The First Discussion...

Yesterday, we had a discussion of The Giver. We went through the features of Jonas's society which could be seen in Chapters 1 and 2.

Jonas's society was rigid because every aspect of life have a guideline for the people to follow. There is a set of rules that must be adhered to in almost every setting in the novel.

Well, for me, I think that Jonas's society has too many rules. These rules control the people in every part of their life. This developed an obedience among the people in Jonas's society. Even though it is a wonderful thing that the people listen to their government's orders, but I do not think I would like to be controlled by so many rules.

0In Jonas's world, changes also take a long time to take place. For example, an appeal sent for study takes forever, yet nothing changes. Although the Elders chose the most suitable job they think the Twelves should be taking on, they should also consider once again for those who appealed. This showed a lack of freedom and choice in Jonas's society as well. A feature of his society...

Another feature of Jonas's is that it is harsh and unforgiving. I do not like this feature of his world. In Chapter 1, it was mentioned that the Pilot-in-Training who made a navigational mistake would be released. In his world, a person who makes a second offence, would be released. Or, someone who makes one serious mistake would be released.

In our world, even if we make mistakes, we would still be given chances to repent and change over a new leaf. We will not be 'released' which is equivalent to death, just because of one mistake we make. Therefore, I think Jonas's society is quite merciless. For example, for the Pilot-in-Training, there was a possibility that he would misread the navigational instructions. So, they should give him a second chance, even though he broke the rules.

There is one feature I liked most about Jonas's society. That is their emphasis on politeness :)
Nowadays, some people would not even apologise when they accidentally hurt someone. However, in Jonas's world, everyone will say their standard apology, even if they were just late for school. In my opinion, this is hard to come by in our society today. We should all learn from Jonas and his friends. If everyone practises politeness, I believe we would all have a better world to live in...

Also, I realised that I had a misunderstanding of the people in Jonas's world, which I wrote in my 1st post. I mentioned that the people of Jonas's world do not have any feelings or emotions. But, as we discussed about the features of Jonas's society, I found out that actually I was wrong about that statement. The people of his world are not without feelings or emotions. It is just that they are more precise about their usage of words :)

I find that despite the bad and unwanted features of Jonas's society, there are still some good points about his society...