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My Initial Response
Thursday, July 1, 2010  The Giver is a very creative and imaginative story which depicts the future. The story has a plot that is fresh and new. In this community, technology is very advanced, the way of living is extraordinary and interesting and last but not least, there is actually a receiver to hold all the memories. Initially, I thought that the people are quite strange as they have not even seen aircrafts and colours before. It is only after sometime that I realised that the setting, a new environment, is totally different. Like Jonas, I do not want to live in such a community. I dislike the fact of “sameness”. Everyone seems the same. For example, everyone of a particular age will get the same type of object. Everyone in the community sees the same colours - black and white. I feel that because of sameness, there is no unique individual, causing the environment to be dull and boring. Next, the many pleasures of life are not experienced in the community. The four seasons have disappeared. The community has not experienced the pleasures of different seasons, particularly winter. Even the hills and mountains have been removed. Children and adults cannot experience the fun of sitting on a sleigh and riding down the hills and mountains covered with snow. Temperatures have been adjusted and regulated for humans to live in, to grow crops, to stop natural disasters, to shorten travelling time and to save energy required to walk on higher ground. I understand that the community wants to lead a peaceful and good life. However, does good life only refer to having no natural disasters, the right temperatures and so on?   What is a good life without the real pleasures of life? The people are missing out on all the fun. As the saying goes, “No pain, no gain.” To experience fun, they have to sacrifice some things and experience pain. For example, mountains and hills mean both fun and danger. However, we have to sacrifice a little to experience fun by having for example, feeling the pain when we fall from a certain height. Also, there is no freedom in this place. People cannot choose their own jobs, family units, spouses and children. It is said that this is done with the view that allowing people to make their own choices is dangerous. I agree to this to a small extent. However, what is life without trials and problems? This is a community with no challenges, difficulties, problems, trials, little failure and it is always peaceful. Is this really life? Although life is really peaceful, these people as a result do not understand the real meaning of life. People are supposed to experience the many pleasures of life and problems. However, such things no longer exist.  Next, what does life mean when people have no feelings? As a result, people are cold and heartless enough to release Gabriel and the lighter identical twin. These poor children obviously have the right to live. Doesn’t the community find it strange to be releasing a normal living thing? Besides that, Jonas has to take pills to suppress his feelings. As humans, we are supposed to have feelings. How can they take pills to try to stop such natural occurrences? Besides these, family warmth is also missing from the community. Since love does not exist, people can no longer experience love like the Christmas memory Jonas had.  Furthermore, the community has overly strict rules. For example, the rule of “precision of words” is strange. I agree that yes, we need to be precise but here, the community is just too overly concerned about the usage of words. The degree of the word is very important to the community. What is wrong about Jonas asking his mum whether she loves him or not? Also, at times, you just cannot express an emotion with a word but they still have to think very hard to find the appropriate word. I totally disagree with the fact that the community should have a receiver to hold all the memories. Why should the receiver suffer alone with the past bad memories? Everyone should have the memories no matter whether they are good or bad. The community has to learn how to deal and accept those painful memories though it is hard to instead of retreating so easily. After being able to deal and face these memories, the people will be stronger and understand better how to really face the difficulties in life. I feel that there should be some happy and difficult times in life. Without the ups and downs in life, I feel that life is meaningless. I like Jonas’s courage and determination in this novel. Jonas’s effort in changing the community is commendable. This novel teaches me a lot about the aspects of perseverance and courage. These apply to our daily lives as well, especially in our studies. We constantly encounter unforeseen problems and go though trials in life. However, we must continue to persevere, remain positive and work hard. We must be brave in trying out new ways in doing and solving problems and never give up when facing arduous tasks. Encouragement is important throughout the process. We should constantly encourage each other and look ahead, for we know that at the end of the journey, we will achieve our goal and bear the fruit of our labour. Lastly, we should do our best to finish the “race” well.  It is also heartwarming to see that there are still people like Jonas who are able to stand up for what is wrong and who want to make a change in society. In the present society, it is rare to find such a person since people are only concerned about themselves as they do not want to invite unnecessary trouble. Jonas’s accomplishment of changing the community such as letting people have memories of the past and seeing the spectrum of colours is remarkable. Although the process of change is both arduous and dangerous, Jonas still risks his life, sacrifices everything and leaves the community so that it can change for the better. |
