The Giver

In the book The Giver the community sometime in the future where Jonas is living they do not have some things that are a major part of our everyday life. Those things are pain and individuality. Without those things it is very hard to be a complete human being. In The Giver the only time Jonas has ever felt pain is when the giver has given him memories. An example of this is, “Sideways, spinning, the sled hit a bump in the hill and Jonas jarred loose and thrown violently into the air.

He fell with his leg twisted under him, and he could hear the crack of the bone. His face scraped along jagged edges of ice and when he came, at last, to a stop, he lay shocked and still, feeling nothing at first but fear. Then, the first wave of pain.” This quote shows that he has only felt pain in a memory that the giver has given him. This also means that no one in the community has ever felt pain and never will. Where Jonas lives the people in the community including Jonas have no individuality.

In the morning they have to tell their family units about their dreams, and at night they have to discuss their feelings with their family units. Every day everyone in the community has to wear the same thing except for a few things that change, as you get older. You do not get to wake up and choose what you want to wear. After Jonas runs away from the community he experiences real pain for the first time. An example of this is, But Jonas’s ankle was twisted, and his knees were scraped raw, blood seeping through his torn trousers.

Painfully he righted himself and the bike, and reassured Gabe. It shows that he feels real pain for the first time. If he were in the community he would be able to get a pill that would relieve the pain but because he has run away from the community he has to persevere through the pain. When he leaves the community he becomes an individual. He becomes an individual because he gets to make his own choices. He does not have to tell his dreams to people or tell his feeling at the end of the day.

He can wear what ever he wants (but he does not have other clothes to wear). He gets to do what he wants. In The Giver they suffer from a not having pain and not being individual. There is nothing Jonas can do about it but run away because when he runs away all of the memories he had go to people in the community. So hopefully they can gain individuality and be able to feel pain. When you cannot feel pain or be individual it is hard to be a human being.