Reflection of the Giver relating to our lives
Thursday, July 29, 2010
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!
--Mary HAD a little lamb--
11:00 AM
