Sofia Webster
Mrs. Dale
Literature 7-4
12 January 2023
The Giver Theme Essay
“Jonas did not want to go back. He didn’t want the memories, didn’t want the honor, didn’t want the wisdom, didn’t want the pain.” (Lowry 152) In the book “The Giver”, the main character, Jonas, learns many hidden truths about his community as he grows older. He has many emotional problems dealing with this, including quarrels with his closest friends and growing apart from them and his family. Because of this, I believe that the theme of the book is coming of age, since hardships similar to those come with growing older in realistic situations.
Jonas gains maturity towards the end of the book through learning that he has to escape his dystopic society to save his loved ones, even if they may not love him back. He wants to ‘release his memories’ to make it possible for his friends and family to be able to experience true feelings, and ‘set them free’ from their lifestyle. Jonas wants The Giver to come with him, but he needs to stay back to help the people cope with the memories. He realizes that it will be a hard journey, but knows that he has to do it for the sake of his community.
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“ ‘I’ll come back tomorrow, sir,’ he said quickly. Then he hesitated. ‘Unless there’s something I can do to help,’ ” (Lowry 149) Jonas’ maturity develops through the action of offering to take the pain away. As an adult, you do things you may not want to. He takes on the brave task of sparing The Giver from the emotional and physical pain he is experiencing from the memory, which is a war scene.* Whilst suffering through the memory, Jonas learns what the good and bad sides of humankind