Jonas Character Analysis in The Giver

In the book, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, Jonas lives in a community bound by rules and regulations. The community has various guidelines that force the community members to be in order or they shall face the consequences. Throughout the book, Jonas starts to learn about himself and he realizes he doesn’t want to live by these treacherous rules. While Jonas is sharing his dream with his mother, he realizes that he enjoys having those feelings and doesn’t want to give them up. He knows he is supposed to report these feelings and thinks to himself, “Stirrings, he had heard the word before. He remembered that there was a reference to the Stirrings in the Book of Rules, though he didn’t remember what it said. And now and then the speaker mentioned it. ATTENTION. A REMINDER THAT STIRRINGS MUST BE REPORTED IN ORDER FOR TREATMENT TO TAKE PLACE.” This quote portrays that Jonas enjoys these feelings and is worried that the community will take them away if he reports them. This worry encourages him to look beyond the rules set in place in his community. Jonas makes a conscious decision to hide his dreams although he understands the consequences that will come if the elders find out.

Elders play a significant role in the well being of the community. Having all this power means hard decisions will be made. The question of what is morally right is constantly reflected in their actions. Every day they thrive to make the community better, but problems occur. With these problems, solutions must come into play.

“There were only two occasions of release which were not punishment. Release of the elderly which was a time of celebration for a life well and fully lived; and release of a new child which always brought a sense of what could we have done.” While I read this quote I imagined how similar the elders' choice of actions relates to my daily life. The elders are trying rigorously to create a perilous world in which their community members live. I strive to make a strong and healthy community by making conscious decisions in all my actions. I will never forget when I was trying to organize an event for my youtube channel and spent 3 weeks gathering all the people I needed. As the event continued, people started to complain that some things weren’t fair while other people agreed with the rules. I was trying so hard to please everyone and do the right thing, but I couldn’t satisfy everyone. From trying to make someone happy to just having a good time, our choices reflect on ourselves constantly. 

Jonas and I have both uncovered that it is challenging to satisfy the majority of the community. The GIver demonstrates that being bound to endless rules poses a burden on your invigorating future. The novel raises questions about what exactly an ideal society should comprise of. While the Community has enforced solutions to problems that we see in our society today, these solutions raise more problems. The book removes freedom, emotions, memory of the past and identity to reveal how stability may initially be a good thing for society. Upon deeper thought, I notice these elements can also damage the community.