Student Question

List three happier memories the Giver shares with Jonas after the war memory.

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After the traumatic memory of war, the Giver shares happier memories with Jonas to comfort him. These include a child's birthday party, where Jonas experiences individual celebration, a horseback ride across a field, revealing the bond between humans and animals, and a camping scene, where Jonas enjoys solitude by a campfire. These memories highlight joys absent in Jonas's community, illustrating the loss of positive experiences alongside negative ones.

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The Giver gives Jonas the horrifying memory of war.  Jonas is traumatized by it.  The Giver reassures him that there are still happy memories for him to pass on.  He gives Jonas some happy memories to comfort him.

One memory is of a child's birthday party.  Because everything is the community revolves around sameness, Jonas has never seen a person celebrated before and treated as a special individual.  

In another memory, Jonas rides a horse.  The horse gallops across a field until it stops at a stream to drink.  It is the first time that Jonas understands that humans and animals can form a special bond.  Until he met with The Giver, Jonas did not know that animals existed.  He thought that they were creatures of fantasy, used only for children's toys.

The last memory is of a camping scene.  Jonas takes a walk through the forest.  When it...

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is nighttime, he enjoys the solitude of a warm campfire.

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In The Giver, what happy memories does The Giver share with Jonas after the war?

You can find the answer to this question right at the start of Chapter 16.  After the memory of the war, Jonas is totally scarred.  He does not even want to go back and be the Reciever anymore.  So The Giver gives him nicer memories.

He shows Jonas a birthday party to let him see what it feels like to be special -- to have everyone pay attention to you.

He shows Jonas museums with colorful things.

He has Jonas ride a horse across a field.  This allows Jonas to understand about the love between people and animals.

He has him go campling and look at the stars.  This shows Jonas about the joy of being alone.

So all of these memories are things that are totally foreign to their society, but they are nice things instead of horrible ones.  They show us that the community has given up a lot of good things along with the bad.

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