Natalia Marcos Navarro
Period 6 English – Murray
Character Analysis Essay
18/10/2013
The Giver
The Giver, a book published in 1993 by Lois Lowry, is about a young boy named
Jonas. He is selected as the new Receiver of Memory one December when he turned
Twelve. Being the Receiver is a big honor; it requires intelligence, integrity, and courage,
and he had all. But having this task requires a lot of pain. Physical pain. Little did he know
all the advantages he had as the only Receiver in his community. For example, going
everyday to the Annex Room with The Giver, and gaining wisdom day after day. In this
essay, I will prove how Jonas changed throughout the book. Being the Receiver of
Memory had reformed him a whole lot because he had different rules, as well as distinct
points of view and opinions. To start off, in the beginning, Jonas was an obedient,
committed and an optimistic citizen. During the middle of the novel, he is characterized as
a brave, responsible, and determined young man. What about the end? He is totally
different there. Jonas ends the book being a rebellious but strong individual.
At the beginning of The Giver, Jonas is an obedient, committed and optimistic
person. The first point I want to prove is that Jonas is obedient, and he shows this by his
actions. Once, he joked around with Asher, his best friend, saying that he would be
released (or killed), for dropping a ball. He was taken aside to a bench and had to
apologize to his friend (3). Apologizing for these things is not a big deal in our world, but
since these are rules in his community, he obediently does them. Secondly, I want to
prove that Jonas is a committed person because of what he kindly does. For instance, in
the beginning, before the December Ceremony, he had to complete a certain number of
volunteer hours to become a Twelve. One example is when Jonas arrived at the House Of
The Old and greets all of those there, including Fiona, the attendants, and the elders. He
treats them with care, and gently helps them get in the tub for a bath. Asking if they are
comfortable is an example of an attentive and caring person. He, as well, likes to chat with
them and share his opinions, like the talk he had with Larissa about the Release
ceremonies (32). Finally, I would like to state how he is an optimistic person, as well as a
positive older brother. In the start of the book, Lily, Jonas’ younger sister, stated the fact
that she doesn’t like to wear ribbons in her hair. But Jonas, being a hopeful person, told
her that there are good things each year and reminded her little sister that she would be
starting her volunteer hours soon (40). To sum up, in the beginning of the novel, Jonas
was an obedient, committed, and optimistic person.
During the middle of the book, I could describe Jonas as a brave, responsible, and
determined person. To start off, Jonas demonstrated he was a brave Receiver with his
reactions and the thoughts that wandered in his mind. Once, as the job of The Giver,
which is to pass memories on to the Receiver’s mind, he transferred the memory of a
snow hill accident. This caused a lot of physical pain to him, but he resisted. As it is stated
in the novel: “It was not unendurable, as the pain on the hill had been. Jonas tried to be
brave. He remembered that the Chief Elder had said he was brave.” (110). To add on, I
would like to state that apart form being brave, he is also responsible as for going back to
The Giver daily. “But the choice was not his. He returned each day to the Annex Room.”
(121). With this phrase, the young man illustrated he is responsible because due to his
mental and physical feelings, he knows it is his job to come back and receive the
community’s memories. Jonas established courage, integrity, intelligence, and he would
eventually gain wisdom, as the Chief Elder had said when he was selected (61, 62). In
addition, I would like to state that Jonas is as well a determined Twelve. He seeks for
chances to make a change around his society. But before accepting to create a plan with
The Giver, he was negative and said it would not work (154). This had happened after
they both watched his father on the tape of the Release of one of the newborn twins, and
Jonas did not want to go back home (150-152). He thought for a moment until suddenly,
he was filled with ideas and thought that maybe it would be better if Giver came along with
him. He refused, but Jonas was single-minded and went on by himself (162). To
recapitulate, throughout the middle of The Giver, Jonas was a brave, responsible, and
determined person.
Jonas’ traits change even more in the end when he illustrated he was rebellious and
strong. To begin with, Jonas starts behaving as a rebellious person when he made the
decision stop taking his Stirrings pills. The Stirrings pills are a medication that prevents
teenagers and adults to the wanting. The wanting to be with other people who were not
assigned as a life’s partner, as he had described one morning during his family’s dream
telling (130). After four weeks of not taking them, they had returned: those pleasurable
dreams that came to him during his sleep, but he did not want to go back to not perceiving
them. He felt guilt and embarrassment, but he was not obedient enough as he was before
to go back to the treatment. Not even with the blamable feelings (131). Furthermore, he
was even more subversive with his actions when escaping to Elsewhere, or strictly
speaking, a place like heaven or afterlife. Jonas disobediently did four things that he
probably would not regret: left his dwelling during the night, robbed food from the
community, stole his father’s bicycle, and most importantly, took Gabriel, who wasn’t even
his own brother, on to his breakout (166). His intention was to protect him, now that the
child was going to be released because he had failed to sleep soundly, and his lack of
growth (137). Some might think that he made the incorrect choice because he is not
allowed to steal anything, even if the is the distinguished Receiver of Memory; but on the
contrary, others might think that he did the right thing because Gabriel and other citizens in
the same type of situation, obtain release (death) in an unfair manner. Apart from being
subversive, he also demonstrated how he is strong, by not giving up and not coming back
home even with his strives and struggles. In the novel, it is said that Jonas suffers hunger,
coldness, weakness, and is even being looked for by searchers in helicopters (169). Jonas
protected Gabriel all along by bringing food with him (167), and transferring warm
memories to him when cold temperatures arose (169). Near the end of the book, Jonas
was extremely weak; but he used his final strength to get to the top of the steep mount
covered with white snow. He grabbed Gabe tightly and started down the hill on a sled. He
finally found three of the most important things in life: color, music and love: a Christmas
celebration (180). To summarize, throughout the end of the book, Jonas had changed a
whole lot because he was now a rebellious but strong individual.
In the novel The Giver, the protagonist, Jonas, changed enormously throughout the
series of events. In the start, he was an obedient, committed, and optimistic citizen. During
the middle of the novel, after he was selected as the Receiver of Memory, he was
characterized as a brave, responsible, and determined young man. And in the course of
the end, when he had changed a whole lot, he was a rebellious but strong citizen. As I
have previously stated in the introduction, having the task of the Receiver of Memory has
different rules than other jobs. By effect, he can do things he hasn’t before, such as lying
(68). And this, as well as the memories he gains, Jonas would clearly have a distinct point
of view and opinion, which will then change his behavior. Generally, I think that Lois Lowry
wrote this novel to make us compare both worlds: the book’s and ours. I also think that the
book was written so we could notice how sameness or equality is often not satisfying. It
could be sort of boring or it would all be predictable, like it is in The Giver, instead of being
exciting or different. Moreover, we do things we do not or cannot control, and don’t even
realize what it is doing to us and how it is changing all that is involved, like it strongly
happened with Jonas throughout the twenty-three chapters in the novel.