Creative Writing: Letter to Jonas

Author’s note: This creative writing piece is a letter from Asher to Jonas from the book The Giver by Lois Lowery. In this piece I am focusing on character development.

Dear Jonas,

Lately I've noticed you have been acting weird. Like a few weeks ago you told me to stop playing a game because it wasn’t right and that it references something scary. I don't have any idea why you said this but still, ever since you were chosen to be the Receiver you’ve been acting up. You even told me to look at a tree and then you put your hand on my back and said to look really hard but there was nothing there but the tree. I thought you were crazy.

Then a few weeks later, you vanished all together! What happened was you went home and then the next day you were gone and there was a note on your bed or at least that’s what your family unit said, but other than that no one knew where you went. I heard a few search planes fly nearby so I wonder if they were looking for you. They probably weren’t though because they would have found you by now. I remember when you were normal and you weren’t so weird around everyone. It is like a dream. It’s there but it doesn’t seem to be real anymore.

            I wish I had the real Jonas back. The one I grew up with… the one I participated in activities with… my friend. If you ever come back I’ll never forget it but until that happens I’ll still be here in the community, waiting.

Sincerely,

      Asher

Formal essay on Theme:The Giver

Author’s Note: I am writing a response to the book The Giver. I am also writing about the theme of The Giver and the reasons why it is the certain theme, like what it would be if the theme was different and comparing The Giver to another book with the same theme. I also made a few changes to this piece for my meeting.

In The Giver, by Lois Lowry there are many themes like adventure and family but I think one of the major themes in this book is the search for truth. There are many reasons this books’ theme is a search for truth. One of the reasons I think the book is the search for truth is, throughout the whole book Jonas learns more and more about the community and how controlled everyone is.

One of the other reasons the book shows his theme is because of the character development through the story. In the beginning Jonas is very normal and knows very little about the government he lives under except that they are given a job when they become a “12” and that if you do something wrong you will be “released”, (or in other words, killed). Then towards the end of the book he felt emotions and saw colors and had an entirely new view on the government and how it operates.

The more he learned, the more he hated the government. The government was shielding the citizens from emotion and color and the memories that everyone has the right to know about. He wanted to learn more and more about what was hidden from him when he was younger. The receiver has a great responsibility among the community. He or she has to hold all of the memories of the people of the past, all blissful memories and all torturous ones. If all of the memories were given to the people they would go insane and the community would fall into chaos and there are many other books that share the same theme.

Like The Giver, The Lightning Thief by Rick Roridan also shows a theme of search for truth because in The Lightning Thief Percy is framed for stealing Zeus’s master bolt and he has to get the bolt back and find out who took the bolt to prove his innocence. Then if The Lightning Thief was a different  theme it would have to be family because he never met his dad and throughout the book he is trying to find the bolt and save his mom from Hades and also in the book on the journey his friends were like his family. Without his friends the only family he would have in the book would be his mom and his dad who he never met.

In conclusion the search for truth is a major theme of The Giver and it has many reasons that back it up. If I had to choose a different theme for the book it would be family because as Jonas learns more and more about the government he finds that his true family is Gabe and the Giver and not some family unit that the government had assigned him to.

Responce to "After we eat we'll make a plan."

Author's Note: I am writing a response to the quote "After we eat we will make a plan."

In the book Jonas had just watched a baby die but he couldn't do anything about it. He doesn't want to go home and see his family so he stayed with the giver. They ate and then they made a plan to escape the community. I think that this quote is very important and it marks the start of the end of the book.

When Jonas watched the baby die he felt very sad and scared and he didn't want to go home because his dad was the one who released the baby. He couldn't stand to see his dad after what he did. They sat and ate and the giver said "After we eat we'll make a plan." At this point Jonas and the giver decided to escape the community.

I believe that without this quote the giver and Jonas would both just ignore the fact that their community is messed up but it would always haunt them every day of their lives. If this happens then the book wouldn't be as interesting towards the end and then people wouldn't be motivated to read the next book. Also Jonas would have never heard music before he blacked out on the sled. This quote is probably one of the most important quotes in the book.

The Giver: Setting speech

In my book The Giver the setting is the community that Jonas, Fiona, and Asher live in. In the community there are many different things that separate it from the real world. If you where a twin in the community then of the two twins the one that weighed less would be killed. In the community no one could see color or feel emotion because of how the government acted. The only one who could see color was the receiver of knowledge.

In the story the plot is greatly affected by the setting because without the setting the plot wouldn’t make sense. The reason for this is because if the setting was the school then you can see how it would be weird.

Then if Jonas weren’t the receiver then we would have a completely different view on the story. They would have different friends with different assigned jobs and many other things.