"There could be love"....HOW CORNY. What else? There could be chocolate??

Although, I may not be the smartest person on earth, but in my opinion I think that the theme of freedom is more thoroughly shown in the opening scenes of chapter 16. How I know this? Simple. As mentioned on the opening scene's of the book (Page 121-124), it explained how Jonas went through a variety of different types of memories that each had there very own taste of freedom in it. For example, "In one ecstatic memory, he had ridden a gleaming brown horse across a field that smelt of damp grass" Page 122. When reading through this, I had a somewhat good idea on how Jonas has experienced freedom for a brief moment.

This is because Jonas is riding a horse in the middle of a field. Unlike our community, the people who control Jonas's community wouldn't really allow such behavior within there vicinities. This is because actions like this could lead to conflict or accident by A) Someone else want's to ride on the horse, or B) Jonas could somehow fall of the horse and break his arm into little bits and pieces (Ow). Overall, I would say that Jonas has experienced freedom for a brief moment by riding a horse in the middle of a brown field (Sounds a bit awkward in a way). This however, is the sort behavior that the community elders don't want to have. After all, the community is inherited with "sameness".

Other examples, include the scene on page 122-126. The scene in this part of the chapter shows Jonas experience another memory that was based on the celebration of Christmas Eve. Like mentioned on page 122-124, "He was in a room filled with people, and it was warmth, with a firelight glowing on a hearth. He could see through a window that outside it was night, and snowing. There were colored lights: Red and green and Yellow, twinkling from a tree which was, oddly, inside the room. On a table, lighted candles stood in a polished golden holder and cast a soft, flickering glow. He could smell things cooking, and he heard soft laughter. A golden-haired dog lay sleeping on the floor. On the floor there were packages wrapped in brightly colored paper and tied with gleaming ribbons. As Jonas watched, a small child began to pick up the packages and pass them around the room: to other children, to adults who were obviously parents, and to an older, quiet couple, man and woman, who sat smiling together on a couch".

Reading this, I realized that this could be another example of how Jonas experienced freedom for the first time. Though, this scene didn't really carry on until the next page

When Jonas learns all about colors, he claims "it isn't fair that nothing has color". Why does he say this?

In my opinion, I think the reason why Jonas says this is mainly because this is first time he has experienced this. For example, I remember when I was a kid, when I went to some playground or theme park and had to leave, I felt that I still wanted to stay longer. This is somewhat similar to how Jonas felt, because since this was the first time he experienced this, he doesn't want it to stop. It's just like saying; Jonas has the habit of seeing the color of red.

Another reason why Jonas claims that it isn't fair to not have color, is because of the fact that he may already be getting sick and tired of the original colors of there world. It's just like how when you eat one type of cereal for a very long time, and then you get sick and tired of eating it, and then when you eat another type of cereal that seems more tastier, but instead you're not allowed to eat it.

Also, as mentioned on page 97, " 'But I want them!' Jonas said angrily. 'It isn't fair that nothing has color!' 'Not fair?' The giver looked at Jonas curiously. 'Explain what you mean' 'Well.....' Jonas had to stop and think it through. 'If everythings the same, then there aren't any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things! A blue tunic, or a red one?' ". In this statement, it proves that Jonas just wants make choices by himself and that's pretty much what he actually mean't by "It isn't fair to not have color".

THA GIVA! (The giver)

I've recently been given a book about a 12 year old boy who lives in a society where everything is just perfect, The food supply, the water supply, the fashion, the education-- or to be more precise, pretty much everything is PERFECT. Even the jobs are perfect. So when Jonas celebrates " The Ceremony of 12"; the process of which a child is then turned into an adult-- he is forced to be enrolled as a receiver. A job from which you would have to receive the memories from THA GIVA!!!! (The Giver).

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

I think that I would want my future decided by myself and not anyone else. This is mainly because I find that everyone deserves the chance to make there own personal choices rather then other people making it. For example, if we were to pick whether to eat a pizza, and whether to eat a grain of rice, which would you pick? The average person would obviously pick a pizza (unless they were lactose intolerance), but what if someone were to make the choice for you, and they; without a doubt, chose the grain of rice for you. Unfair? Exactly. Though, not everything is unfair within the aspects of the community-- you're actually mean't to work for your job. For example, in the book; The Giver, you were mean't to help the area from which you wanted to work with, in order to gain that specific job, or else you would be enrolled into something you're unfamiliar with and/or not interested in. That's why everything inside the society is all controlled....you're not given any choices-- or any undo's.

Which leads me to my second point: FREEDOM!! Reading the book, I noticed that people were not given any choices of what to do, and what not to do. For example, in page 55, the book more thoroughly explained the concept of how Asher; Jonas's best friend in the community, had problems at speaking English when he was only 3 years old. It explained a scene from which Asher was waiting in-line at the canteen, waiting for a snack. Now if you've read this book-- you would know that if you don't speak correctly or in the right manner, you would be beaten with some weird stick thingy. Well, that was exactly what happened to Asher. It wasn't really that necessary to have beaten Asher with a stick, because it was just a tiny error and mistake. But like I said before, it was a controlled society.

Overall, I would say that freedom is rather important to our society, as it contributes many things to us like how we aren't living under strict supervision every minute of the day, and also how we aren't mean't to do certain things that aren't really that necessary to rule against. It is something that we can hardly live with all our lives, as it makes the human race whole. Not to mention, how is being in a controlled society good? It doesn't exactly make us a whole lot happy, I mean, how is being put inside some random job a nice thing? It's just like being put into some random family (Which is also another rule people must obey-- Being paired up into some random family....*Shudders*).