Month: December 2014 (Page 1 of 5)

Why do think “love” is obsolete?

I think love is obsolete because if I apply for a wife but love someone else, that screws with the system and we have a divorce. If everyone starts following their hearts than its chaos. That’s why we can’t follow our hearts.

The community elders want everything strictly regulated and if someone decides to stop taking the pills for stirrings then love will be unleashed. I think the pills are stopping more than just the stirrings. I think its stopping emotions; love, anger, hatred, etc. I think this because your first crush comes naturally at your own age. Like Asher started taking his pills at a younger age than Jonas. It even said that Asher had a crush on Fiona. Taking what we know, the pills have got to be the reason no one has had girlfriend, or a second crush, because the pills are a drug that is devouring your emotions.

What does love mean to this community?

I think love is meaningless to them. To the whole community (except for Jonas and the Giver). When Jonas asked his father if he loved him, the answer was pretty much “no”. The word “love” is old fashion. They don’t know “true love” or the love for your family. Even the way you “love” a friend. They don’t know the different types of love. Whether it’s with your wife, parents, friend. The community doesn’t know the phrase “love you as a friend” or “goodnight mom, love you” or even “love you”. Yeah, it’s confusing, but this community has no feeling of love.

In Jonas’ community, the word Love has become obsolete (they do not use it any more).

I think it has become obsolete because now if people want a spouse they get matched according to their interests. In the book when Jonas’ received the memory of love from the giver, he went home and asked his parents if they love him. His mom said “Precision of language” and his dad said “we enjoy you” as a response. I think love used to be in the community before the elders changed everything.

I think love has no meaning in Jonas’ community because they do not want anyone loving each other. I think they like their matching system better because they can control it more.

So overall I think the community has replaced love with more precise words.

Why do you think “LOVE” has become obsolete?

I think “LOVE” has become obsolete because it would’ve made everything in the community go out of order. I think this because in the book they have to apply for a spouse and they get matched up by the committee of elders. But if the love someone else it would never work out with their matched partner no matter how perfect of a match they are.

I also think “LOVE” would mess up the community because if two people are in love and they skip their jobs to be together, the person who skipped their job would have to be released, and the other person couldn’t live and go on with their life knowing that their loved one was released. So obviously they would want to join them, and that would cause havoc and chaos in the community with two people gone and not having a certain job done by a certain person.

And my last reason why I think that “LOVE” would be a huge mess is because of reality. If this community was actually like real life, the committee letting people love whoever they want and be with whoever they want, reality would catch up to them at some point, and they could stop loving each other like they used to. And the committee may have changed some things to let them be together but who says they still don’t want a perfect world?

So my final point is that ‘LOVE=CHAOS+HAVOC’ but my other point is that ‘LOVE=JOY+HAPPINESS’

 What do you think “LOVE” means to this community?

I think that love may mean no equality or sameness. And that’s why the committee of elders took the word ‘LOVE’ and made it obsolete. I think this because if you have a sibling and your parents say they “love you equally” you and your sibling are probably going to have an argument about your parents loving one of you better. And that would create chaos. And in this community, the committee of elders want a utopian society and they’ll do anything to have that. Even if that means they have to take one of the amazing emotions known as LOVE.

Why do think “LOVE” has become obsolete?

If you applied for a spouse but didn’t love them, you would want to get a divorce. But in this community you’re not allowed to be with another person that hasn’t been assigned to you. And the community can’t force you to love the girl or guy you marry. Because you could stop taking the pills anytime you wanted, and the community wants you to be perfect. Love the people they give you and no one else. So if the community can’t get you to love your family, then they mine as well take away love for good. So it doesn’t interrupt the utopian society that they want!

What do you think “LOVE” means to this community

I think that the people in the community have little understanding of want love actually means. I think that the people don’t use love because it is too strong a word. Because if you love someone you will always want to be with them. So if you love someone other than your family it messes up the community. And in the book when Jonas asked his mom and his dad if they loved him, they answered but in a different way. They said to him that they don’t use the word love anymore. And they gave him examples of sentences he could have used instead of love. Like: Do you enjoy me? Or, do you appreciate me? They kind of get it but still they don’t know that love is way more powerful. Way more meaningful. Even his mother said: “You used a very generalized word, so meaningless that is has become obsolete.” Love has sooooo many different meanings. Whether you love your family or you love a friend. So overall I think that this community doesn’t really know what love means but they think of it as liking, no loving.

-Jaime

I think Jonas and Gabriel are dead because before you die, you start to hallucinate and start thinking about the things you want to see and in the book (page 178-180) Jonas saw The Giver’s happiest memory and he heard singing, music and lights and it also said that “perhaps it could have been an echo”.

Also Jonas found some berries and fed it to Gabriel and himself, and those berries could have been nightlok or some poisoness berry that they didn’t know about.

In the book Jonas fell off of his bike, scraped his knee, injured himself, and twisted his ankle, and after a little while he started to lose consciousness and he felt dizzy.

A lot of people say that Jonas does have courage and that he wants to protect Gabriel, so he can’t die, but just because he said that doesn’t mean that he will stay alive, and anyways he has never been out of the community before so he doesn’t know how to really take care of himself. The only thing he has are the memories The Giver gave him.

I think that “elsewhere” is heaven because it’s a safe place and it does exist, and Jonas and The giver said that they do believe it exist, and “elsewhere” is supposed to be a safe place that Jonas ad Gabriel could go to, also Gabriel’s name means “the messenger of god” or an “angel” so maybe Gabriel is trying to bring and show Jonas where elsewhere (heaven) is.

So that’s why I think that Jonas is dead, and in conclusion it basically means that their dead.

By: Saroj

2014.12.17

I predict that Jonas and Gabriel are dead. And I have all the facts to prove this theory.

When Jonas is on the hill, and he so happens to find the sled from the memory the giver showed him in the exact same spot… Does that even make any sense? No it does not. And why? Because it’s snowing and the sled is on the very top of the hill, how is it not covered in snow? But the thing is it should be so he must be mourning for that happy, happy memory and because he is so hungry he is actually hallucinating that he is there. And there are several reasons why it is possible for his hallucinations:

A: When he had fallen off of his bike, he scraped his knees and twisted his ankle. So he could be hallucinating that he is in the memory because of the pain

B: He could also be hallucinating from his open knees falling on the hill. It’s possible because if there was dirt in the snow, and it got in his open flesh knees, the could’ve gotten dirt in his bloodstream and infected which could cause hallucination.

C: When Jonas ran out of food and they ate fish and river water, they also ate berries. And who’s saying that they weren’t poisonous berries? No one is. And connecting to The Hunger Games, they had poisonous berries called Nightlock which can kill you in an instant, so maybe the berries that Jonas ate were like those berries but a less instantaneous way to kill and less poisonous that only mess with your mind.

Hallucination can happen in any of these ways, but the visions that show up are trying to block the image of the angels taking them to heaven. And they block them by taking advantage of the visions of the sled and houses and singing as they are going to The Final Destination as it said in the book.

Another fact is that because Jonas gave up on caring about himself, and only cared for Gabe, Gabriel wanted to give back to Jonas with memories of joy and happiness before they died and went to Elsewhere (Heaven). And this is possible because Gabriel’s name means “God/Angels are my strength” and “God’s/angels gift” maybe the angels are pulling back the gift and strength and Gabriel is trying to give Jonas a happy joyous memory to relieve him as they die because of all Jonas did for him.

The reason Jonas even went to elsewhere in the first place is because the giver and him both wanted everyone to feel the whirlwind of emotions and tornado of heartfelt moments they had experienced. So when the giver had sent Jonas to go to elsewhere to release the memories, Jonas nor did the giver know that the only way for the memories to be released is for Jonas to die. It was the only way, (like when Rosemary was released) and when Jonas found out that it was time for his death, it was too late.

I think Jonas is dead because as he keeps going on the landscape changes in to something more natural and the world changes into the world before sameness, which was the world Jonas wanted to live in. this could mean he is already dead and his soul is living the life he wanted to live because the giver said the whole world chose to go into sameness which means there couldn’t have heard people singing or seen houses with Christmas lights and trees as if the whole world chose to go into sameness there wouldn’t be people who still have memories of things like love and colors. Also because the whole world chose to go into sameness the sled at the top of the hill would have been frozen and coved in snow and the rope would have been rotting and falling apart

I think that Jonas is alive because he clearly states that he wants to save Gabriel from being released. On page 180, he says that he thinks he hears music; but The Giver never gave the memory of “hearing-beyond”. It must have been an echo, not the music of angels.

With the memories that The Giver gave him (the hill and love), were probably given to Jonas to assure that he will make his journey to Elsewhere (the real world).

On page 179, Jonas said he lost consciousness, but he forced himself to stay upright. The houses of that memory connect his dream (with the snow), the snow making him to have that urge to keep sliding down the hill. Some people think he is hallucinating because he hurt his knee, and is thinking about the memory. I don’t think that because on page 93, Jonas was asked to look at the sled, there was no Gabriel with him.

Jonas had the will to live, The Giver gave him memories of courage. On page 180 he said that he was aware with certainty and joy that below, ahead, they were waiting for him, and the baby. “They” could be another community waiting for Jonas.

In conclusion I think Jonas is alive!

I think Jonas is alive because at the end of the book Jonas and Gabriel are going down the hill, he hears music but he’s never hear if music before so he’s hearing beyond. It could not have been a memory of his, because The Giver kept the memory of music. When Jonas and Gabe were freezing cold, Jonas decided to use his memory of sun and warmth to keep Gabe and himself warm.
He doesn’t have a lot of memory left but he has just enough memory to keep going, until he gets to elsewhere which I think is another community with love , colour , and feelings. In chapter twelve Jonas has a dream of him going down the hill on the sled and it says it seemed as if there was a destination where the thickness of snow brought the sled to a stop. It was welcoming , it was happened in the last chapter , when Jonas and Gabe were going down towards the destination , that was in his dream which I think is a new community that would take care of Gabe and Himself . The place he always felt was waiting.