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.

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