All or Nothing

An unscheduled holiday was held and Jonas went to visit his friend Asher, and he saw that Asher was pretending a shooting with his hand pointing as a gun, playing with kids in the community. Jonas was shocked and tried to explain Asher that this was not good, Jonas was remembering the horror of the war and he was trying to explain this to Asher but he did not want to listen. Jonas realized that in the community the feelings were unreal, also things like the slender instrument his father brought home to use it when Gabriel misbehave, or most important when Jonas saw his father ending the twin life with a syringe. The Giver talked about what had happened 10 years ago; about Rosemary the last receiver, before Jonas, all her attributes and how special she was for The Giver and how suddenly she stops being the receiver. Rosemary asked to be released since she felt the sadness, poverty and depress feelings that The Giver gave her in the memories; she couldn’t handle it. But she was really strong and she decided to release herself by putting the syringe by her own. The Giver saw a hope in Jonas to change all the bad things that were happening in the community, so they built a plan, were Jonas escape, in this way his memories will be burden by the community and with The Giver’s help they can manage them. Everything was well planned for the big day; they were going to do this on the December Ceremony. 

The quote of the book that really took my attention is the one when Jonas replied to The Giver about the memories:

“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.” (Lowry, 154)

I feel that this is very real. I think sharing memories builds relationships, also to share a memory for example a bad one, like a loss, when you share that  memory people surrounding you can help you pass through that moment and also relieves your pain, or supports you.   To share a memory is to “relive” the moment making people feel what you felt in that moment and making them experience on what you lived. I also think that if you don’t share your memories is like living so lonely and have a very sad life. Memories are what you are, and sharing them is sharing you’re the person you are.  

And also the following quote took my attention because it is related to the feelings, something really important in people’s lives:

“It’s true that it has been this way for what seems forever. But the memories tell us that it has not always been. People felt things once….” (Lowry, 154)

 Feelings are basics in human beings. If we don’t have feelings, then everything would be the same, like we would be living in neutral, there is no life, no happiness, no joy no sadness, no excitement, no nothing, like robots, or like in the book, black and white. Feelings give you life, make everything happens, for good or for bad, feelings determine our lives. It is a reflection of how you are.

In these chapters the author is taking us to the climax of the story, when we realized that ‘release’ means death.  It was very shocking for me because I really thought that ‘release’ was a physical trespass to another region out of the community; sometimes I thought it was a good thing for example when the elders felt happy about it or a bad thing when the little ones like babies with poor weight or any child misbehave or adult not following the rules was punished with a release. I can now understand many things in the book and in life itself; and also realize the importance of a lot of things in my personal life, like feelings, the importance of nature, where memories are made and the importance of sharing them, the “freedom” that we live today, not controlled by anyone, the love and care of a family, and most important, the identity, who we are, unique persons.