How do chapters 16 ~ 18 relate to the theme of freedom and choice?

I definitely think that chapters 16 ~ 18 relate to the theme of freedom and choice. I’ll explain why I think it relates to choice and then I’ll explain how I think it relates to freedom.

First, I think the chapters were related to choice because Jonas ended up having to make a couple of really hard decisions. He was so upset with his town after experiencing how the world used to be so wonderful. The world used to have color, feelings, and freedom. Jonas was then presented with the choice to escape from his society and try to find Elsewhere or he could stay and try to cope with his world. That was a choice for him to make and it seems like he would obviously choose to leave but it wasn’t so easy. Getting to Elsewhere was a very difficult challenge and when he left, he knew he would be on his own with nobody to take care of him through the journey. He would also really miss his parents, Lily, Asher, Fiona, and especially the Giver. But staying in his town wasn’t so easy either. He would have to suffer the pain of having the emptiness from no feeling, color, and music. Jonas has already been sad with living in a world where hardly anybody would really know how he felt because only one person would be there for him. Jonas had to make an amazingly huge and difficult choice but he chose to leave. Right when everything was in place, another choice came his way. Jonas’ father had mentioned that they were going to release Gabriel and Jonas had just found out what release really meant. He had to decide if he would take Gabriel on the journey with him or not. Once again that was not an easy decision. The little baby could suffer through more pain by going through such a challenging journey than if he were just released. But of Jonas was strong enough to keep Gabriel alive, they would both be happy Elsewhere. It was really a matter of life or death for Gabriel and Jonas decided to take the chance and bring Gabriel along with him. That’s how choice was related and what the choices were.

I think the chapters relate to the topic of freedom because of the way Jonas became free at the end of the book and he had the freedom to make decisions. In his town there was no freedom to make choices and I believe that being able to make choices is a type of freedom. As I mention already, Jonas had a couple of difficult choices to make. That means that there was already some freedom for him. When Jonas decided to escape from his society and leave to find Elsewhere with Gabriel, he was practically choosing to be free. He knew that there would be colors, music, and a different world outside from his. In that world there would be freedom and he would be so captivated like he was in sameness. Jonas’ society had no freedom and all you really had to do was follow orders. When Jonas escaped and finally made it to Elsewhere at the very end of the book, he was free! Free from all the ridiculous rules, free from choices being made from him, free from the hunger for life. He had what he had always wanted. A town full of love, music, color, and other people that could feel things like he could. He was absolutely in every way free!

In conclusion, chapters 16 ~ 18 was related to freedom and choice because Jonas ended up having to make a couple of really hard decisions. Also because of the way Jonas became free at the end of the book and he had the freedom to make decisions

Why does Jonas find the instruction about lying so disturbing?

I think Jonas found the instruction about lying so disturbing for a couple of reasons. The first one is because since he’s in such a perfect society, lying would probably be against the rules and he also had never experienced it before. The second reason is because he probably thought that lying is a very horrible thing. Maybe even as bad as what we think about a crime. For example Jonas said "Finally he steeled himself to read the final rule again. He had been trained since earliest childhood, since his earliest learning of language, never to lie." (Page 70).

For the first reason, I said that since Jonas lives in such a perfect society, lying would probably be against the rules. I also mentioned that he had never experienced it before. What Jonas did not understand was that there is such thing as a white lie, which is lying for a good cause. All he knew was that lying is not right and he shouldn’t do it. That’s the way he was raised. I think he felt that lying is a form of rudeness, disrespect and also breaking rules. When he read the list of instructions, it said he was allowed to lie, but in such a perfect community, I think he thought there was no reason to lie about anything. His community had probably thought the same thing and made it a rule not to lie. It must have disturbed Jonas to think about himself lying to other people and then it probably would have made him feel guilty inside. Jonas isn’t like the others, but I think he still felt the same way as them about breaking rules.

For the second reason, I said Jonas most likely thought that lying was such a horrible thing. Maybe even like the same way we feel about a crime. I wanted to connect our society to Jonas’ by looking at the rules. Like in our community we have laws and if you break one, there are consequences and it’s probably the same for Jonas’ community with their rules. I think Jonas might have been scared to lie even though he was excused from that law. For example, if someone told you that you could commit a crime and would not have to go to jail; wouldn’t you still decide not to do the crime? For us it might not be so horrible to lie at times, but for them it’s against their law. You’re not allowed to do it! I think that’s why it really disturbs Jonas so much.

As a conclusion, I think Jonas was disturbed by being allowed to lie because it was against his rules. He was raised to believe that it was a really bad thing to do, and because there was never any point to lie about anything, he had never thought or dealt with lying before!

The Giver: Would you like your future to be decided by others? Why or why not?

I have chosen this question because I thought it was a pretty tough one after you think about for a while. At first everyone thinks no because you want to have a choice of what you want to do. But sometimes it might be good to not have to make such big decisions. Maybe you do know what you want, so then it's great to be able to choose. But if you don't, it's much easier to have someone to make the decision for you.

I finally decided that I don't want choices to be made for me by someone else. I want some kind of freedom in life, not too much freedom but at least enough to make certain decisions. I realized that instead of having someone else make the enitre choice for me, I think I'd rather have someone helping me to choose. Like my mom or my dad could help me to figure out the choices, but then I could still decide by myself what I think is right for me. You would still have someone there you can depend on to help, but you can still make your own choices. For example in The Giver, Jonas is starting to wonder about all the decisions the Elders make and starts to question things about his "perfect" town. He can't make any choices for himself. Nothing at all! Jonas is starting to worry about the job he is going to be assigned to. He's afraid that he will be disappointed with his job. I think he started to question why he's not allowed to choose his own job.

I'm a logic type of person, so I like things to be given to me in a certain order and I want to know how to do things, but sometimes I also want to mix it up and not have things in order and just play with stuff. I sometimes feel that way about choices too. Sometimes I want to be able to just do things that someone else I trust thinks is right for me, but sometimes I feel like I want to do what I like, not what you want me to do. As I said, if I had to choose one, I would rather make my own decisions. I think Jonas feels the same. I think he may be happy that others can choose what job he has to do because he said he doesn't really know what he wants to do. But I also think he kind of wants to choose his job too because he's scared that he won't like the job that's selected for him. In general, I am convinced that he wants to make his own choices. Just like me!

As a conclusion, I would like to make my own decisions, but with help from others. If that is a choice. Otherwise I would choose to make my own decisions in general. In my opinion, I think Jonas might feel the same way. How do you feel about this question?