The Giver Reading Analysis #3

At the start of chapter nine Jonas feels, for the first time separate from the other kids. It wasn't just a that his training was done alone it was the he couldn't discuss his training and even if he could he just didn't know how to explain it. After thinking about the rules they had given him he started to think if what if every kid at the age twelve gets the same instruction: "you may lie". Jonas wondered if every question he had asked had been answered or if he had been lied to. At the start of chapter 10 Jonas and Fiona were heading to their practice in the house of the old and both of them were nervous about their first day of training and they did not want to be late. When Jonas got to the Annex he realized some of the doors there were locked and he had never seen that before in the community so he felt uncomfortable about it but the Attendant reassured him saying that they were just there to insure The Receiver's privacy. When Jonas' training started the Giver told him he could ask him any question he wanted. At first Jonas did not want to ask questions even though he had so many. It was time for Jonas to receive his first memory, the Giver told Jonas to take of his shirt and lay down onto of the bed. The Giver decided to start with the memory of snow and sleds, he placed his hands on Jonas' back and after a few seconds he had a vision of being onto of a hill and sliding down through it, Jonas liked that feeling and wondered why had they decided to get rid of snow and mountains and go to sameness. The giver also transmitted the memory of sunshine and of sunburn to Jonas. Jonas finished his first training day and that nigh he dreamed of sliding dow the hill again he really enjoyed it even though it was just one memory. Later Jonas started seeing changes things around him like Fiona's hair like he had seen before in the apple, he asked the Giver and he also saw the change on the Giver's books. The giver told him he was starting to see the color red. Jonas had a hard time understanding colors since no one else than the Giver understood them so the Giver decided to transmit to Jonas the memory of a rainbow.

When the Giver gives Jonas the memory of sunburn after giving him the memory of sunshine in page 86 Jonas said "It hurt a lot but I'm glad you gave it to me. It was interesting. And now I understand better, what it meant, that there would be pain." This part was specially interesting for me because it made me think of a theme of this book which is the relationship between pain and pleasure. I think there is a thin line between pain and pleasure for example the things that harm us give us excitement and
the things that give us pleasure can also do us harm. Jonas liked the memory of sunshine but in excess it gave him sunburn that caused him pain. I think that almost anything in excess has bad consequences. A lot of people like extreme activities because it gives them a surge that nothing else can. Even practicing activities that could kill you can give you pleasure and that interests me about this quote because even small things that we sometimes don't even consider like sunshine can cause us pain or pleasure. I think Jonas also understands that the pain he will get from his training will come from memories and mainly mistakes of mankind.

This book is really interesting for me and I can't wait to see what happens next. I think that in the future this book will tell us about the mistakes we have made and what led to a world such as Jonas'. I think this book has more than it explicitly tells us and I believe it should be paid closed attention for hidden messages. I really enjoy reading this book and I think it has really insightful ideas about some of the characteristics of mankind.