this is the right way. But I think the old man will give me all the answers I want to know.

Jonas

Writing an argumentative essay

The book "The Giver" by Lois Lowry , which appeared in 1994, presents a different kind of society. The right of choice is clearly forbidden. The citizens have a regulated live. The Elders makes the decision for everyone. They determine your curriculum vitae. Everyone makes the same experience. Everything must be perfect. Unperfect people will be released. They strive for success. The citizens don't know everything about their society. Nevertheless, they have to follow the rules without question. A safe, orderly, and predictable world without pain. Should we strive for a society like this? Can we call it a "perfect world"?

This kind of community is supported by the argument that there is no pain in the world. The feelings of the people are regulated by pills and other things.

The people won’t make experience with pain. But also they won’t make experience with other great feelings like love. The citizens will never have this lovely feeling .They miss the most important things in their life.  Human feelings are suppressed. They are manipulated by the Elders. Due to the influence of the emotions, they also have influence of the own opinion. The people are always happy. But are they really happy? The pills make them blind. Due to the manipulated emotions, they overlook the bad things. Maybe the bad exist but they can’t see it.

A successful society. There are only “good” people and no “bad” ones.

At first you think a world without bad people is good. But is it right to release people who are different? It violates human rights. Everyone has a right to life. No one can determine when another's life is over.

A regulated life promise success. No one has to make decisions for themselves. They live a simple life and see a bright future. No one need to take care of something. No one should be worried. They only need to follow the rules.

A regulated life can replace the love and other important things? You'll get a man whom you haven’t choose. You get a child. But it's not yours. Is that great? It was taken away from the right mother. A Birthmother is used like a machine. Everyone is the same, there is no variety and no differences. They are clones inside. Where is the own desire? Where is the soul? They seem like cool robots which are programmed. The freedom of the people don’t exist. They are slaves of the community. They can’t decide to do what they want. In reality they are caught. They have lost themselves.

In my opinion a “perfect society” doesn’t exist. It is not right to deprive the human feelings. They have to make their own experience. It is boring if you have a regulated life. Where is the individual? Different opinions are important. The people aren’t free. They are oppressed by the Elders and blind because of the pills. Nobody may to decide about other people’s feelings and life. Everyone has the right to decide about themselves and to do what he wants. I imagine that it is really exhausting to life with so many rules. We are human and make mistakes. We are not like robots.

Writing a characters's diary entry

Dear diary,
I have to digest my terrible experience, which makes me confused and scared. I haven't expect something like this.  What will await me? A Receiver. I have never heard it before. What is a Receiver? There are a lot of questions in my head. Who will give me an answer?

It was the Ceremony of Twelve. The most people says that it is the most important Ceremony. The Chief Elder has the task to inform you about your work. At the beginning everything was normal. One by one was invoked. Suddenly the Chief Elder forgot a number. My number ! I was so shocked. What was going on here? Had I heard wrong? No I hadn't.  At first I thought she had made a mistake. But the Chief Elder makes no mistakes. No. Never! The time passed slowly. Horrible slowly ! I whished that the time passed fast. I couldn't pay attention. Each time, at each announcement my heart jumped and jumped. I was really nervous. How could this happen to me? I was sure. I hadn't made a mistake. Even Asher got a job. And what about me? Now I stood there, looking to the crowd. My heart beat faster and faster. I thought for a moment that it jumped out of my chest. She said that I was selected. I ? It couldn't be true. I was a normal boy. Or not? Maybe everything was a strange dream. I will wake up in a minute. I hoped so. I was confused that she tried to explain something. She couldn't explain it. Why? She is the Chief Elder and couldn't explain a job? Very unusual. The community has only one Receiver of Memory. And old man with pale eyes like mine and a beard. He watched me intently. I noticed that he was different. He wasn't sitting in a group. He was alone and I had never noticed him before. He will trains me. His successor. Me. And I should be the right one? What will my parents think about this situation? Are they proud of me? Or disappointed ? The Chief Elder told something about pain. She said that I will be faced with it now. What is pain? Why she didn't know what pain is? The people were quiet and looked worried. I wanted to stop it and I cried that I can't. It was too much. I was sorry. But what was about the strange apple? Maybe it's my destiny. I have to accept it...

The Giver - Trailer

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEDahlr8izs&feature=related

I found a nice video, a trailer of "The Giver"

I like the background music, because it seems very mysterious and exciting. You feel a kind of danger. The main content is well adapted to the book. At first everything in this world looks gray and cold. But suddenly the apple changes the color like in chapter 3. The Scene starts with the airplane in the gray sky and at the end the world get more and more color.

The community

Now I have read the book till chapter 5 and one learns more about the strange community.
What we get to know:
- The Elders make observation, they know what you do in your life also in your free time
- they established harsh rules for example:
   > they have a regulated life:
   > eyerybody has to talk about their feelings with the family
   > all the children get their bicycle with the age of nine
   > The family must have 2 children, one male and one female
   > the people have to go through the same steps in life
   > the community established the volunteer hours
   > they make a plan for your future ( decide your job and your friends)
   > It is against the rules for children and adults to look at another's nakedess; but the rule did
      not apply to newchildren or the Old.
   > unusual children can be "released" and the old people will be "released" -a decision of the community
      ( We have a strange feeling with the word "released"... maybe it is something like "to kill")
   > the people get pills when they get their first Stirrings. The pills will stop that feeling. (This example shows
      that the people are manipulated)

by Dominiq and Sophia

Chapter 3

- Jonas family get a newchild called Gabriel
- Gabriel has different eyes like Jonas. Both have pale eyes. Thats what Lily notices at first.
- the most of the citizen in the community  have dark eyes, but there are exeptions like Jonas and the newchild.
- Jonas doesen´t likes it, that Lily mentions his eyes. It is not against a rule, but it is considered rude to call attention to things that are different about individuals.
- Lily talks to her family. She wants to be a bithmother.
- Her mother explains her the job. She makes her clear that it is a really bad job. You have three years and three birth. After the three years you come to the House of Old. And a birthmother never even get to see her newchild.

http://www.readingmatters.co.uk/book.php?id=14

- Jonas thinks about his incident with an apple:
- Jonas and Asher played with an apple. He throw the apple to Asher and Asher throw it back to Jonas. It was a normal activity. Suddenly the apple changed. Not in size or shape , but in a different way. It was really strange.
- He was the only one who saw the apple changing. Asher haven´t saw it.
- He wanted to know what it was ,so he took the apple home although it was against the rules. But nothing happened. The apple was quite normal.
- Speaker reminded him that he had broken the rules

Biography of Lois Lowry

- Was born in Hawaii, Honolulu 1937
- Has an older sister named Helen and a little brother named John
- She says of herself that she was a solitary child who lived in the world of books and her own vivid imagination.
-She lived all over the world( New York,Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Tokyo...) because her father was a career military officer ( an Army dentist)
- High school was back in New York City, but by the time she went to college (Brown University in Rhode Island)
- She married a Naval officer as she was nineteen years old.
- Her daughter was born in California, her son Florida was born in South Carolina (later she had another son and another daughter)
- So she has four children.
- She returned to college at the University of Southern Maine and got her degree.
- Went to graduate school, and finally began to write professionally, the thing she had dreamed of doing since those childhood years when she had endlessly scribbled stories and poems in notebooks.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/authphoto_330/18179_lowry_lois.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.randomhouse.com/teens/authors/author.pperl%3Fauthorid%3D18179&usg=__yOL1yKdde758u7Cs92XcAyWXX8U=&h=504&w=330&sz=44&hl=de&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=1hr4uRlPGkQsqM:&tbnh=155&tbnw=97&ei=ODJ1TbGwBIaglAf7w7hE&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlois%2Blowry%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dde%26sa%3DX%26biw%3D1024%26bih%3D475%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=270&oei=ODJ1TbGwBIaglAf7w7hE&page=1&ndsp=12&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0&tx=82&ty=46 I´m sorry for the very long link o.o

- Her marriage ended in 1977
- Today she is back in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- She also has written about her Experience
 - A Summer to Die, her first book, was a highly fictionalized retelling of the early death of her sister, and of the effect of such a loss on a family.
What she wants to tell us with her stories: (Her own words)
- "I am a grandmother now. For my own grandchildren - and for all those of their generation - I try, through writing, to convey my passionate awareness that we live intertwined on this planet and that our future depends upon our caring more, and doing more, for one another."

Interview with Lois Lowry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYGGs2lxtjY&feature=player_embedded

Summary and impression of Chapters 1-2

The first chapter starts with Jonas. At the beginning the reader is a bit confused, because he tries to describe his feelings. He feels frightened. But he thinks that the word "frightened" is  too strong, recalling a time when he was really frightened. It was a year ago when an unidentified aircraft flew over the community twice. At first he was fascinated but than he remembered that it was against the rules to fly over the community. And now you will get an impression of his life and his society. It will be really strange. Jonas father  had an important job. He was a Nuruter. They were responsible for all the physical and emotional needs of every newchild during its earliest life. But also they released children. That means to kill children which were not perfect enough. You become more and more clear about the strange society. The people's live was regulated predetermined and fixed. You had  to make certain experiences in your life. Everything repeated from generation to generation. And your whole life ,your work,your friends were predetermined. That's what you get to know by the conversation between Jonas and his parents. It is december. The word "december" is already at the beginning of the book. But you think only of winter. But it is more important than you think. December is a big event (a ceremony) just for Jonas . It were like his 12th birthday but the difference were that if you were 12 years old you got new responsibilities in your life from the Elders. It was the most important ceremony. The Elders were responsible for your life and they made observation. They notice everything what you did. The world was under control and Jonas hadn´t a idea what Assignment the Elders would be selecting for his future, or how he might feel about it when the day came.

My first impression of the cover

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8cSXy0nhfWy2IbKU-QyWUyIsH970TZdetrMhRxRo8yIrPRsSmwpeSc-kRpGs6VK0tzYhCq204zG9_bGLTi-Au21WZnSOSTVK03DnyVWnAyKIEC2MjlTdADkhg-haflQ3TBAHe_a1XTNE/s1600/2978kc3_20.jpg

The image looks empty an cold, because there are only two persons. An old man with white beard and white hair and a young, small boy with short blond hair. The man carries black clothes and the boy carries bright clothes. This looks like a strong contrast between both. Above them appear a big ray of light. It looks very mysterious but also more friendly. You can´t see facial expressions and gestures. You notice that they stretch their arms and hands. Maybe they  build up a mental connection to each other? The blank wall and the two mysterious persons make the book interesting.