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