The Giver Chapters 1-5

Summary 

The Giver starts with Jonas remembering one year ago when he saw an aircraft  passing through the community very close, he was feeling frightened. These story talks about Jonas and how he feels about the ceremony of 12 that is coming in December. Jonas was trying to figure out how he feels and he was not feeling frightened he was feeling eager. Jonas, his mom, dad and his little sister Lily shared their feelings in the rituals of feelings. His sister went first and she said she was angry, then Jonas said he was feeling apprehensive about the ceremony of 12 and his father told him that when he was his age he received his assignment and he told Jonas that the elders gave him the job of nurturer and he was so happy because that was the assignment he wanted. He also told him that everyone gets an assignment that they like and Jonas' father starts talking about his old friends. His father told him that the 12 ceremony is the last ceremony and that after the ceremony of twelve has passed it doesn't matter the age and that he will go to another group, he will no longer have his old friends. Jonas' father wanted to take care of a new born child because he was going to get released because he was not growing as good as he was supposed to. Lily talked about how cute he was and that he had pale eyes like Jonas. Lily was considering being a birth mother because she liked the new born but her mother told her that she couldn't see her baby and she didn't wanted to be a birth mother any more. Then Jonas was thinking about Lily's assignment and how she could be and speaker because she didn't shut up. Then he starts remembering about a time he was playing with Asher (Jonas friend) with an apple and in the air he saw that the apple changed but then in his hands the apple was normal again. The next day Jonas sees Asher and Fiona's (Jonas friend) bikes in the House of Old so he goes inside to volunteer to. Then he went and help Larissa take a bath and she starts talking about Robert, an old man that had been released from the House of Old. In the morning ritual they shared their dreams and Jonas said that his dream was blurry but that he was feeling angry at first but then his feeling was wanting. In his dream he saw Fiona and a bath tub and Jonas wanted her to get in the bath tub. Then her mother got him pills for the "stirrings" and she told Jonas that everyone needs to take them in the morning. 

Text Responses 

These are the quotes that I picked:

"The same size and shape: a perfect sphere. The same nondescript shade, about the same shade as his own tunic."(24)

In this quote Jonas is describing an apple. I realized that they don't describe things with colors. They describe shapes, sizes and shades. For example when they talk about the eyes of Jonas and Gabe. I think that they don't know what is a color and that they think everything is the same. They don't have birthdays they have ceremonies and also they don't have much freedom. In conclusion the people don't know many things.






... "what happens when they make the actual release? Where exactly did Roberto go?"(32)

When I read this quote I thought about the life of people that were released. I thought that there was not so  bad  as the community makes it sound because I thought that they could do anything there are no more rules. Also I thought that they could be free it is not a punishment its better to be released of the community.  Also I think that Robert went to a nicer place were you could be alone some time and didn't have to talk about your feelings all the time. In conclusion I think this quote is very significant for the rest of the book.

Final Thoughts 


I think that this community is strange because there are so many rules and there are punishments. This rules are very crazy like not hiding your feelings or having rituals all the times where you need to discuss about your day or your dreams. Also I think the community is very weird  because they talk about animals as imaginary creatures and they talk  about animals as wild. Another thing is that Jonas' community is very harsh with people they want to be a perfect community without any mistakes. For example they give assignments to everyone, they don't let you choose and also to have an assignment you have to complete volunteer hours. Also in every birthday (that is the same day for everyone) you get something like at 9 you get a bike and you are not suppose to ride a bike before you are 9. Another thing is that they never describe things with a color. In conclusion I think that the community is a very close community.