Discussion Topic
Significance of Volunteer Hours in The Giver
Summary:
In The Giver, volunteer hours symbolize preparation for adulthood and play a crucial role in determining each child's future occupation. Starting at age eight, children volunteer in various community roles, allowing the Elders to observe their skills and interests. This observation informs the Assignments given during the Ceremony of Twelve, which define their lifelong jobs. Jonas's varied volunteering experiences reflect his broad interests, ultimately leading to his unique assignment as the Receiver of Memory, emphasizing the community's structured, choice-limited society.
In The Giver, what do volunteering hours symbolize?
Volunteering hours represent preparation for adulthood.
In the community, all children begin preparing for their adult roles long before they are adults. They do this by volunteering in various settings from the age of eight. All of these hours are carefully logged and observed by the elders. The Elders can know a lot about the children and their affinities and interests and abilities by where they choose to volunteer and how much, and how good at it they are.
The volunteer hours are part of an overall process of determining the assignment for each child to see where he or she fits into the community.
In school, at recreation time, and during volunteer hours, he had noticed the Elders watching him and the other Elevens. He had seen them taking notes. (Ch. 2)
After carefully tabulating hours and meeting with instructors, the elders choose a job and give every child...
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an assignment during the Ceremony of Twelve. This is their job for life, and it cements their role in the community. This is why they spend so many years volunteering.
When they are young, they spread out their volunteering doing what their friends do and doing a little of this and a little of that. As they get older, they will focus more and more on one area. That area will basically become their job. The children who have volunteered mostly in one place know a lot already and are more likely to know what their assignment will be. Since Jonas has volunteered a little here and a little there, he has no idea what his assignment is.
Volunteering is the first step toward the assignment, which is the ushering into adulthood. Once the children get their assignments, they begin their training and no longer volunteer. The assignment itself symbolizes, quite dramatically, the end of childhood.
Why are volunteer hours important in The Giver?
The volunteer hours are important because Elders observe children to determine their skills and interests.
From the age of eight, children in Jonas’s community have to meet a requirement of a certain number of volunteer hours. The volunteer hours are actually very important, because they are essentially a test. The children are carefully observed to determine where their skills and interests lie. The Elders observe where the children are volunteering and how well they work, and use that to determine what job they are assigned.
Jonas’s father explains to him how the Elders knew to give him the assignment of Nurturer, or caretaker for the babies.
“…But again and again, during free time, I found myself drawn to the newchildren. I spent almost all of my volunteer hours helping in the Nurturing Center. Of course the Elders knew that, from their observation." (Ch. 2)
The volunteer hours are so important to determining assignments that children will not be assigned a job until they have completed them. To not get an assignment because you failed to complete volunteer hours is considered a great shame that follows the child throughout his life. When an assignment is given, it is at a huge ceremony the entire community attends.
Jonas is aware that he is being watched.
During the past year he had been aware of the increasing level of observation. In school, at recreation time, and during volunteer hours, he had noticed the Elders watching him and the other Elevens. He had seen them taking notes. (Ch. 2)
As Jonas nears the Ceremony of Twelve, he does not feel that the has done volunteer hours in a concentrated manner. He has just kind of volunteered everywhere, usually with friends. Therefore, he has no idea what assignment he will get. As it turns out, volunteering throughout the community lends him to the assignment of Receiver of Memory, because it shows that he knows a lot about the community and cares about all aspects of it.
Where does Jonas volunteer in The Giver?
In chapter 4, we learn that Jonas has used his volunteer hours to do a little bit of everything, giving him a feel for the entire community. This is a contrast to his friend, Benjamin, who spends most of his volunteer time at the Rehabilitation Center, where he has become knowledgeable enough to innovate new ideas for aiding people in recovering from illnesses and accidents. Jonas admires Benjamin's dedication, and also knows it means that Benjamin will almost certainly be chosen for a future at the Rehab Center.
Jonas's lack of focus in volunteering leaves him uncertain what his fate will be at the upcoming Celebration of Twelve. However, his varied volunteering, which he takes seriously as an important responsibility, has meant that he has easily fulfilled the volunteer requirements. He knows that he won't be disgraced at the Celebration for failing to live up to this obligation.
For his final volunteering, Jonas chooses to work with his friend Asher at the House of the Old, where he bathes an elderly woman named Larissa.
What is the purpose of Jonas's volunteer hours in The Giver, given what we know about his society?
In Jonas's community, the Committee of Elders determines each citizen's occupation and gives adolescents their Assignments during the December Ceremony when they turn twelve years old. In order to assure that each citizen is given the perfect Assignment that coincides with their capabilities and interests, the Committee of Elders requires each child to fulfill a certain amount of volunteer hours working at various occupations throughout the community. While the children are completing their volunteer hours, the committee carefully monitors and analyzes each child to gauge their interests and abilities.
By volunteering at various occupations throughout the community, the children have a chance to expand their perspective and experience new opportunities that might pique their interest and fit their skill set. If an occupation interests a child, they might spend the majority of their hours volunteering at the specific occupation, which will hopefully become their future Assignment later in life. Since Jonas's highly structured society is founded on the principles of Sameness, requiring children to complete volunteer hours to ensure their Assignments are secure and coincide with the community's stance on stability, structure, and organization. By leaving personal choice out of the equation, the committee has the opportunity to carefully monitor each citizen and create the exact society they desire. Requiring volunteer hours ensures that the committee is choosing the right Assignment for each citizen.