The Giver

Describe Jonas in The Giver?

?

Asked by
Last updated by Jill W
1 Answers
Log in to answer

Jonas, the main character of the novel, unlike his friend Asher, is careful about language. He searches for the right words to describe his feelings The opening of the book establishes him as aged eleven, apprehensive about the approaching December, when the annual Ceremony will be held, and Assignments will be given to all those in his year group.

He gets on reasonably well with his peers and has friends of both sexes (Asher and Fiona). But he feels different. Physically he has pale eyes, whereas nearly everybody else has brown eyes. Other eleven-year-olds are able to predict their likely Assignments, which are chosen on the basis of observed inclinations and aptitudes. Jonas has developed no special interest (he visits the House of the Old only to be with Fiona, who is dedicated to her work there) and has no idea what the Elders will consider him cut out to become-hence his apprehensiveness.

Apart from this, Jonas conforms well. He shares his family's distaste for Isaac, the clumsy and untidy boy who lives next door. Numbered Nineteen in his year group, Jonas has a long wait at the Ceremony, while the lower numbers receive their Assignments. All are given predictable and aptly chosen tasks in life. His nervousness mounts. The tension (both for Jonas and for the reader) becomes almost unbearable when the Chief Elder skips Jonas's number. His is the last Assignment to be announced. It is entirely unexpected, and hugely daunting Jonas has been selected as the next Receiver of Memory.

As such he has to spend many hours every day in the company of an old man who is the current holder of Memories. The old man calls himself The Giver in the course of their sessions, Jonas's eyes are opened to many things-initially wonderful, pleasurable things, then increasingly painful things. Eventually he sees that the Community is based on cruel falsehoods-none more cruel than the ceremony of Release, which turns out to be the application of a lethal injection. He watches a video of his father dispatching one of two twins in this way, and he and the Giver plan an escape.

The planned escape has to be put in motion prematurely, so that Jonas can save the young child, Gabriel. They flee the community together and in the final pages of the book struggle through harsh terrain and elements, finally sledding down a snowy slope towards twinkling, colored lights. The book ends with readers having to make up their own minds whether Jonas and Gabriel survive, and if so in what kind of environment.

Source(s)

BookRags