My Reading Log

The Giver 

by: Lois Lowry

Sixtenive Readers

Discussion Director: Guanzon, Hilly Rose
Vocabulary Enhancer: Cabesas, Cassandra Joyce
Literary Artist: Mariano, Jona Belle
Connector: Saplot, Rutchell
Character Captain: Cacho, Diayanara Rose
Passage Picker: Rabago, Iriss Joy
Summarizer: Bantilan, Daisery

Our discussion was started at the peaceful afternoon in the front of university gymnasium. Students were busy practicing and preparing for the fast approaching intramurals.

Miss Hilly Rose Guanzon, our discussion director started it and she threw five thought provoking questions and these are the following: 

1.   Do the members of the community ever have their own free will? When do those happen?

2.    Why do Jonas able to transmit memories to Gabriel when he couldn’t with others?

3.   If you were in Rosemary's place will you ever do the same? Do you think its bravery or cowardice of her?

4.   How was the concept of family unit in the story differ from the concept of family we are living with?

5.    What is your insight about the ending of the story? Do you think they have really escaped from their society or was it just Jonas' hallucination?

 

In answering the questions, almost all of us have the same answers. For the question number one, all of us agreed that the members of the community only have their own will in choosing the work that they wanted to do during their free time. They are the one who decide if which organization they would want to spend their free time, either it is on taking care of the olds, helping in taking care the infants and such.

          For question number two, our answers were divided into many ideas, some of us have the same answers and some other members have also their answers. My self, Jonna Belle Mariano (literary artist) answered that Jonas can transmit memories to Gabriel maybe because they are related to each other or maybe because they are really brothers because in Sameness the infants were given to different couples who have no children yet, in this fact there must be a chance that Jonas and Gabriel were came from same mother. On the other hand, some of the members agreed that maybe Gabriel has the capability in becoming the next Receiver that is why Jonas can be able to transmit the memories to him because only the chosen ones can have the capability in receiving the memories and Gabe has the one.

          For the question number three, still the same situation in the question number two, our answers were divided into two. Some of us answered that maybe Rosemary is brave to face the Release, knowing that she knew that she will be going to die she still chose to be released. Some of us answered that considering the fact that she is the Receiver and she can’t handle the pain in receiving the memories then she chose to be released, maybe she is coward. Maybe if I were in her place, I will continue to receive memories rather than being released because my community has chosen me to be their next receiver and it’s an honor for me to be the one. Receiving the memories would be painful but being released is much painful and the fact that she didn’t even tried to receive the painful memories.

          In answering the question number four, we all agreed that there are many differences between the family concept of the community in the story and our family concept of the community we are living with. In the story, their family concept is different because they were not really related to each other because their children were not their real child. Also they have rules which can cause losing of their rights. They don’t produce their own food but were only given to them by the higher committee. Most of all, they can’t feel love towards each other and they do not know the feeling of being loved by their love ones. On the other hand, we all agreed that the family unit we are living with is the perfect one. There is love within the family members and we have the rights to express love to others. We can make our own decisions and have all the chances to do what we wanted to do.

          The last question made us all really think hard. At first we really don’t know what to answer. Some of us answered that maybe it is just Jonas’ hallucination. Maybe because in the real world they are really (Jonas and Gabriel) in the situation of starving, just sleeping in the street and likes that is why he imagined all things. Somehow, some of us answered that maybe they really escaped from their society and really experienced those things; the starving and their hiding from the chopper of their society.

          Next stop, other members have shared their works and discuss it.

THE GIVER

Characters List

by Diayanara Rose Cacho

1.      JONAS- the main character of the story. He is quiet but intelligent and courageous boy. Everything started to change in his life when he turned 12 years old. He was selected as the Receiver of Memory- the most honored task to be given in the community. As the receiver, he was obliged to take all memories from the Giver and to sacrifice form every worst feelings from different time and happenings. He started to feel unusual feelings particularly cherishing and loving someone after he took special sessions with the Giver. As the day passed by, he became timid towards his family because he found his new life very different from other. When he found out about his father’s secret doings as a nurturer, he became brave to run away from the community for he was very thoughtful, for Gabriel’s sake.

2.      The Giver- the old man who was the Receiver before Jonas from long time ago. He was respected because the committee of elders trusted him most. He was a simple and kind man. He genuinely taught and guided Jonas as their journey goes on. A lot of new things changed Jonas’s life from the memories and feelings he gave. He was the one who convinced Jonas to run away because he was concerned for sacrifices and dangers which wait along with their journey if it will continues.

3.      Jonas’s Father- he is the Nurturer. A typical head of the family. He is diligent in his obligation but he has mysterious yet ruthless sides

4.      Jonas’s Mother- she was a prominent position in the Department of Justice. Because of her work, she barely has time to spend together with her family but she still gave her best to do her duties as the mother.

5.      Lily- Jonas’s little sister who is very cheerful. She turned 9 at the same time Jonas became the Receiver.

6.      Gabriel- the baby who was taken care by Jonas’s family. He was brought home as Jonas’s companion in sleeping when he started visiting the Giver. Jonas also realized that they have similarities when Gabriel was capable of receiving memories from him. When he found out that his father euthanizes babies and olds in the Community, Jonas ran away together with Gabriel at the end part of the story.

7.      Asher- one of Jonas’s friends. He was the Assistant Director of Recreational. The community knows him as fun-loving or humorous boy. However he always made mistakes in speaking that worried the Community some times.

8.      Fiona- one of Jonas’s friends. She was chosen as the Caretaker of the Old. Jonas started to take pills when her mother knew that he was having erotic dreams about Fiona. Jonas had special feeling towards her however, Fiona seems unaware of how he feels and only sees him as her dearest friend.

9.      Rosemary- the Receiver before Jonas who failed with her quest. The Giver said to Jonas that she was the one he loved most and he confessed that he was his daughter.

10.  The Chief Elder- she was responsible for giving obligations to Jonas and other children in the community. She was also the voice or head of all the elders. Her decisions must be followed within the community

THE GIVER

  (summary)

      By: Daisery Bantilan

The giver is written from the point of view of Jonas, an eleven-year-old boy living in a futuristic society that has eliminated all pain, fear, war, and hatred. There is no prejudice, since everyone looks and acts basically the same, and there is very little competition. Everyone is unfailingly polite. The society has also eliminated choice: at age twelve every member of the community is assigned a job based on his or her abilities and interests. Citizens can apply for and be assigned compatible spouses, and each couple is assigned exactly two children each. The children are born to Birthmothers, who never see them, and spend their first year in a Nurturing Center with other babies, or “new children,” born that year. When their children are grown, family units dissolve and adults live together with Childless Adults until they are too old to function in the society. Then they spend their last years being cared for in the House of the Old until they are finally “released” from the society. In the community, release is death, but it is never described that way; most people think that after release, flawed new children and joyful elderly people are welcomed into the vast expanse of Elsewhere that surrounds the communities. Citizens who break rules or fail to adapt properly to the society’s codes of behavior are also released, though in their cases it is an occasion of great shame. Everything is planned and organized so that life is as convenient and pleasant as possible. Jonas lives with his father, a Nurturer of new children, his mother, who works at the Department of Justice, and his seven-year-old sister Lily. At the beginning of the novel, he is apprehensive about the upcoming Ceremony of Twelve, when he will be given his official Assignment as a new adult member of the community. He does not have a distinct career preference, although he enjoys volunteering at a variety of different jobs. Though he is a well-behaved citizen and a good student, Jonas is different: he has pale eyes, while most people in his community have dark eyes, and he has unusual powers of perception. Sometimes objects “change” when he looks at them. He does not know it yet, but he alone in his community can perceive flashes of color; for everyone else, the world is as devoid of color as it is of pain, hunger, and inconvenience. At the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas is given the highly honored Assignment of Receiver of Memory. The Receiver is the sole keeper of the community’s collective memory. When the community went over to Sameness—its painless, warless, and mostly emotionless state of tranquility and harmony—it abandoned all memories of pain, war, and emotion, but the memories cannot disappear totally. Someone must keep them so that the community can avoid making the mistakes of the past, even though no one but the Receiver can bear the pain. Jonas receives the memories of the past, good and bad, from the current Receiver, a wise old man who tells Jonas to call him the Giver. The Giver transmits memories by placing his hands on Jonas’s bare back. The first memory he receives is of an exhilarating sled ride. As Jonas receives memories from the Giver—memories of pleasure and pain, of bright colors and extreme cold and warm sun, of excitement and terror and hunger and love—he realizes how bland and empty life in his community really is. The memories make Jonas’s life richer and more meaningful, and he wishes that he could give that richness and meaning to the people he loves. But in exchange for their peaceful existence, the people of Jonas’s community have lost the capacity to love him back or to feel deep passion about anything. Since they have never experienced real suffering, they also cannot appreciate the real joy of life, and the life of individual people seems less precious to them. In addition, no one in Jonas’s community has ever made a choice of his or her own. Jonas grows more and more frustrated with the members of his community, and the Giver, who has felt the same way for many years, encourages him. The two grow very close, like a grandfather and a grandchild might have in the days before Sameness, when family members stayed in contact long after their children were grown. Meanwhile, Jonas is helping his family take care of a problem newchild, Gabriel, who has trouble sleeping through the night at the Nurturing Center. Jonas helps the child to sleep by transmitting soothing memories to him every night, and he begins to develop a relationship with Gabriel that mirrors the family relationships he has experienced through the memories. When Gabriel is in danger of being released, the Giver reveals to Jonas that release is the same as death. Jonas’s rage and horror at this revelation inspire the Giver to help Jonas devise a plan to change things in the community forever. The Giver tells Jonas about the girl who had been designated the new Receiver ten years before. She had been the Giver’s own daughter, but the sadness of some of the memories had been too much for her and she had asked to be released. When she died, all of the memories she had accumulated were released into the community, and the community members could not handle the sudden influx of emotion and sensation. The Giver and Jonas plan for Jonas to escape the community and to actually enter Elsewhere. Once he has done that, his larger supply of memories will disperse, and the Giver will help the community to come to terms with the new feelings and thoughts, changing the society forever. However, Jonas is forced to leave earlier than planned when his father tells him that Gabriel will be released the next day. Desperate to save Gabriel, Jonas steals his father’s bicycle and a supply of food and sets off for Elsewhere. Gradually, he enters a landscape full of color, animals, and changing weather, but also hunger, danger, and exhaustion. Avoiding search planes, Jonas and Gabriel travel for a long time until heavy snow makes bike travel impossible. Half-frozen, but comforting Gabriel with memories of sunshine and friendship, Jonas mounts a high hill. There he finds a sled—the sled from his first transmitted memory—waiting for him at the top. Jonas and Gabriel experience a glorious downhill ride on the sled. Ahead of them, they see—or think they see—the twinkling lights of a friendly village at Christmas, and they hear music. Jonas is sure that someone is waiting for them there.

__Age Does Matter__

By Jona Belle P. Mariano

I live in the world where everything is provided

The rules are strict and no one is exempted

People of my age were doing the same

Sameness is the world that I’m trying to say.

When I was born, I was sent to the center

Together with other babies and we nurtured there

The Nurturers fed us and taught us to walk

Until the age of one and we have to move.

Ceremony for the Ones is very exciting

They will give us names that we’ll forever bring

The Ones will be sending to different families

Who were needed a child in order to be happy.

At the age of three, dream telling began

And I have to tell them the dream I had

Four, five, six, I have to wear a jacket

That fastened down back as a sign of interdependence.

I got my front-buttoned jacket at seven

And it is a first sign to be independent

At the age of eight, I’m no longer a child

Co’z my comfort object will no longer on my side.

All the females under the age of nine

Their hair ribbons should be neatly tied

I can no longer wait to be at nine

Co’z the bicycle I’m wishing will all be mine.

I have to be serious at the age of eleven

I have to volunteer for the hours remain

At the age of twelve will be the last ceremony

And they will give an assignment that would suit to me.

This is our life in the world of Sameness

You have to follow the rules they’ve made

Now that I knew everything, I want to go somewhere

Where everything is in normal and it is in Elsewhere.

Vocabulary Enhancer

 (Cassandra Joyce Cabesas)

1. Sheepish- adjective
embarrassed or bashful, as by having done something wrong or foolish.
like sheep, as in meekness, docility, etc.

2. Whimpered- verb (used without object)
to cry with low, plaintive, broken sounds.
verb (used with object)
to utter in a whimper.
noun
a whimpering cry or sound.

3. Jaunty- adjective, jauntier, jauntiest.
easy and sprightly in manner or bearing:
to walk with a jaunty step.
smartly trim, as clothing:
a jaunty hat.

4. Indolence- (indolent)adjective
having or showing a disposition to avoid exertion; slothful:
an indolent person.
Pathology. causing little or no pain; inactive or relatively benign:
an indolent ulcer that is not painful and is slow to heal.

5. Quizically- (quizical) adjective
odd, queer, or comical.
questioning or puzzled:
a quizzical expression on her face.
derisively questioning, ridiculing, or chaffing.

6. Crease- noun
a ridge or groove produced in anything by folding, heat, pressure, etc.; fold; furrow.
a wrinkle, especially one on the face.

7. Kinks- noun
a flaw or imperfection likely to hinder the successful operation of something, as a machine or plan:
There are still a few kinks to be worked out of the plan before we start production.

8. Tufts-noun
a bunch or cluster of small, usually soft and flexible parts, as feathers or hairs, attached or fixed closely together at the base and loose at the upper ends.

9. Jarred- verb
to have a harshly unpleasant or perturbing effect on one's nerves, feelings, thoughts, etc.:
The sound of the alarm jarred.
to produce a harsh, grating sound; sound discordantly.
to vibrate audibly; rattle:
The window jarred in the frame.

10. Wisp- noun
a handful or small bundle of straw, hay, or the like.
any thin tuft, lock, mass, etc.:
wisps of hair.

Passage Picker ( Iriss Joy Rabago )

“We gained control of everything but we need to let go of others…”

-          The Giver

We can control to keep things we want to stay in our mind but we must not expect that we can be able to keep those treasures (memories) forever because some of them are not meant to be kept in us forever.

  

Connector ( Rutchell Saplot )

As I read the Lois Lory’s novel The Giver, I can relate its story to another novel entitled Divergent where in the story of The Giver in the age of 12 they were assigned to their own assignment in the Ceremony of 12 based on their ability and their intelligence. Some will became a Doctor, an Engineer, a Nurturer, a Receiver and other work that fit on every individual based on their long observation. The most crucial assignment is to become a Receiver and to be chosen to be a receiver you must have the uniqueness and intelligence which is seeing beyond what you can see and just like in the novel Divergent when they reach the age where they can handle a faction, they were given a test, an aptitude test that will determine their ability and intelligence and also their future. Some will be part of the Abnegation, Amity, Erudite, Candor, Dauntless and a Divergent but the worst function is to become a Factionless in the society. Both novels have a one system or government which controls and determine their role in the society. But the ambience of the story can be related to another novel entitled The Hunger Games because the color of the atmosphere is dull and chaos. The ending of the story just like in the Divergent both the main character of the story has their mission unaccomplished, both became a rebel in their society because they both know that there is something wrong in their society and they want change, both ending of the story travel to go out in their boundary and both aim for hope in the other side of the boundary.