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Emilio Ramirez
Ms. Murray
English-4th
21 Oct. 2013
We can all grow and through change
Change is a transformation we must all undergo. The Giver, a novel by Lois Lowry (1993), recounts the
story of a young man that changes radically from being a simple friend to an understanding thinker and finally
to a rebellious community member that desires change his corrupt world. Jonas transitions to become a more
decisive, independent, and thoughtful person through his roles in community, as a friend, as a member of his
community, and as a thinker. Lowry uses Jonas to demonstrate that anyone, in any circumstance, can grow
through change.
Jonas changes as a friend during the course of the story. Jonas a very caring, and friendly person, who
often worries about others, like when he is at the ceremony of growing of age, he worries about what his friends
are going to be told, and often tries to take care of elders when visiting the House of Old, (28). As the story
progresses, Jonas starts to be a distant friend who avoids his friends, and even feels some slight resentment
towards them. Jonas thinks that they do not know anything that he knows, which often makes him feel
desperately alone. Jonas finally morphs into a careless, and even selfish friend, no longer worrying about his
companions. Instead, he now worrying only about his desires and goals. Jonas starts out being a caring friend
who constantly worries about his friends, and is sometimes even scared for them when they are supposed to be.
When Jonas says, “I worry a little about Asher’s assignment… He makes a game out of everything.” (17). Jonas
starts frequenting a lot with the Giver, who gives him memories of the world before its current state, where he
can finally feel love, pain, or more. Jonas starts to be a very distant friend, often spending time away from them,
and not even taking their opinions or thoughts into consideration. Jonas has already felt pain, and sadness, and
has even seen a tragic memory of war, and ironically, his friends are playing a “game of war” where people
“kill” their opponents. Jonas then starts to recall the tragic memory, and starts falling down and is about to cry,
while everyone else is glaring at him because of his unusual behavior, but he doesn’t even care. They don’t
even know what he’s feeling, Jonas is terribly alone in this civilization, so he starts to be distant, and even starts
to ignore his best friend too (134-135). Finally, Jonas turns into a careless friend, who leaves his mates behind:
“He feels, surprisingly, no fear, nor any regret at leaving the community behind” (163). Jonas decides he has to
do something to change how he feels, and he decides to escape the civilization he leaves in, risking his
friendships and family. He feels no real regret at leaving them for something he wants. He even becomes more
selfish, doing only what he wants for himself and his personal benefit.
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Jonas also changes his ways as a thinker. Jonas starts to develop new ways of thinking about how he
feels about his civilization. Jonas starts thinking about his world as a curious thinker. At the beginning Jonas
knows that there are many things he does not know about, and he has many questions, but he does not ask
anyone about his thoughts or questions. He only ponders them. This is demonstrated when Jonas is playing
catch with his friend Asher. During this game, they are tossing an apple, and throughout the game, Jonas notices
something changes in the apple, he does not know what it is or why the apple changes, but he notices this more
than once and Jonas takes it upon himself to try and find out what is actually happening to him. His question,
together with many others he has, are finally answered by the Giver of memory, the only person who is able to
recall how the world was before its current sameness. After he is chosen to work with the Giver, Jonas starts to
get memories about how the world was before the Sameness, the event that made everyone inside the
civilization equal. After the decision to use Sameness, things such as colors or animals went away, so the people
could all be equal. As Jonas visits the Giver, Jonas gets more information. Jonas becomes a skeptic, often
questioning what is really happening. In his civilization, when people aren’t “fit” to be equal, or disobey many
important rules, they are “released” from the society. No one knows where people go when they are released,
and Jonas knows that his father had to release a pair of twins because they are not apt for the civilization’s
standards. Jonas asks the Giver about what Release really is, and he learns that people aren’t being taken away
from the civilization; they are just killed and disposed. Jonas starts to be critical about everything now. He
believes his whole civilization is built on lies. Jonas doesn’t trust anyone now, he knows the civilization’s
secrets, and he now only confides in the Giver, who is the only other person aside from him that knows the dark
secrets that the civilization holds. At last, Jonas changes into an insightful person, gaining the ability to think in
a more critical way. He now has so much knowledge about his civilization and about the world, that he is finally
able to decide things for himself, (a thing that others are afraid of, since they are accustomed to their superiors
making their decisions for them in that society.) After hearing about how unfair his civilization is, Jonas truly
despises his world. He learns that the government hides the fact that they kill people, and even learns the hidden
motives from the civilization’s superiors. Jonas now has a lot of knowledge of his societies’ past, but at a costpeople can’t know of the memories, or Jonas will be released. Jonas again demonstrates how an impacting
experience can take us away from our comfort zone and make us change.
Jonas also starts to evolve as a citizen of his community; he starts by being a peaceful law-abiding
citizen who is responsible. He goes from being a responsible citizen of his community to being a rebellious
citizen who doesn’t care about others and breaks rules that would have gotten him released from his civilization.
Jonas begins as a responsible community member, who often worries about how his future is going to be. He
abides by the rules that the community has for him, and often does things to improve his future. He goes to
school, and even attends to do community service, in order for his superiors to choose a good job for him. When
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Jonas goes to the House of Old, (where the elder citizens reside), and do communitarian service for them, like
bathing them, he is trying to show a part of him that will serve the community. Jonas is a responsible
community member when he first starts to feel the Stirrings (what the people call Love, similar to the stages of
puberty, children start to get the Stirrings, or get feelings for someone, and they are supplied with medicine to
ward these feelings off by the government, which completely eradicates this feeling in people). He does not
know why he should not continue what he feels during his Stirrings, but he takes his pills, like any responsible
person in his community. Jonas is then assigned to his job with the Giver and he starts to visit him more. He
learns many of the ways people used to live like with before the decision to use Sameness with the people.
Jonas then starts to change into a more defiant community member because he is then shown what love was.
Jonas starts rebelling against the rules by first stopping his intake of the Stirrings pills. He is now able to feel
love for someone else again. He wants to love and be loved. He likes the warmth and comfort he feels when
experiencing love. He also starts to use a type of vocabulary that is not permitted by the superiors. Jonas often
uses words to describe his feelings, which is not allowed in the community. People have to say, “I enjoy you”;
instead of “I love you.” (127) Finally, Jonas changes into a rebellious community member. Jonas now opts to
disobey rules and lie, (which is not allowed by the people), in order to “fight” his superiors and defy them.
Jonas even manages to break very important rules. If he is caught, he could get “released” (165) Jonas’ behavior
changes as a community member when he finally decides to escape from his civilization. He absolutely despises
living in the corrupted civilization. When fleeing, Jonas commits two major crimes: the first one is when he
escapes the civilization, and smuggles out his friend, Gabriel. Jonas is willing to do anything to escape his
corrupt civilization, even if it makes him go to extremes and break many rules along the way, but just as long as
he can do what he feels is important.
Jonas changes throughout the book, but his changes morph him into a brave fighter. Jonas fights for
what he believes in, and he does not care if he ends up dying. He would still be happy as long as he knew that
he did stand up and fight for his beliefs. If Jonas can change his ways from a simple citizen into a rebellious
fighter, then there is courage for us all. Only those who understand that through change, we gain courage are the
real fighters who matter in this world. Change allows us to grow, transform, mature, or replace our own ways in
order to become better people.
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Work Cited
Lowry, Lois. The Giver. New York: Bantam Books, 1993.