The pain of memories

This week I read chapters 13 through 16 and it contained plenty of important and interesting development in the plot. First, we see that Jonas was starting to control its powers and started to see color. This was very interesting because we see what Jonas was thinking and what he was feeling. Later, we see the Giver in pain and Jonas helps him by taking some of the pain away. This memory is very painful and is a memory of war. After seeing this, Jonas changes his mind and wants everything to be as it once was. Because of all of this pain, the Giver counteracts it with the memory of Christmas and the emotion of love. And finally, we learn that people do not know love.

Jonas did not want to go back. He didn't want the memories, didn´t want the honor, didn't want the wisdom, didn´t want the pain.

In this quote I can see what Jonas feels. He finally understood the pain that the Giver had been feeling and it was something horrible. I was very surprised. I did not expect Jonas to be weak. I personally thought that he had been chosen because of his tolerance to pain and because of his bravery. I expected Jonas to be the strongest being in the whole community. Although, I kind of expected it to happen at some point. After seeing this, I was eager to know what would happen next. Although I do not think war will be the worst memory.

In the end of the chapter I was troubled with the fact that Jonas´s community did not have love. In the end of chapter 16 we learned that Jonas' relatives don't know love and Jonas is troubled by that. In my opinion this is really sad because they have never told Jonas that they love him like a normal father in our
community would do. I have really liked this book and can't wait to continue reading to find out what happens next.

summary chapters 9-12

In chapters 9-12 in my reading of the book the giver many interesting things happened. First we were introduced to Jonas assignment as the new receiver. For this to happened we found out what his instruction folder said about his assignment. In this folder we saw few instructions and rules like "you may not discuss your training with anyone" and " you are prohibited from dream telling" and finally and the most shocking one "you may lie" this caused a lot of confusion on Jonas. Next Jonas is properly introduced with the current receiver or The Giver. In his first day at his assignment Jonas is shown how the transplant of memories is conducted and he is given a memory of him riding in a sled.This then leads to more memories including a painful one involving sunburn. This causes Jonas to ask many questions as we are left with a desire to keep reading.

This quote that says "you may lie" and is situated in Jonas's folder containing the descriptions of the assignment, really causes me confusion and many thoughts rush through my mind. In this quote I am interested in Jonas's reaction and on the previous receiver also known as the giver. First Jonas is amazed by this sentence because it had never occurred to him that lying was a possibility and in that instance he was sure he would not take advantage of the privilege. Also right on top of it was another weird privilege like " you may be rude" and Jonas thought of not taking advantage of it as well. This interested me because the lying part is a bit understandable because he may not participate on dream telling nor tell anybody about his assignment as receiver. But allowing someone to be rude does not seem as a understandable privilege. His assignment does not have anything to do with being rude so I do not understand it. I hope this will be explained in the future because it sound like a really interesting idea.

All of this weeks reading has left me with a lot of question and information that we do not understand at the moment. For example, I am not sure about what kind of pain will Jonas suffer and if his pain will be too much for him. In this chapters Jonas felt a strong pain involving sunburn but in the book hints were dropped about that just being a insignificant pain compared to whats ahead. Although we did not read about it this week, I am still very interested in the previous receiver and what happened to her. Did she die? Did she run away? Also, I am still wondering, when will Jonas find out about the true meaning of his assignment? I have really enjoyed the book and I am anxious to know how the story will develop.

Chapters 5-8

In  this past week I have read chapters 5-8 of the book The Giver by Lois Lowry. Reading this chapters have helped me understand more about the book, the characters and the plot. In this chapters, we learned more about Jonas and his crush Fiona. Jonas is aging, meaning that he is changing and this is causing some confusion. To prevent Jonas from having any kind of pleasure, the community requests them to take a pill to prevent feeling that his mom describes as stirrings. Later on the chapter, we finally encounter the ceremony of twelve. In this ceremony, we learned Ashers new assignment as assistant director of the recreation center and Jonas new assingnment as the next receiver in the community which is the most honored job. We also learned about some of Jonas´s qualities, like the ability to see beyond and we learned that because of fathers' request, Gabriel is given an additional year of nurturing.

"But when he looked across the crowd, the sea of faces, the thing happened again. The thing that had happened with the apple."

This quote causes me confusion because I am not sure of what exactly is Jonas seeing. I am not sure if it is just a change of color or if it is a light. And furthermore, I am not sure if him seeing this "thing" is a quality for being the receiver in the community.  If this is it,  I am not sure what is that quality. The ability to see beyond should be in your mind and your thoughts, not depending if you see a strange thing or not. If this is a quality that a receiver must have I would be surprised and I would be in need of further explanations. In conclusion, to know what is this strange thing that Jonas encounters, we will need to continue reading the book the giver, but for the time being we will need to draw our own predictions.

Jonas's new assignment will prove to be a little difficult and a little exhausting. I wonder how will Jonas and the older receiver of memories will get along and how will Jonas like his assignment. I predict that Jonas will not like his assignment and all the hard work that it involves, but later when he truly understands it, he won't have much of a choice. To be the receiver of memories will be a very hard job, they'll need someone with a strong will, and that is something that I think that Jonas has. In the end, because of all of his visions and memories he will leave the community. Right now, we don't totally understand the role that baby Gabriel is playing but soon we will. Gabriel has
to be connected to the story in some way. This is all
speculation but at the end, time will tell.

Meaningful Life

1st paragraph: summary of the previous week's chapters

In the chapters I have read this past week, I have learned a lot about Jonas's life and about his community. First, I was introduced to Jonas's community and to Jonas himself. In the following chapters, I learned about Jonas's emotions and his responses to everything around him. His whole world is about to change because he will soon be twelve years old and he will receive an assignment for the rest of his life. I have also learned about his friends, Asher and Fiona and his family, his mom, dad and little sister Lily. These chapter have also given me an inside look about Jonas's life and what his personality is. In conclusion, reading these chapters have been a wonderful experience and I can not wait to find out what happens next.

2nd paragraph: text response

"Well, they tried to make her life sound meaningful. And of course," she added primly, "all lives are meaningful, I don't mean that they aren't. But Edna. My goodness. She was a birth mother, and then she worked in Food Production for years, until she came here. She never even had a family unit." 
My reaction to this text was somewhat frustrated. I was frustrated because I was surprised that Larissa called Edna "just a birth mother". To me a birth mother is one of the noblest and most important jobs that someone can have. She is sacrificing her body to bring a new life into the world and that is something really important. I also felt a bit of irony given that Edna's Job was probably a lot more important than Larissas because for the community to survive, they need birth mothers to bring in new life. 



3rd paragraph: Final thoughts and comments

Jonas's community has a lifestyle and certain life rules that we can't fully understand yet. Nevertheless, they are really interesting and I feel really eager to find out what will happen next. Jonas's community does not understand many things that we do. For example, freedom of speech, freedom to choose basically how to live our lives.  This confuses me, and I try to figure out how it would be to live like that. Could we ever know if there is another way to live? This leads me to predict that there will be a change in their community and that Jonas will find a different lifestyle similar to the one we live in. This book has really helped me to developed my thoughts and I believe that it is worth reading.