Seeking Perfection and Utopia
Jonas's community is not the same as modern communities. They believe in sameness, while other societies embrace being different. They cannot see color, and their weather is perfect. In Jonas’s community, one might believe that this would be an ideal community, however Jonas does not agree. In the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry, Jonas learns those who never take risks never grow, without memories, knowledge is useless, and that those who do not feel sorrow, cannot know joy. One of the first things Jonas learns is those who never take risks, never grow. He learns this in many situations, but one of the ways he learns is the hardest. For example, Jonas took a risk in the book, by accepting his assignment of Receiver. “He certainly didn’t want to be late for his first day of training either” (Lowry 92). Jonas didn’t have to show up to his training, but he took a risk to become the new Receiver. Jonas grew by this
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Jonas learns this from the Giver, when he gives Jonas the memory of warfare. In Jonas’s previous training, the Giver had shown Jonas happiness, and little parts of pain, but mostly good times of the past. For example, when the Giver gives Jonas the memory of war, Jonas was disturbed. “He didn’t want the memories, didn’t want the honor, didn’t want the wisdom, didn’t want the pain” (Lowry 152). After giving Jonas the terrible memory, the Giver gives Jonas his favorite memory, a time of love. Before experiencing war, Jonas was just happy when he got memories of joy, but after, anytime Jonas got a memory of happiness, it meant a little more to him because he had to go through a bad time to get a good time. Jonas had to experience a lot to learn this lesson, but it was probably one of the best ones he learned. Without this lesson, Jonas would just think he was feeling joy, but really, nobody knows true joy if they cannot also know sorrow and