Freedom and Choices

For the past few weeks, I have been reading The Giver in humanities. The main character, Jonas, lives in a utopian community where everything is decided for them. Now, Jonas has started to feel that the community is unfair and wants to have more freedom and choices. We were asked to write two or more well structured paragraphs about how the quote below and the rest of chapter 16-18 relate to the theme of freedom and choice.

Quote:

"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.

In the novel The Giver, the theme is freedom and choices. The quote above and chapters 16-18 are connected to that theme. They relate to the theme of freedom and choice in several different ways.

First of all, the quote mentions that Jonas has been giving Gabriel memories for the past few nights. Jonas was not suppose to do that because Gabriel was not the receiver of memory so it was against the rules. Jonas ignored the rule and still gave him nice and calming memories. This shows that Jonas is experiencing some freedom because he is breaking the rules of the community. Another example of freedom in that quote was when Jonas did not take his pill the next morning. The pills were meant to prevent stirrings which is actually the feeling of wanting and love. When Jonas threw his pill away, that was freedom. He did what he wanted to and not what somebody else told him to do.

Chapters 16-18 also related a lot to the theme freedom and choice. For example in chapter 17, there was an unscheduled holiday and Jonas could do whatever he want as long as he didn't break any of the rules in the community. Jonas chose to go and find Asher. This proves that even though there is not much freedom and choice in the community, there is some. Another example of freedom was in chapter 18 when The Giver told Jonas about Rosemary. Rosemary was the receiver of memories in training but she was unsuccessful. Unlike Jonas, she had the choice of asking for release and Rosemary asked it after five weeks of training. The last example of choice in chapters 16-18 is that Jonas lied to his parents after he asked his parents if they loved him. Jonas' parents told him, "You used a very generalized word, so meaningless that it’s become almost obsolete." After that, they asked him if he understood why it was inappropriate to use the word love. Jonas lied by saying, "Yes, thank you, I understand." He had the choice not to lie but Jonas chose to lie.

Freedom and choice are very important because without it, you are not living your life. You are just living the life that someone else wants you to live. I believe that everyone should have the freedom and choice to do whatever they want.

Graphic Citations:

http://umattr.info/

http://www.clipartof.com/details/clipart/5839.html

Comments

This week, we were supposed to comment on other people's blog post. I commented on Nathaly's and Tiffany's blogs.

Nathaly's Blog

Tiffany's blog

Why is Making Choices Frightening to the Community?

In humanities, I am reading The Giver by Lois Lowry. In the novel, everything is chosen for the community. Nobody has to make any decisions except for the elders.

Why does The Giver say that making choices would be frightening for people?

In the novel, The Giver told Jonas that making choices will be frightening for people. When he said this, I think that he was referring to important decisions that can impact your whole life. The Giver said this for several reasons. The first reason is because the people had never had to make a important decision for themselves before. Not even their in choosing their jobs. In the novel, nobody gets to chose their jobs because the elders choose it for them. The community doesn't even get to chose simple things like their comfort animal or if they want to cut their hair or not. It will be frightening to them to wake up one morning and suddenly have to be independent in everything that they do. The people have never been independent and they are uncomfortable with making choices.

Another reason is because I think that the people in Jonas' community is scared to make big mistakes. They know that it can result in release and they don't want that, so all their lives they have been careful and listened to their parents, teachers, and the elders. In the beginning of the book, a pilot misread the directions of where to fly to, causing a lot of confusion, and in result, he had been released. If the people had to make decisions, they will make mistakes at some point in their lives. There was no doubt in that and because the people are afraid, they never tried making decisions for themselves.

The last reason why The Giver said that it would be frightening to the people to make decisions is because they don't want to be different from other people. In the community, because the people don't have to choose anything, everyone is similar in what they look like and what they do. In the novel, it says that before tuning ten, all the little girls have to wear hair ribbons. Also, depending on how old you are, you get specific types of clothes. They had strict rules about when you eat and when you start your volunteer hours. People in the community are always similar in how they look and what they do to others their age. If they had to made choices, everyone would choose different things which will make them unique and special. I think that the people might be afraid of being different.

Graphic Citations:

http://www.startbeingyourbest.com/2009/04/life-design-wrapup/

Would You Chose Your Own Future?

In humanities, we are doing literature circles on a Utopia unit. Half the class are reading The White Mountains by John Christopher and the other half are reading The Giver by Lois Lowry. I am reading The Giver which is about a boy named Jonas. In his community everything is controlled and decided by the elders. Their families, food, names, even their futures are chosen for the people in the community.

Would you want your future to be decided by others? Why or Why not?

I would not like to have my future completely decided for me. I would want some advice and suggestions from my parent, teachers, or friends on what they think would be the best future for me. This is because I don't think that anyone is wise enough to make a decision that will effect everything about somebody's future alone. You will always need help from others. Even in The Giver there are a group of people deciding someone's future, not just one person. This is important because when others share their ideas with you, it might not be something that you have ever considered. Unlike The Giver, I would like to be part of the group deciding my future. I want to help decide my future because I want to have a job that interests me.

Another reason why I want to decide my own future is because if I make a wrong choice, I have to blame myself and not someone else. I think this is good because if I blame someone for making a bad decision for me, it would be very hard for me to forgive them. In The Giver, the people just send an appeal to the elders if they don't like their jobs. For us it is not that easy because we will get angry and upset if we don't get a job that we want. It is because we have feelings but the community in The Giver doesn't. I want to decide my own future because I don't want to be angry or upset at someone even if I know that it is not their fault. Also, I do not want another person to feel guilty or feel like they ruined my life.

The last reason why I want to decide my own future is because it is a decision that I want to make even if I do need others opinions to help me. I don't want to live a life that someone else chose for me. I want to live my life. In The Giver, they don't get to chose their lives and Jonas is starting to feel that it is unfair. I don't want to feel like Jonas, like I am forced to do something. Also, I only have one life to live, I will not get a second life.

"It's my life
It's now or never

I ain't gonna live forever

I just wanna live while I'm alive

It's my life!"

It's My Life by Bon Jovi

Graphic Citations:

http://americanauthorsa.wikispaces.com/OFOTCN+Combine

http://www.etsy.com/error.php?error_id=8