Discussion Topic

Jonas's Decisions and Reconsiderations in The Giver

Summary:

In Lois Lowry's The Giver, Jonas grapples with his role as Receiver of Memory, feeling overwhelmed by painful memories, such as war, shared by the Giver. Despite his reluctance, he continues his training out of responsibility to the community. However, Jonas's plan to escape changes when he learns of the impending euthanasia of the infant Gabriel. Driven by love and urgency, he flees with Gabriel, questioning his decision amidst scarcity but reaffirming it by valuing emotional freedom over the community's constraints.

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Why doesn't Jonas want to return to the Giver in Chapter 16?

In chapter 15, Jonas enters the Annex and notices that the Giver is in extreme pain. After Jonas offers to help the Giver, the Giver asks him to take some of the pain from his being. The Giver then proceeds to share a terrible memory of an injured man on the battlefield during an unspecified war. Jonas experiences what it is like on the foul-smelling battlefield with dying men lying incapacitated on the earth around him, hearing moans throughout the atmosphere. In the memory, Jonas sees a young boy begging for water, and he is able to offer the dying boy a last drink before he passes away. Jonas is utterly disturbed by the brutal carnage, the sound of cannons firing, and the gut-wrenching screams on the battlefield. At the exact moment when Jonas cannot take the pain any longer, the Giver ends the session and asks Jonas to forgive him. At the beginning of chapter 16, Jonas does not want to visit the Giver anymore because he is traumatized and hurt by the memory of the battlefield.

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Why doesn't Jonas want to return to the Giver in Chapter 16?

In Ch. 15 the Giver has just shared some particularly painful memories with Jonas, specifically memories of war. This causes physical pain for Jonas, but mostly it traumatizes him. As he states at the beginning of Ch. 16,

"He didn't want the memories, didn't want the honor, didn't want the wisdom, didn't want the pain. He wanted his childhood again, his scraped knees and ball games" (Ch.16).

Essentially, this is not a job that Jonas asked for and it is an incredibly difficult one. He is unable to share his pain with anyone around him, other than the Giver, and this weighs heavily on him. Also, he has felt increasingly different from his family and friends as a result. They do not have the depth of feeling he now has, so even if he were to be able to share any of these memories with them, they would not understand them. He is frustrated, overwhelmed, and burdened by his position as the Receiver. He simply wants to stop and go back to "normal." Unfortunately, his new normal is now very painful and lonely.

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In The Giver, why did Jonas return to the Giver in Chapter 16?

I had to edit your question down to one question according to enotes regulations. We are told at the beginning of Chapter Sixteen very clearly that Jonas really did not want to go back to the Giver after receiving the memory of war and the accompanying pain that went with it. The narrator informs us that:

He didn't want the memories, didn't want the honour, didn't want the wisdom, didn't want the pain. He wanted his childhood again, his scraped knees and ball games.

And yet, in spite of what he wants, Jonas knows that he has been given a position of responsibility on behalf of the entire community - it is not just about him and his own wants and desires. This is why he does go back each day, because he recognises that "the choice was not his." In spite of how he is suffering and changing he knows that he has to go back for the good of the whole community - they are counting on him.

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In The Giver, why does Jonas change his plan to leave the community?

Jonas' plan had been to escape from the community within two weeks, during the yearly Ceremony. He and the Giver had been planning everything carefully. The Giver would give him memories of courage and strength so that he would be able to cope with the challenges he would face during and after his escape.

The Giver would also save food from his own meals for Jonas to take with him so that he would have enough sustenance for two weeks. He would request a vehicle and hide Jonas in its storage area. He would then drive him out of the community. A search would obviously be done and Jonas' bicycle and clothing would later be found next to the river. The Giver would then report that he had been lost in the river. 

The plan seemed a good one and would work. However, Jonas made the decision not to wait when his father said, at the evening meal, that Gabriel would be released first thing the next morning. Jonas had learned that release meant that Gabriel would be killed. The Giver had shown him a recording which depicted how a smaller twin had been released by his father. Jonas was shocked when he saw his father kill the baby by lethal injection and then dispose of the body.

When his father mentioned that Gabriel, the problematic newborn they had been taking care of, had had his chance and that his time was up, Jonas decided to rescue him. Jonas loved Gabriel and had been taking special care of him by giving the newborn pleasant memories, which calmed him down and eased his sleep.

Jonas took leftover food from the neighbors' doorsteps before it was collected and decided to escape by stealing his father's bicycle, which had a child's seat at the back on which Gabriel could be accommodated.

Jonas took a tremendous risk, for he would be killed if found. He decided to forgo receiving memories of courage and strength, but it is obvious that his love for Gabriel gave him an abundance of both. In the end, he would save not only Gabriel and himself but, to a certain extent, the community as well.

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In The Giver, why does Jonas change his plan to leave the community?

Jonas leaves his community when he finds out that Gabriel is going to be released.

When Jonas finds out what release really means, he is shocked.  He has no idea, like everyone else in his community.  He thinks his community is pretty much perfect.  All he knows about release is that it is final.  Release of a newchild is uncommon and sad, because newchildren are babies.

Release of newchildren was always sad, because they hadn't had a chance to enjoy life within the community yet. And they hadn't done anything wrong. (Ch. 1) 

Jonas knows that release of a newchild is one of the only occasions when release is not a punishment.  (The other occasion is release of the elderly.)  In a way, however, it is a punishment.  Newchildren are released for not growing fast enough or otherwise meeting the community’s expectations, requirements, and targets.  This is what happened to Gabriel. 

Gabriel was a newchild that Jonas’s father felt “wasn’t doing well.”  He requested to bring the baby home at night, because in Jonas’s community all babies were raised in an institutional setting for the first year and Jonas’s father felt that a home environment with extra nurturing might be better for him.

Jonas is selected Receiver of Memory, and with this assignment comes special training.  Part of this training is information about the way life used to be before Sameness.  Jonas realizes that people used to care about each other and used to have feelings.  He experiences family and love.  He also experiences hardships such as war, hunger, and death.

When Jonas sees his first release, on video, he releases that release means death.  He sees his father conduct the release, which is the release of a newborn twin by lethal injection.  Having seen death through the memories, Jonas is horrified.

"So," Father went on, "we obviously had to make the decision. Even I voted for Gabriel's release when we had the meeting this afternoon." 

Jonas put down his fork and stared at his father. "Release?" he asked.

Father nodded. "We certainly gave it our best try, didn't we?" (Ch. 21) 

Jonas’s father has no clue what release really means, no matter how many times he has done it.  Only Jonas really understands.  When he finds this out, he decides to escape and take Gabe with him. He and The Giver had been planning an escape, but Gabe’s release made it necessary to move up the plans.

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Why did Jonas leave the town in The Giver?

The answer to this question can be found in Chapter Twenty-One of this great dystopian novel. Although Jonas is planning on leaving at some point, we see that in this chapter his hand is forced and he has to leave a lot more quickly than he thought he would. The reason for this swift departure is that Jonas was told by his father that Gabriel is going to be "released" the next day. Of course, now Jonas is aware of the more sinister meaning of this word, which is particularly highlighted in the following quote:

"It's bye-bye to you, Gabe, in the morning," Father said, in his sweet, sing-song voice.

Note how the real meaning of the "release" is again masked by the "sweet" voice of the father of Jonas. This of course means that Jonas has to leave that very evening to escape and take Gabriel to a place of safety. Thus Jonas leaves his home and his town because he wants to save Gabriel's life.

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Why does Jonas question his decision to leave in The Giver?

Near the end of Lois Lowry's novel The Giver, Jonas and the Giver make a plan for Jonas to leave the community and go Elsewhere. When his father announces that the toddler Gabriel is going to be released (meaning given a fatal injection), Jonas decides to leave earlier than planned so that he can take Gabriel with him and save his life. He steals his father's bike, with baby seat attached, and the two make their escape.

The two face many challenges, including hiding from search planes and Jonas twisting his ankle. However, what makes Jonas begin to doubt his decision to leave is when they start running out of food. He begins to think about the fact that nobody ever starves in the community and questions whether he made the right choice by leaving. Jonas comes to his senses when he remembers that if he were still in the community, he would be starved of love and emotion, and Gabriel would be dead.

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