Hey Miss Li and Dear Readers, please check under the" What I Had!" links, for blog posts that might have been left out. Especially the first initial response...
just so you know I have 6 posts

I have on commented on:
Kinberly chong's blog-photo montage
Niki's blog------------post two poem
Judith's blog----------entry 3 photo montage
Gladi's blog-----------short extract of baby being released
Rachel's blog----------A friend Lost 11:21 AM

After doing so many blog posts and discussing about the Giver so much in class, I thought of how it actually relates to my life. I finally realised how close our thoughts are to those of the Elders, after talking to my brother. My brother read the book as well (which caused a lot of trouble for me) and I asked him for ideas on what subject of angle I can tackle for my post. We talked and argued but there was one particular point that I took into more serious consideration.

There is one thing that is probably should learn from the Giver. Even though the people in the community are not able to understand warmth and deep feelings there is something that we should apply in our usage of words to describe these feelings. When Jonas asked his parents if they loved him, they asked him to specify as love is too vague. I do not feel we should specify love, however I think that in the modern context people group all kinds of feelings under the big category love. I think that we should specify our other feelings and not mix them with the feeling of love. This will ruin the meaning of love, because if one overuse the word love and says, “I love you” it no longer feel special as the feeling of love is no longer clear but murky and unsure. I think that this is something that I, for one at least, need to learn to do.

I discovered that even though we seem to be happy with our differences with one another, we too strive to be the “same” as others or for perfection. For example, in school or work we constantly try to fit and be the same as our classmates, afraid of being ostracized or alone. This contradicts our pride in being unique and different. Hence in this way we are too like the Elders, only that the order is simply inversed.
Another example is when we try to follow what others do, like students following their idols, wanting to be as “perfect” as they seem to be, trying to be the same. Although we keep lying to ourselves always thinking that we are happy to be different, when most want to have the same perfection they see in their role models or idols.

This, I realised, was just one way we are very much like the people who started the sameness in the community, the only main difference is that we do not go to the extremes like removing colour and unpredictable weather. Hence I think the Giver is like an alarm clock waking us up from these nonsensical thoughts of shadowing others, wanting to fit in. I do not think it is wrong to want to find friends, however we should find friends who accept us for who we are rather than changing ourselves to align with our friends. That I think is not what friendship is, and I am sure that this sort of friendship can hardly last or survive through difficulties.

Another way the Giver relates to my life is that it reminds me to appreciate my freedom. I used to always complain that my parents’ control over me was too much and I always demanded them to just go away. After reading the Giver, I cannot imagine living a life without a choice. I used to think making decisions were hard because there might be consequences now I realised it is the choices I have that makes life more interesting and fun to me! The Giver has made think of my past actions and reflect, if I should change my attitude, as my situation could be worse, like the life in the Giver. Without choice, music, colour, knowledge, and all the little things we have.

Reading the Giver, makes me put certain thoughts into consideration. I once thought that reading the Giver would be boring and useless, as the book was quite predictable as the story was not one with many twist along the way. Yet once again I am proven wrong, this book has a great deal I can learn from! 11:00 AM

A few weeks my teacher showed us some parts of the movie "The Handmaid's Tale". I had always thought that the Giver was already an unimaginable place to live in, but nothing prepared me for this movie.
This movie was about a community or nation in the future when pollution had increased to the point that it cause 90% of the women to be infertile. Therefore there is desperation for children and continuation for the human race. Thus this movie is about a woman who is fertile and is forced to give birth to children for the rich family, and women who do this are called handmaids, hence the title. Unlike the Giver this community does not have sameness and have a social hierarchy, there is also racism and men are treated superior. I realized that the Giver did not seem so bad after all.

The handmaid’s tale had thoroughly disgusted me; I can not believe that the world would be usurped by such an immoral community. Imagine, hanging nuns because they refuse to give birth and forcefully making them go against their beliefs. The other thing that disgusted me was that they used the Bible as propaganda. I think that that is a complete misuse of something considered holy, even if one does not believe in it. It is totally disrespectful and rude. I do not understand why the people do not overthrow the community, after all the main supporters for this community is those who are in power or have the money and position.
I definitely much rather live in the community of the Giver than in the one in the Handmaid’s tale.

I began to think that actually living in the Giver community will not be that bad. After all ignorance is bliss. Even if we think that it is unfair to not have colour, music or true feelings, but if we do not know that there are such things in the world, it may be better to live without it. Then, there would not be unfairness to those who are blind or colour blind, one will not know true pain and grief and or be envious of other’s happiness.
However this also seems to contradict itself. After all we will never be able to truly prove that ignorance is bliss, and we will never be able to measure what are “true” feelings.

In conclusion, I feel that the giver has the hardest job of all, knowing others are ignorant and feeling indignant over them doing things that are not right to do, yet unable to tell the truth and consequentially causing hurt to the people. I think that they do indeed deserve highest honour for being able to keep all their feeling of unjust and anger inside themselves. Therefore I have utmost respect for the Giver. 10:56 AM

Some time ago, our class did an activity of comparing the characters in the book with Jonas. To determine exactly how similar and different Jonas really was at least before his training. This really helped in my analysis of each character and it will be easier for me to questions during the exams that ask for comparing and contrast, as I would know how to answer and what they are looking for in this question.
I wanted to discuss this activity we did as it made me realised that there were quite significant characteristics that Jonas had whilst the other characters did not have. For example he was questioning of the rules. Although he never did go against the rules, he would silently ask why there is such a rule. When he bathed the elderly as volunteer work, he could not see why it was necessary to apologised for accidentally glimpsing at another’s body or why one has to keep covered when changing for games. Also, he wanted the stirrings back as he liked those feelings and did not exactly want to take the pill (although he did anyway). He even tried to grasp the feelings back after taking the pill, but found that they were gone and was disappointed. This shows that even though Jonas is as law-abiding as the other characters, he did questions some rules and did not understand why certain rules must be present and even wanted it go against it, like how he did not want the stirrings to go.
This was when I truly understood why Jonas was chosen to be the Receiver, other than the fact that he can receive and give memories. I think that this activity helped me discover “hidden” characteristics in Jonas’ actions that I never noticed, which will definitely help me with me gradual deeper understanding of Jonas. 10:54 AM

I am taking two extracts from the Giver one from page 51/52 and the other from page 83/84

Page 83/84
This is a conversation between Jonas and the giver, who is explaining how and why the community developed Sameness.
“Why don’t we have snow, and sleds, and hills?” he asked. “And when did we, in the past? Did my parents have sleds when they were young? Did you?” The old man shrugged and gave a short laugh. “No,” he told Jonas. “It’s a very distant memory. That’s why it was so exhausting—I had to tug it forward from many generations back. It was given to me when I was a new Receiver, and the previous Receiver had to pull it through a long time period, too.” “But what happened to those things? Snow and the rest of it?” “Climate Control. Snow made growing food difficult, limited the agricultural periods. And unpredictable weather made transportation almost impossible at times. It wasn’t a practical thing, so it became obsolete when we went to Sameness.” “And hills, too “he added. “They made conveyance of goods unwieldy. Trucks; buses. Slowed them down. So—” He waved his hand, as of the gesture had caused the hills to disappear. “Sameness,” he concluded.

Page 51/52
This is the introduction to the Elder’s speech at the ceremony of twelves. Talking of honouring differences
“This is the time,” she began, looking directly at them, “when we acknowledge differences. You Elevens have spent all your years till now learning to fit in, to standardize your behaviour, to curb any impulse that might set you apart from the group.” But today we honour your differences. They have determined your futures.”
The first extract taken from the first lesson that Jonas had with the giver, is about how sameness has helped the community and how it is first developed in the community. This discussion shows the mentality that the people have, that everyone is equal and no one is in any way different from each other. It also speaks of what this change have improved their lives. For example there is no slow in traffic because of hills to climb or sudden changes in weather and agriculture is grown throughout the year at top condition because of controlled weather. Sameness is the people’s pride as it shows that they were able to create an almost ideal society. Yet the people are also contradicting themselves. In the second extract it is of the Chief Elder speaking of honouring differences as different jobs shapes our lives differently. This might not directly contradict with the original idea of what sameness is to the community; however this leads to the breaking up of sameness. The people would lose parts of their sameness because of the differences in jobs. As there are different jobs, the people are labelled to what their assignment is. Like, the Receiver, Birthmother, Nurturers and so forth. However, because people start to have labels, prejudice against certain assignments and bias towards some jobs grow and developed. One example is when Mother said that “There is very little honour “in being a birthmother, when Lily casually said when wanted to be one, and everyone told Jonas that hi assignment is most honourable above anything else, throughout the entire book. Jonas also has the most respect among his peers and he is allowed to do things like watch a video of releasing a baby. This is one of the requests that no one else has the power or right to ask for. As these labels and prejudice are formed, a hierarchy grows within the community.
This fully contradicts with the original goal, as one main reason for Sameness is to strive for no hierarchy or unjust and prejudice to one another. Hence honouring these different assignments would ultimately turn into a contradiction to the original attitude of what Sameness in the community is.
10:53 AM

This is a photo of red apple on black and white hands holding it, I wanted to show that they hands were about to toss it, like in the book. However, as my computer skills are limited and I did not have enough time to look for another, I took this picture.

(It is the cover for the book Twilight; I just made the hands Black and White)

This red apple in hands, are suppose to depict the scene on pages 23 to 25. This is a flashback from Jonas, when he and Asher were playing with an apple he picked tossing it around. For the first time Jonas saw it “change”, yet could not find what exactly “change” and did not have words to describe it. He would only learn later that the “change” was him gaining the gift to see colours, and what he saw was the apple appearing red. I think that this is a key event as it is the first obvious change in Jonas which differentiates him from others. Therefore I chose to use this scene. This scene also shows curiosity in Jonas, as he actually bothered to examine and figure out what the “change” was even when he could have just ignored it and go on.

This is a photo of an airplane in the sky, from a view on the ground looking up. This reminds me of the incident of the airplane had flown over the community and causing fear in Jonas. (Pages 1&2). This incident introduces the community and is able to describe and imply the characteristics of the community. For example the way all the people obeyed immediately without asking questions shows that the Elders have dominance over the community. The fear that Jonas felt was also implication that he rarely saw things like this, something that should be common as flying is one of the main transportation. Thus, it shows that the community is closed in its own.

I think that this scene is important as it is the introduction of the lifestyle of the people and what kind of community it is. Thus, it is important as it must be clear yet it must have suspense and it must intrigue the reader to continue reading. This is the reason I chose this scene.

This is a photo of children playing war, which is also a scene in the book when Asher creates a new game of war and it causes a argument with Jonas (pages 132 to 134). As Jonas had learnt what war is and how it destroys lives and causes sufferings and the cruelty of it. However Asher does not understand and is angry at Jonas for stopping his fun and games and for not supporting him. I think this incident is important as it shows how Jonas has drifted from his friends and peers because of what he has learnt and experienced. Hence, showing Jonas to be lonely causes the reader to sympathize. It also shows the change in Jonas’ attitude towards certain subjects, like love and feeling or war or pain and such.

This is a photo of a red sled. I chose this to represent two events. One is the first memory the Giver gave him, riding down a hill on a sled (pages 81&82). The other is Jonas’ first understanding of what colour is, as he realized that the sled had the same change but just permanently. To me personally, I think this is important as it was the first time fully realized what the change was as I did not know that the people could not see colour. Also, I feel that colour is one beautiful thinks in life that we take for granted. That is why this scene is quite important to me as I realized how far the Elders went just to ensure that there is sameness and no racism or prejudiced among the people. Unfortunately this is also contradicted further in the book as there is a hierarchy formed, because of labels formed from assignments.

This is a photo of a baby receiving an injection. This photo represents the act of releasing a new born baby, such as the smaller twin (page 148 to 151). This is a key event as Jonas finally realizes what release truly is and because of this realization, Jonas began to resent his community and it builds his frustration. This incident also shows the degree of seriousness which the Elders would go to just for sameness and what they think is right. I think this is probably one of the incidents which affects Jonas’ attitude and thoughts towards the system in the community. It also injures him emotionally as he always thought that release is something beautiful and good. Furthermore, no one else would understand his thinking and he definitely would not be able to change the people’s mentality and emotions towards the release. He would not be able to make them think that it is something wrong and immoral, because they do not have the experiences he has.

This once again also shows Jonas’ difference with the people and his gradual change.

7:46 AM

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