Freedom & Choice

'Gabriel's breathing was even and deep. Jonas liked having him there, though he felt guilty about the secret. Each night he gave memories to Gabriel: memories of boat rides and picnics in the sun; memories of soft rainfall against windowpanes; memories of dancing bare-footed on a damp lawn.

"Gabe?"

The new child stirred slightly in his sleep, Jonas looked over at him.

"There could be love" Jonas whispered.

The next morning, for the first time, Jonas did not take his pill. Something within him, something that had grown there through the memories, told him to throw the pill away'

I think that this quote relates to the subject of freedom and choice because it shows that Jonas is doubting the choices of the community, and is starting to think about making choices and having freedom. In the community, everything was controlled, and it had become such a habit that the people never thought of 'freedom' or 'choice.' They were just so used to have everything decided for them. From chapters 16-18, it also shows Jonas' thoughts on what had been going on in the community, and his feelings about it. The quote shows that Jonas wants everyone to be free, to feel love, to feel pain. 

Chapters 16-18 relates to freedom because because it shows that Jonas is slowly starting to feel restrained, so that he even decided to skip his daily pills, on the page of 129. Though it might not show in the direct way, it shows that Jonas is slowly starting to rebel against the rules of the community, starting with not taking his pill that was required for everyone to take starting from when they had the 'stirrings.' 

Another thing that shows how chapter 16-18 relates to the subject of freedom is that in page 134, it said that Jonas had sensed a feeling of loss, since he had felt love for Asher and Fiona, but that they couldn't feel any emotions back. I think that Jonas wanted them to have a chance to feel actual feelings, but that would require freedom. 

The third reason of why I think that chapters 16-18 relates to the idea of freedom is because that he couldn't tell anyone anything, about his job, feelings, memories, dreams, nothing. Before, he had a little more freedom, but now since he received his assignment, his freedom was all taking away. Jonas wasn't even allowed to ask for a Release.

I think that chapters 16-18 relates to the idea of choice is that the citizens never got a choice, and Jonas is starting to question the method of one person choosing the life of another. Jonas wants everyone to feel emotions, and most of all, love, on page 135. In his community, there was no such thing as 'choice', as everything that the citizens in the community did was all decided by the Elders of the town. Everything was done for them, no questions asked.
Jonas wasn't allowed to have what he wanted: he couldn't have the choice to ask for a Release, a choice to see which memories he could gain from The Giver, the choice the share his feelings and events of the day with his family. 


Chapter 16-18 does relate to the idea of freedom and choice in many ways. In these 3 chapters, there are lots of mentions and implications of Jonas wanting freedom and choice-not just for himself, but for everyone. Freedom and choice are closely related subjects, and if they get one of the two, they most likely would get the other because freedom and choice reflects on each other. It's like saying, you have the 'freedom of making choice', or you have the 'choice to gain freedom'-something along those lines. Maybe the quote above signifies the importance of having freedom and choice, and is possibly the start of Jonas and The Giver's rebellion. 

The Giver: Comments

In humanities, we were told to comment on our friend's blogpost for The Giver. I decided to comment on:

-Aishah's Blog Post

and

- Alexandra's Blog Post

Choices: Are they frightening?

In the novel, The Giver, the Giver had told Jonas that making choices could be frightening for people. Before that, though, Jonas had suggested that maybe if things had color, they could choose what he wanted, instead of Sameness. The Giver, however, had mentioned that you could make wrong choices, and Jonas had agreed and said, "Oh, I see what you mean. It wouldn't matter for a newchild's toy. But later it does matter, doesn't it? We don't dare to let people make choices of their own." But then again, in our modern day world, people make choices all the time. So just why are they frightening?


Well, the most simplest reason for why making choices would be frightening would be making the wrong choice. That would probably be the most voiced fear when making a choice. Several times, I have said to my parents, "What if I made the wrong choice?" After all, no one likes to make wrong choices-especially if they end up impacting you later in your life. Though the citizens in The Giver might cherish making choices for themselves, it might end up as a disaster later on. Jonas had also said, "What if they were allowed to choose their own mate? And what if they chose wrong?" I think that Jonas has a point here. When you marry someone, you usually stay with them your whole life-and in their community, there was no such thing as divorce. The Giver had suggested that it wasn't safe. 


Another reason of why The Giver had said that making choices were frightening for people was maybe because they wanted to be the same, and not stand out like an eccentric person. Maybe they were afraid of being unique and different. After all, it mentioned that certain age groups wore certain clothes. Maybe the Elders thought that if someone was rich and someone else was poor, the poorer one wouldn't be jealous. And if someone was jealous, then they might do things they might regret later, so it could also be frightening making choices. 


Choices effect your future. If you make the wrong choice, your whole future gets ruined. Just one little choice can affect so much. Maybe that's why it's frightening-you wouldn't want to get your whole career ruined because you made a bad choice, now, would you? I certainly wouldn't. In the book, it mentions a release-and in the earlier chapters, it had described that if you are released, it brings great shame. At the beginning of the book, a pilot had read his route wrong, and flew over the town. The speakers had announced that the Pilot-In-Training was to be released. Such a small mistake, yet it impacted a whole life. Small mistake, big mistake, you would still get released if you happened to break a big rule.


So yes, making choices may be frightening. But nevertheless, making choices is how we learn. If we didn't make mistakes, then the only way we could learn would be the things that others taught us. That's a good way to learn, but that would mean you never got to experience anything, right? After all, half of our experience comes from making mistakes-which comes from making choices. So, in a certain way, making choices can be frightening, but mostly, it is just a way to experience life.

The Giver Reflection: Would you Want your Future Chosen?

The Giver is a story written by Lois Lowry. In the book, it portrays a perfect town, or an Utopia: an ideal place of perfection. The rules are strict, the place is orderly, and everything is predictable. Even your future is chosen for you. When I first read the book, the first thought for me? This book is depressing. Why? Because they live their life like robots. Everything they do is what they were told to do. So, I picked the prompt: Would you want your future to be decided by others ? Why or Why not?

In all honesty, it depends. Sometimes in life, you want things chosen for you while in other parts, you want to make the decision yourself. And at other times, you simply didn't have a choice, like Jonas and his family. But in reality, life isn't that simple. It is never handed out on a silver platter so easily. Instead, life is more like a road, and sometimes there are many roads you could choose to follow, each one ending up with it's own

consequence. Whatever you do, something good or bad comes out of it. Sometimes, you really just don't have a say in your life. Like when I moved to Malaysia, it wasn't by my own choice. I nearly cried for a week when I learnt that I was moving here. I wanted it to be my say whether my family and I moved or not. But alas, that was my dad's decision, and not mine. If I sum it all my feelings and thoughts up though, my answer would be:

No. I wouldn't like to have my future chosen. Why? Because life is about making choices. If we didn't make our choices, we would have to follow someone else's demands. Like how everyone in the community has to do the jobs that the Elder had chosen for them. If you had a gentle nature, you had a job like Nurturer or the Director of the House of Old. If you had imagination, you would be an architect. You had no say at all of what you would want to be when you grew up. That would infuriate me. I generally hate people dictating my life. To me, all the decisions I make are the ones I make for myself, and I would take the consequence for whatever happened because it would be my fault. To have the gift of choosing taken away from me would be like living an empty, gray life with absolutely no excitement.

Also, to me, taking away the ability to make choices is like taking freedom away. After all, isn't freedom about doing what you want? Well, in The Giver, they didn't have a choice. They were only given bikes at the age of nine, and starting at the Eights, you had to do volunteering hours. And everyone in the community had to depend on each other in some way. From what I have read so far, if one person got taken away, such as the Director or Recreation, things would start falling apart. I like to be independent, and not have to rely on someone to do things.

If you were also able to choose your own destiny, you could experience so many more things. The minute you have your future decided, you become biased, and only do things that would help you in your future. That would be all you would ever strive and work for. In other words, you become single-minded. Not knowing your destiny lets you do so many things, like climb mountains, invent things, write a story, and so much more. Life is about making mistakes. If you don't make any, you practically learn nothing. Having others choose your destiny gives you nothing to look forward to. While some people might take that for granted, they would never know what they were missing out. You would think, "I know what I am going to do, have got everything planned out, now what am I to do?"

But even so, sometimes you don't get to choose. Monarchy is passed down, and you have to become King/Queen no matter what. But when you get a choice, think of it as a gift, and not a liability. There are people who want to have the choice to choose their destiny. Many people don't, like slaves. They don't get to choose their destiny. It's controlled by their masters. In The Giver, the people in the community are like slaves that way, and their masters are the Elders. The Elders chooses the people's occupation, love life, children. Those three things are probably what makes up a life most. So I choose to have the privilege to make my own choices.

What about you?

Graphic Source:

- http://www.clmchurch.com/site_backup/images/destiny.jpg

- http://ritamou.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/medium_diverging_paths.jpg

-http://www.randomhouse.ca/images/dyn/cover/?source=9780553571332&height=300&maxwidth=170