The Giver Discussion 2

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Hello, hello, hello my Dear Blog. Once again I am required to do a blog post!!! As I have previously mentioned before, I do love blog posts! They are one of the very few homework assignments that I, well, let's just say that I actually enjoy doing...

So what you have missed so far on the book we are reading called The Giver is that Jonas becomes more and more involved in his training and The Giver gives him memories. Therefore earning the name "The Giver..." Jonas gets memories from The Giver when he puts his hands on Jonas's back. Sometimes the memories are very pleasant and at other times the memories are excruciatingly painful. A very pleasant memory that Jonas received was riding down a hill with a sled during Winter time. I am pretty sure that basically everyone has experienced this, and we all know that it is highly entertaining. Especially for Jonas as it is his first time ever. But a not so great time for Jonas was war. Yes, The Giver gave Jonas a memory of war, and we all know how terrible war is. Some of us may have even may have experienced it. But we know that war is not a good thing. This puts Jonas in pain to see other's getting killed or himself dying of hunger. So basically all that you have missed out on is Jonas starting to get more serious memories, pleasurable and non - pleasurable. Now that you have gotten the quick catch - up let me continue with the task that I was given.

This particular blog post assignment is to answer one of the following questions from below.

1. When Jonas learns all about colors, he claims "it isn't fair that nothing has color." Why does he say this?

2. Why does Jonas find the instruction of lying so disturbing?

3. Why does the Giver say that making choices would be frightening for people?

I think that I will choose Number Two to do. I do not want to do Number One because honestly I do not think I could write three paragraphs as to why Jonas thinks it isn't fair that nothing has color. And honestly, it is a very easy assignment to answer Number One. It just does not seem like a very exciting thing to write about. Number Three is pretty "okay" to do, I suppose. But it doesn't interest me that much. Which now leaves Number Two. Number Two is the best blog post to do (in my personal private opinion) because it shows what Jonas really thinks. Jonas finds this very disturbing. And I love to explain things. So I would love to explain why Jonas thinks this! This is why I chose Number Two.

Jonas has started his new job as the Receiver of Memory. His only rules of being the Receiver of Memories is...

1. Go immediately at the end of school hours each day to the Annex entrance behind the House of the Old and present yourself to the attendant.

2. Go immediately to your dwelling at the conclusion of Training Hours each day.

3. From this moment you are exempted from rules governing rudeness. You may ask any question of any citizen and you will receive answers.

4. Do not discuss your training with any other member of the community, including parents and Elders.

5. From this moment you are prohibited from dream - telling.

6. Except for illness or injury unrelated to your training , do not apply for any medication.

7. You are not permitted to apply for release.

8. You may lie.

- You may lie.... This rule sticks out to Jonas. The other rules he can deal with, but "YOU MAY LIE...." It seems as if Jonas does not like this rule very much. Let me tell you why now. This rule is completely the opposite as to what Jonas has been following his whole life. In all of his life Jonas never could lie. If he did he would be punished. In our community every body has told a lie. Everybody, I am sure of it. There is not a single person who has not told a lie. But imagine if you were told to do something your whole entire life and then later on they said that you didn't have to. You would feel strange doing that right? I would at least. In our community if we told a lie nothing bad would happen really. Maybe people would dislike us slightly for telling a lie if they found out it was a lie. Or you could get scolded for telling lies. There are even things called "White Lies". That means a lie that is not meant to be found out, a lie that is not supposed to be hurtful to people. But I think that all lies can be hurtful to people. An example of a "White Lie" is when someone invites you to their dinner party and you say:

"I'm sorry I cannot make it because my daughter has the flu."

Something like that would be called a "White Lie". But in Jonas's community nobody lies. So this is why it is hard for him to start telling lies.

- Jonas finds the instruction of being able to tell lies so disturbing and nerve - racking because he never was allowed to tell lies before. Once Jonas had said he was starving and he was immediately taken outside to have a talk about lies. So as you can see lies are a very serious thing in Jonas's society/community. But now that Jonas is able to tell lies he feels uncomfortable with them. Jonas could lie to anybody he wanted to. He would not get into trouble anymore, so basically everything that he would say could be a lie. Nobody could get him into trouble. He would just put himself into a troublesome social position. Nobody really likes liars. But sometimes Jonas would be forced to lie. He cannot always try to stop lying. If somebody asked him a very embarrassing question Jonas could lie and say something that would not be very embarrassing. One of Jonas's rules said that he could not tell dreams to his family. If his parents asked Jonas,

"Did you have a dream Jonas Dear?"

He could say....

"No."

But that would be a lie! So it is fine if Jonas lies, he would not get into trouble anymore, but even if his parents found out he was lying I do not think they would mind it very much. But only if Jonas showed them his rules.

- Now Jonas is paranoid because he is thinking that what if everyone got the rule "You May Lie." Then he would never know if they were lying or not. His whole life could be spent pondering about that. He could ask somebody...

"Do you love me?"

And if they said "yes" or "no", he would never ever find out whether they were telling the truth or not. Since one of Jonas's rules is that he can ask any question whether it be rude or not, he was wondering about going right up to his Father and asking:

"In your training rules did it tell you that you were allowed to lie?"

But if his Father says "yes", it most likely would be true. Or if he said "no" you would never know if he was telling the truth or not. So Jonas decides not to ask his Father. If this rule was given to me, I think that a gigantic part of my life would be ruined. I would never even know if people were lying to me or not. I think that that is very sad. Don't you.

So as you can most likely probably see, there are many reasons for Jonas to feel uncomfortable about lying. That's all for now folks! Tune in next time for more of Peggy's blog posts!!!!!!!!

Love from,

Peggy.