I am Jonas, from The Giver..<I am Jonas, from The Giver> <SCRIPT> var repeat=1 //enter 0 to not repeat scrolling after 1 run, othersise, enter 1 var title=document.Welcome To My World var leng=title.length var start=1 function titlemove(-------- My World, The "Utopia" ) { titl=title.substring(start, leng) + title.substring(0, start) document.title=titl start++ if (start==leng+1) { start=0 if (repeat==0) return } setTimeout("titlemove( My World, The "Utopia")",140) } if (document.title) titlemove( My World, The "Utopia") </SCRIPT> <style type="text/css"> body { scrollbar-arrow-color: #464545; scrollbar-base-color: #000000; scrollbar-face-color: #000000; scrollbar-highlight-color: #464545; scrollbar-shadow-color: #464545; scrollbar-3dlight-color: #000000; scrollbar-track-color: #000000; scrollbar-darkshadow-color: #000000; } A {color:#B3B2B2; cursor: sw-resize; text-decoration: none; filter: none} A:visited {color:#B3B2B2; cursor: sw-resize; text-decoration: none; filter: none} A:active {color:#B3B2B2; cursor: sw-resize; text-decoration: none; filter: none} A:hover {color:#B3B2B2; cursor: sw-resize; text-decoration: none;filter:blur alpha(opacity=70, finishopacity=70, style=2);height:2} body {background-attachment: scroll; background-color: #000000; background-image: url("http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/piggyangel/endlessroadbg.jpg"); font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; letter-spacing:0px; font-weight:normal; font-size: 11px; cursor: crosshair;} td { font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; letter-spacing: 0px; font-size: 11px;} </style> <meta name='google-adsense-platform-account' content='ca-host-pub-1556223355139109'/> <meta name='google-adsense-platform-domain' content='blogspot.com'/> <style type="text/css">@import url(https://www.blogger.com/static/v1/v-css/navbar/3334278262-classic.css); div.b-mobile {display:none;} </style> </head> <div style="position:absolute;left:-10px;top:-5px; text-align: justify; height: 500px; overflow-y: auto; width: 580px; padding: 3px; border-left: 2px #F696E3 ; border-right: 2px #F696E3 ; border-top: 2px #F696E3 ; border-bottom: 2px #F696E3 ;"> <div align="left"> <center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/piggyangel/caho/endlessroad.jpg" width="560" height="480"></center> </div> </div> <div align="justify" style="position: absolute; top: 500; left: 40; width: 480; padding: 5px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: auto;"> <p> <div align="left"> <a name="1963352424697436315"></a><b>Tuesday, June 15, 2010</b><br> </div> <br> <div align="center"><u> #1 Initial Response to the Giver </u></div> <p><div align="justify"> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFCCCC;">F</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFCCCC;">rom the title, The Giver, and the</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFCCCC;"> cover picture, I </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFCCCC;">tho</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFCCCC;">ught the book was about the life of an elderly and respectable male teacher, whereby he tells his readers how he became intere</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFCCCC;">sted in teaching and what challenges he faced while teaching. However, the first sentence of this book brought me to another world. As I continued reading into the chapters, the book brought me further confusion as I was still in the mindset of the life of the old man and moreover, the life of the people in the book did not apply to the life of us in this world. For example, the adults in this world were not allowed to choose their mates; thus fall in love. The children were not allowed to </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFCCCC;">choose what school they wanted to go to; they were all not given choices, even the most rudimental things like what they wanted to eat or wear, everything was chosen for them. Just at this conclusion, I suddenly realized that all these people lived in a utopia and were not allowed to make any choices as everything was already laid out for them, for the citizens to lead a life of comfort, without pain; thus no true happiness.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"> </span></span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#66FF99;"> As I continued reading, I was very amazed by the fact that the people willingly abided by the laws and not many had the courage to go against the committee of elders and was extremely satisfied with the current lives they were leading. Almost nobody applied for the change in jobs meticulously chosen by the committee, however, in our current world, adults keep switching jobs from time to time because they are unsatisfied with their working environment or their colleagues. In this utopia, everybody worked in peace and harmony that there were no office politics. To me, this fact is terrible queer. The fact that they paid so much attention to precision of language, that any wrong words used would result in them being hit with the discipline wand or having to apologise for the older ones also amused me. In our world, the words we use in our daily speech does not really matter, as long as we can get our feelings across and thoughts clearly expressed.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#66FF99;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCFFFF;">I was also very intrigued by the fact that all the people had no memories and a selected giver in the community held them all. When the giver was old enough, a receiver of memory would be selected to receive the memories on behalf of all the citizens. The giver could just put his hands on Jonas’s bareback, get the memory out and transfer the memory from himself to Jonas. This fact really puzzles me. In real life, we share our memories through conversations but in this case, the giver simply puts his hands on the receiver’s bare back and the memory would be transmitted. Also, Jonas could feel the pain, joy, heat, and chill of the memories, which is quite impossible in our present life. I am also glad that the committee of elders knew the importance of the memories as the community would not be perfect if the elders did not learn from past mistakes before making crucial choices for everybody, and therefore had somebody to bear the responsibility of keeping the memories for everybody. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCFFFF;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">I</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF9966;"> was extremely disturbed by the fact that the citizens were released; killed the lighter newborn twin, people who broke the rules more than thrice, made minor mistakes that alarmed the community and the elderly before they even died of natural causes. I think that it is very cruel of the community to do this even though they gave these people a very painless death. The community’s actions of releasing people so easily tells me that they have no feelings and do not treasure life. In our present world, people want to live for as long as possible, and convicts are given chances before they are sentenced to death.</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF9966;"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFF00;">I was very captivated when Jonas was escaping form his dwelling to elsewhere as I would not dare to do such a risky thing. Not only that, Jonas also brought along baby Gabriel who was scheduled to be released the following morning. Jonas has such courage and bravery, which I admire, to go against the rules, against the entire community in search of happiness, love and color in life. He was willing to forgo the comfort in his community and I greatly look up to him because of that fact. I particularly enjoyed the ending, which was ambiguous to certain people, because it made me think deeper, to peel more layers of the onion and reflect upon the story. The ending made me think of what would become of Jonas in the end, for a few days! </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"> </span></span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFCCFF;">Overall, I feel that this book has really engaged all my senses, and is very enjoyable. However, I despise the living setting of all the citizens as they lead such colorless lives without any choices and I would never dream of living in such a utopia. </span></span></p>  <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><div style="clear:both; padding-bottom:0.25em"></div> </div> <p> <div align="right">Walking down an endless road,<br> <b>Jonas, from The Giver.</b><br><a href="http://thegiver2m.blogspot.com/2010/06/initial-response-to-giver.html">1:41 AM</b> <a class="comment-link" href="https://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/5451399553141967018/1963352424697436315" onclick="window.open('https://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/5451399553141967018/1963352424697436315', 'bloggerPopup', 'toolbar=0,scrollbars=1,location=0,statusbar=1,menubar=0,resizable=1,width=400,height=450');return false;">0 comments</a> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div align="justify" style="position: absolute; top: 20; left: 480; width: 470; padding: 5px;"> <center><b>Me.</b> <br> all about you. <p></center> <center><b>Friends.</b></center><br> <center> <a href="http://the-receiver-of-memory.blogspot.com/">Judith</a><br> <a href="http://www.the-giver-lois-lowry.blogspot.com/">Divya</a><br> <a href="http://giverofmemories.blogspot.com/">Nicolette</a><br> <a href="http://maysingiver.blogspot.com/">May Sin</a><br> <a href="http://rachelsiew.blogspot.com/">Rachel</a><br> <a href="http://www.aworldofsameness.blogspot.com/">Andrea</a><br> <a href="http://www.blahblah.com">friend</a><br> <a href="http://www.blahblah.com">friend</a><br> <a href="http://www.blahblah.com">friend</a><br> <a href="http://www.blahblah.com">friend</a><p> </center> <center><b>Memories.</b></center><br> <center> <a href='http://thegiver2m.blogspot.com/2010/06/'>June 2010<br></a> <a href='http://thegiver2m.blogspot.com/2010/07/'>July 2010<br></a> <br><br></center><p> <center><b>Credits.</b><br> <b>Picture</b>:<a href="http://gettyimages.com">GettyImages</a><br> <b>Design</b>:<a href="http://www.ohwhatbaloney.blogspot.com">Caho</a><p> <center><b>Yadda.</b></center><br> <center> <-----tagboardcodehere---------> </center> </div> </div> </html> <noembed> <body><script type="text/javascript"> function setAttributeOnload(object, attribute, val) { if(window.addEventListener) { window.addEventListener('load', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }, false); } else { window.attachEvent('onload', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }); } } </script> <div id="navbar-iframe-container"></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> gapi.load("gapi.iframes:gapi.iframes.style.bubble", function() { if (gapi.iframes && gapi.iframes.getContext) { gapi.iframes.getContext().openChild({ url: 'https://www.blogger.com/navbar/5451399553141967018?origin\x3dhttp://thegiver2m.blogspot.com', where: document.getElementById("navbar-iframe-container"), id: "navbar-iframe" }); } }); </script><div id="b-navbar"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/" id="b-logo" title="Go to Blogger.com"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/3/logobar.gif" alt="Blogger" width="80" height="24" /></a><form id="b-search" action="http://www.google.com/search"><div id="b-more"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/" id="b-getorpost"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/3/btn_getblog.gif" alt="Get your own blog" width="112" height="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/redirect/next_blog.pyra?navBar=true" id="b-next"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/3/btn_nextblog.gif" alt="Next blog" width="72" height="15" /></a></div><div id="b-this"><input type="text" id="b-query" name="q" /><input type="hidden" name="ie" value="UTF-8" /><input type="hidden" name="sitesearch" value="shadowmist.blogspot.com" /><input type="image" src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/3/btn_search.gif" alt="Search" value="Search" id="b-searchbtn" title="Search this blog with Google" /><a href="javascript:BlogThis();" id="b-blogthis">BlogThis!</a></div></form></div><script type="text/javascript"></script><div id="space-for-ie"></div> </noembed> <BR><BR> </Blogger> </div> </body> </html>