Jonas lives in a world where most choices are made for him. If anything, his society gives its members the absence of choice. For example, in chapter 13 readers get the following verbal exchange between Jonas and the Giver.
"Oh." Jonas was silent for a minute. "Oh, I see what you mean. It wouldn't matter for a newchild's toy. But later it does matter, doesn't it? We don't dare to let people make choices of their own.""Not safe?" The Giver suggested."Definitely not safe," Jonas said with certainty. "What if they were allowed to choose their own mate? And chose wrong?"
At this point in the story, Jonas is starting to question parts of the Sameness. He admits that there are some things that he wishes he had a choice for. Jonas wishes that he could at least have the choice to choose his shirt color in the morning.
"Well . . . " Jonas had to stop and think it through. "If everything's the same, then there aren't any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things! A blue tunic or a red one?"
Readers find out that the Sameness was chosen to be placed on the people. The people chose to have a society built on the absence of many choices, and at one point, Jonas adamantly states that it was the wrong choice.
"Our people made that choice, the choice to go to the Sameness."
[...]
"We shouldn't have!" Jonas said fiercely.
As the book progresses, and Jonas gets more and more memories, he begins to really resent the Sameness and the entire community set up. These feelings will eventually cause Jonas to stop taking his pills and finally leave the community completely.
The next morning, for the first time, Jonas did not take his pill. Something within him, something that had grown there through the memories, told him to throw the pill away.
In chapter 22, there is this quote.
It was as simple as that. Once he had yearned for choice. Then, when he had had a choice, he had made the wrong one: the choice to leave. And now he was starving.
It's a bit of a depressing quote, but I still always get the feeling that even though Jonas thinks he made the wrong choice, he still appreciates the fact that he made the choice at all.
Saturday, January 25, 2014
What are some quotes about choices?
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