[Autorja është 13 vjeçe dhe jeton në ShBA]
Punishment comes in a plethora of different forms: purely physical, mental, emotional or a mix of all three. In contrast, not all punishments given are deserved. The novel The Giver by Lois Lowry is an example of just such a situation. It is the story of Jonas and his struggle to do right by his community. Jonas lives in a perfect world. Nobody is unhappy, and everyone enjoys their lives. As children turn twelve, they find out what job they will have as adults. Jonas is given a job that no one in the community really understands, except that it is position of great honor. The book gets at the major concepts of choice and emotions by describing a world where neither exist. Jonas’s assignment as the next Receiver of Memory is a punishment because he cannot share the burden of memory with anyone and he is isolated from others.
For
such a young, naive soul like Jonas, his accustomed life has now broken to
pieces. The worst part is, he can’t even share the horrible burden and
“concept” of memory to anyone. After the Ceremony of Twelves (A ceremony held
to assign all of the Twelves a career, better known as ‘Assignment’.) Jonas was
given a sheet of rules that precisely stated he was not allowed to talk about
the training and preparation he endures with anyone except for the Giver. The
Giver is the previous Receiver of Memory, whom of which is now instructing
Jonas on how to be one himself. Being restricted from talking about what he and
the Giver know to others really places a lot of nervous tension and pressure on
Jonas. It is too much for the average person let alone an inexperienced teen
like Jonas, who is just now figuring out the rights and wrongs of his
Assignment. Not only that, but he can also now no longer participate in things
that he has grown up doing; things like dream telling, feeling, and sharing his
emotions. In Jonas’s family Unit it was required that each night one would have
to share about how they’re feeling at dinner, and express the events of their
dream in the morning at breakfast. In the present day, he knows that now these
can not be followed; his knowledge forces him to lie in the situations he is
inevitably expected to participate in. Recalling the rules, they state he “may”
lie, but in many circumstances like this, it should say he “must” lie. For
Jonas, this is a very big deal because he was always seen as a “perfect child”
and he rarely had many flaws. His Assignment has taken away the privilege for
him to mentally and physically feel like a normal kid. Not to mention, but his
‘rose colored glasses’ aren’t apparent anymore. He sees that rituals and
certain rules are a manipulative tool to control the civilians in his
Community. Quite obviously, no one knows about this except for Jonas. Not being
able to take action or do something about this rubs Jonas the wrong way. While
he can break the rules, he will still have to face detrimental consequences.
This brings onto how he is aware of what will happen to the Community if he
shares his memories. Around a decade ago, there was different Receiver of
Memory in training. Her name was Rosemary. After experiencing the bright
happiness along with the horrible agony of certain memories, she went straight
to be Released. She didn't want the memories. They got into her head and she
couldn't take it anymore. No where in the rules at that time did state that she
wasn’t allowed to be Released. With this being a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence,
the community was shocked to discover that the memories Rosemary held didn’t
disintegrate into thin air, they dispersed throughout everyone within the
Community. This rose chaos and it took a very long time for the memories to be
assimilated into the Community; the people didn't want these memories. As
Rosemary may not have known about the consequences of her actions, Jonas
comprehends the fact that if he desperately wants to be Released as well, he
cant. The reason for this is that not only is it now written in the rules, but
he also is able to grasp the idea that it will negatively affect people and he
will have to face the guilt of bringing the intense, painful feelings as well
as happy ones to the Community. This is why he comes up with the idea of
running away. If he can’t be released, then running away and disappearing would
be the second resort. He talks this over with the Giver. As this happens, Jonas
begs the Giver to come with him. In Lowry’s The Giver, she states,
‘I
want to, Jonas. If I go with you, and together we take away all their
protection from the memories, Jonas, the community will be left with no one to
help them. They’ll be thrown into chaos. They’ll destroy themselves. I can’t
go.’
‘Giver,’
Jonas suggested, ‘you and I don’t need to care about the rest of them.’ The
Giver looked at him with a questioning smile. Jonas hung his head. Of course
they needed to care. It was the meaning of everything. (133)
Here, Jonas’s understanding of why the Giver must stay is very clear to him. The goal is for the community to fully live the human experience, but Jonas knows this will bring them pain, and he feels bad about the fact that he wants the Giver to come with him. Facing this guilt of selfishness is part of the punishment of his Assignment.
At the same time, when thinking of one of the worst things to experience in life, isolation might be something that comes to mind straight away. Jonas suffers this experience throughout the book. He is isolated and lonely. Physically and mentally, Jonas is being placed above everyone else in the Community. Throughout his whole life, Jonas has always been different from the others. He continuously stood out because he was the only one who had light-colored eyes. In theory, light eyes are widely known to show more of a story than darker eyes. At the Ceremony of Twelves, Jonas was initially skipped when the selection began, causing him to think this was just a slight mistake. Small panic arose, as the Elders are never prohibited to make a mistake, but many brushed it off as such, too afraid to actually ask about it. However he was skipped for a reason, the reason being that after everyone else got their selection, he would be called up onto the podium to be told he was to now and forever be honored. The Elder had stated that Jonas was a special person, he had the “capacity to see beyond.” Getting called this by the Elder also makes him secluded from the rest. This started some sort of unspoken but recognized hierarchy in the Community. One moment Jonas was one amongst hundreds of Twelves awaiting to be assigned a position, and the next moment Jonas was a respected and distinguishable person. Jonas wasn’t fond of the fact that he now had to be recognized, as being acknowledged meant that he stuck out, thus proving the point of how he is in complete isolation when it comes to being the Receiver of Memory. The only person he can really express and talk to in this circumstance, is the Giver. In addition, Jonas’s community also has no concept of the idea of color, pain and animals. This is very insignificant to them, not one soul in the entire Community is able to perceive the idea of any of these topics. This makes him feel as if it is unfair to both him and the citizens in his community. Everyone lacks the capability he has and in under those circumstances is why his job as Receiver of Memory is a punishment. In The Giver, Lowry exclaims, “He placed one hand on each of their shoulders. With all of his being he tried to give each of them a piece of the memory: not of the tortured cry of the elephant, but of the being of the elephant” (101). Here, Lowry demonstrates Jonas’s feeling of isolation very significantly. Jonas’s father is completely ignorant of what he is doing, and his sister is bothered by the fact that he’s touching her. She does not want this physical connection between her and Jonas. When Jonas tells her about the past existence of elephants, she thinks he’s kidding and just plays it off by not believing him. This puts Jonas in a tough position because expressing feelings to family is something many people do to exhale all of the bad energy, and lift a huge weight off of their back. However, without having shared experiences with anyone other than the Giver, Jonas is left all by himself to deal with all of the detrimental and beneficial outcomes of knowledge.
When one considers that the protagonist is excluded by his community and that he must carry and hold all of the memories and emotions it is clear that his position is one that makes him sacrifice to their way of life. Lowry wants the reader to consider what happens when people refuse to acknowledge that there is room for multiple possibilities within a society. This refusal to see that there is more than one choice in any given situation stagnates their growth. Taking away the freedom of choice in the name of safety is never a good way to live. After all, as Professor Dumbeldore explains to Harry in The Chamber of Secrets, “It is our choices, Harry, that we show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.“