Dead? Alive? I really could argue for both sides: First off, he could be dead for a few reasons. One (though it’s not really a reason), that’s what I want; I’d love for the book to end that way. Another reason that he could be dead is that everything is too good to be true. From the snow on the hill to the sled that just happens to be there, waiting for them. I mean, what are the odds? A sled is just there, on the top of the hill, painted red, without a rider. I’m not sure if a little boy/girl put that sled there and went to the washroom or something and Jonas was just there at the perfect timing. Wait, I forgot. It’s Christmas morning. So they left it there over night? Maybe the Giver has communications outside his utopian society? Nope. Definitely not that last one. My biggest bet is the following: All his life he’s lived a lie. Everyone lied to him. His eyes lied to him. Then he receives the truth. Colour, music, pain, freedom, death, and love. He’s never been loved, unless you count the Giver’s affection for him. He’s never actually been truly loved. Like loved by your girlfriend or something. He realizes his dad is a lie, and lives one, like everyone else. He gets memories of snow and sledding. Then he gets his chance to really live the life he wants. Growing weaker and weaker he finds a red sled-his first seen colour and favourite thing to do-. What are the odds it’s a red sled. Instead of a multi coloured sled or a different colour sled, like blue. But no. What makes it feel more like Jonas is dead is the fact that that he’s being welcomed into the arms of a new family-along with Gabriel-. I think it’s his heaven. What he wanted-needed-deep down. He needed love, to feel. To be free. To have a life. To live a truthful life. Maybe he doesn’t though. Maybe, just maybe he doesn’t live that life, but dies in between both worlds. His and ours. Intertwined by only Jonas and Gabriel. That is why I think Jonas is dead, because it’s too good to be true.
Or… he’s hallucinating. Driven crazy by starvation and scrapes. One problem, it says in the book he slides on the sled. He slides down the hill with Gabriel on his chest with pain devouring his soul.
So maybe he’s not hallucinating. He could have survived and have gotten his preferred life, with loving parents, and crushes, and… well it could keep going.
Really there is no reason for me to believe that he’s alive. So I think that Jonas died and Gabriel did too. Both never getting the life of love and emotions they truly wanted. The End.