Darkness falls.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Carried an apple home
From the recreation area
Jonas saw it turn to red,
As traffic lights here do.
Orange... Fiona's hair came and went
He saw fleeting flashes of it
But then she turned
No, he couldn't understand.
Later he met the Giver
Who worked behind closed doors
Jonas could 'see beyond'
He said, an aptitude hardly anyone had.

That was when his training began.

'Oh,' Jonas said,
He didn't want it any more
The honour, the pleasure,
he didn't think the injustice would've tore
Unforgivable as it was
Jonas also threw his pill away
Soon after he absolutely knew
it didn't matter, not any more.
Receiver...
He thought, with halting crescendo
A burst of emotion helped him make his decision:
Receiver...

I am no more.
---------------------------------------------
(if there are no steps down the poem, apologies but there must be an error.)
This poem depicts the feelings when he is growing up. This poem shows the anguish that he has when he is not understood when he has special sightings, as it was 'an aptitude hardly anyone had'. As he feels misunderstood, plus the fact that he is twelve and going through puberty, his stress amounts in a 'crescendo' which is 'halting' due to the fact that he meets several obstacles on the way, such as the pills which suppressed his feelings, which resulted in one less output for him to relieve his stress, as wrong as it might have seemed.

Also, the stress increases until Jonas reaches his breaking point, which is at the end of the last stanza, but the margin is back to normal, to signify that he had made his decision, which was to leave the community.

Also, there are disruptions in the poem, which is signified by when the margins go back to the end of the page. This is supposed to show that there were significant events in his life, such as when he began training as the Receiver-in-training. However, when he made up his mind to leave his community with Gabriel, who is not mentioned but can be found through contextual knowledge of the book.

Lastly, the poem is an acrostic one, which means that a word is used to form the backbone of the poem. In this poem, the title is 'colour', and I feel that this is relevant to the theme of colour in the Giver.

LISA

2 comments

Thursday, July 22, 2010

It was much the same, this memory, though the hill seemed to be a different one, steeper, and the snow was not falling as thickly as it was before.

It was colder, also, Jonas perceived. He could see, as he sat waiting at the top of the hill, that the snow beneath the sled was not thick and soft as it had been before, but hard, and coated with bluish ice.

The sled moved forward, and Jonas grinned with delight, looking forward to the breathtaking slide down through the invigorating air.

But the runners, this time, couldn't slice through the frozen expanse as they had on the other, snow-cushioned hill. They skittered sideways and the sled gathered speed. Jonas pulled at the rope, trying to steer, but the steepness and speed took control from his hands and he was no longer enjoying the feeling of freedom but instead, terrified, was at the mercy of the wild acceleration over the ice.

Sideways, spinning, the sled hit a bump in the hill and Jonas was thrown violently into the air. He fell with his leg twisted under him, and could hear the crack of bone. His face scraped along jagged edges of ice and when he came, at last, to a stop, he lay shocked and still, feeling nothing at first but fear.

Then came the first wave of pain.

------------------------------------------------------

In this excerpt, Jonas receives one of the first painful memories from the Giver. However, although he senses some similarities between the first pleasant memory of the sled such as the setting itself, he also realises that there are some different things about this memory. For instance, he can '[perceive]' that the hill was steeper and the snow had a different texture- that it was ice and that it was 'bluish'.

If we compare much of what Jonas sees and feels in this scene to our lives, we will be able to learn many things from it. For instance, take the fact that even when Jonas sees that the snow he sees is in fact ice, he does not feel any sense of warning. Of course, this may have been attributed to his (and the community's) rather underdeveloped sense of danger. However, in real life, we often want to continue with what we do, even when we know that it may have a bad effect on us or our lives.

Next, when Jonas began to go down the hill, he did not really know that there was anything wrong with his ride until he lost control of the sled and could only let a combination of inertia and gravity control his vehicle. Similarly, we often only sense the danger and want to stop when it is too late, and by the time we manage to stop, something, whether pleasant or not, would happen. This would cause us to feel physical pain like Jonas, or more often than not, emotional pain.\

Let me share an experience of mine which happened not too long ago and i feel relates to this excerpt.

It was another netball training, but this time, instead of the usual warm-ups around the track, our teacher instructed us to follow a track around school, which wound through the primary basketball court and the carpark.

On hearing this, I could not help but groan as the mentioned track would need us to go up several slopes, which would increase my tiredness. However, there was no room for complaints, and our group quickly made our way up the route.

All was going pretty well until we came to the carpark, where a security guard shouted after us, 'Girl, watch out for car ah!' But i was not aware that that was not the real peril. We made it safely across the first half of the carpark, and now we were near the canteen, running past the pick-up point behind it. Several squat barriers on the ground dimly alerted us of a division in the road. The people ahead of me seemed tireless, and were sprinting ahead effortlessly. In an effort to keep up with them, I gave a burst of speed.

At that moment, my heavy shoe caught on one of the black dividers on the road, tripping me over. In that split second, I found myself on the ground on my left side, and several people stopped to help me up, and they asked me if I was all right. In a haze, I got up and continued to run, feeling only a numb buzzing in my fingers, elbow and knee on the left side of my body.

Then came the first wave of pain.

Instinctively, I looked down at my fingers, which were numb with pain. Bright red blood about to flow out of the wound, which, by the amount of pain, I knew was quite deep. Looking at my elbow and knee, I also saw that same colour, fresh and wet, in patches on the wounds.

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Looking at these two stories, what are some of the similarities and differences you can find?

Labels: accident, blood, fall, pain, sled, snow

3 comments

i wrote this myself, i hope it's okay!

The Last Time I Saw Him

The Giver looked at me

I could see it in his eyes

He missed Rosemary dearly,

But at that time I didn't know she was his child.

But

He held it back

And gave me memories

Of music, of Christmas,

Of love and family.

Then there were the bad times

Of war and tragedy

I saw the red of fresh blood, fights,

Guns and life, melancholy

I broke my leg

The second time I rode a sled

The pain was dizzying.

At the end

He said Good Bye

And I took Gabriel too.

He couldn't stay

In this place of disarray

Where he didn't have a place

The Giver and I, we had a plan

To save Gabe,

And let me go to a foreign land.

I was nervous, but

I had to do this;

If I didn't,

This Newchild would suffer under the needle, and have Death's kiss.

I left with an ache

In my body,

in my heart.

I couldn't serve this lowly society

Where nearly everything had its part.

We slid down through the snow,

I was falling asleep, but

I heard music, and Gabriel stirred

We couldn't stop then,

We were nearly Elsewhere.

--------------------------------------------------------

This poem portrays several scenes where the Giver parts with his memories to Jonas, and when he leaves his community with Gabriel. In the first paragraph, Jonas does not quite understand why the Giver was so sad when he talked about Rosemary, until he found out that she was his child. This shows that many feelings and facts are hidden in Jonas' society, and it is only by chance or questioning that he finds out these facts.

The rhyme in the poem suggests that although Jonas does not want to leave the community, he feels a sense of responsibility for Gabriel's life, which helps him to make the decision to leave his utopian society. However, when the rhyme is disrupted in the last paragraph, it shows how he wavers, but yet he knows that they are near their destination.

Some sentences in the poem end haltingly with the use of the word 'but'. This shows Jonas' hesitation when he is trying to make the decision on whether to leave or not. However, the poem goes on, and finishes when he is reaching 'Elsewhere'. This shows the amount of determination that Jonas had and how seriously he treated the matter of his escape, and even included the Giver when they hatched the plan.

The poem also recounts the many times Jonas visited the Giver and where the transfer of memories took place. This stanza can be related to our own lives, when we have the good times and the bad, which could be compared to the 'life, melancholy' that Jonas experienced and the 'love and family' that he felt when he saw those memories. Therefore, as many of us experience many good things and less of those rather extreme bad conditions in life, what Jonas learnt through his sessions with the Giver is comparable to our everyday lives.

The last stanza ends abruptly, which is due to the fact that Jonas knew that he was fast approaching Elsewhere and felt a sense of relief and finality, which ends the poem on a mysterious note, leaving the reader to wonder if he gets there at all.

Labels: But., Christmas, Elsewhere, escape, family, Giver, love, poetry, snow

4 comments

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Left alone in the past

by Brande

Left alone in the past
Forgotten friendships buried, never meant to last
She walked away from me
Why couldn't I foresee?
Time standing still
Another way to deal, another pill
The sky is gray with hate
One thing tore us apart, your fate
Now what will you do?
Who will confide in you?
Remember the times we shared?
Remember how well we paired?
The consequences are tough
You only knew how to treat me rough
Who is next in line?
Will you, too, break their spine?
Look at what you've done
This time I will stand in front of you, I won't run
Don't bother me anymore
All you touch, you tore
What you wanted, you took
Now I glance back, I take one last look
You left me alone in your past
Forgotten friendships buried, never meant to last

--------------------------------------------

This poem is very relevant because similarly, Jonas' felt hurt when he realised that his father's job had a dark side to it, and that many things went on in the world that he and the rest of the people of his age were probably unaware of. The mood in this poem is sad and melancholic, which exactly reflects the way Jonas felt when he realised several ugly truths.
Also, Jonas was told by his mother that once he went into adulthood, he would not be as close to his childhood friends any more. Although Jonas denied this, he felt detached from Asher and Fiona when they were having a friendly game of war. Similarly, in this poem, the speaker experiences feelings of loss when 'She walked away from [the speaker]' and when their friendships felt strained and 'never meant to last'. These sentences show how alone Jonas feels when he gains more knowledge about his community.
In the poem, the speaker is not sure how to deal with his problems, and wonders if 'another pill' would help. As in The Giver, Jonas had to deal with much pain because he was not allowed to request for relief-of-pain medicine. This poem reflects much about how helpless he feels.
Lastly, the poem also talks about the pain of physical injury, and how people are roughly treated, where he lives. This is very reflective of Jonas' society, where people who are deemed unfit to live in that community are 'released'. These feelings are reflected angrily, as Jonas felt, in the second stanza, where the speaker feels agitated and says that 'Who is next in line?', which when put on context of The Giver, could be related to Gabriel and his imminent release; and when the speaker says 'will you too, break their spine?' it could be related to the concept of release in The Giver. Therefore, the speaker feels very angry at the way things are done, in the poem.

Finally, I think that this poem is very appropriate also because Jonas wants to escape the community, and despite the difficulties, is determined, just like the speaker in the poem, who did not want anyone to ‘bother [him] anymore’. This shows that Jonas and the speaker are tired of the way the things are run wherever they are, and wish to face up to it, although Jonas does it differently from the speaker in the poem.

Labels: anger, poetry, release

2 comments

Saturday, June 26, 2010

The Truth I Had not Known

I saw my father

When I was a Four.

Through my pale blue eyes,

He didn't seem to do any wrong.

His large, warm hands clasped me till I was a Ten

Growing excited about adulthood,

Beginning to understand.

That pair of hands

Had always been there

A comfort, an example,

For the family to share.

Until I was twelve.

I made a new friend.

He told me I could lie,

And that people didn't just die.

I didn't understand,

I couldn't believe,

The logic of release,

What he was trying so hard to tell me.

Until I saw that pair of hands

Gently cradling the infant too small

I felt a burning fire in my heart

That was strong, too strong.

Then I saw what happened.

That flash of silver.

There were no choices

My father was a killer.

This poem depicts the sudden truth that Jonas realises about release during one of his sessions with the Giver. Before this, Jonas thinks that like the word, release meant someone leaving the community and joining another outside. However, he did not realise that this community that the Released joined was the one of the dead and this shocked Jonas very much. To him, these people were not spared from not being given a choice or chance to redeem their life. Instead, they were killed when they were at their weakest, which was at a very early or late stage of their life. Jonas found this very unfair and I also think that this sort of method to ensure a balanced community is not very fair as the people were euthanised due to several of their physical aspects.

However, some things must be sacrificed in order to maintain the perfect Utopic society. In this context, this idea still holds true.

In this poem, the protagonist (Jonas) starts out as an innocent four-year-old, who loves his father and does not understand much about the job that his father has to do, which also includes euthanising the young and the old. As he grows older and progresses into maturity, he realises with growing horror that his ‘father was a killer’. Repetition enhances this effect when he was watching the record of his father euthanising a child when he felt a ‘burning fire in [his] heart /that was strong, too strong’. This is the expression of the sudden realisation of what Jonas feels when he realises that his father has been doing this all the while and the sickened feeling that comes with this realisation. I think that Jonas is somewhat pitiful as his father’s ‘identity’ as a ‘killer’ has been masked from him until he found out years later, whereby it comes as a great shock, and Jonas cannot believe that his father is like this.

The use of ages in the poem also shows a short segment of Jonas’ life as a cycle that has been disrupted. When old people die, young children replace them, and yet the child, being a twin, was euthanised and this shows a disruption in the cycle.

The rhythm of the poem starts out as regular, with a rhyming scheme of a,b,c,b, d,e,d, f,g,h,g for the first three paragraphs. The somewhat regular rhythm and rhyme scheme implies that Jonas is not aware of what his father does at his job, and is only wrapped up in his own world of childhood. However, as the poem reaches its climax, the rhyming suddenly becomes very clockwork and regular, as if Jonas feels dulled by the awful truth about his father and can only think in circles. The large font at the end of the poem also signifies his great disbelief and shock about the truth and the straightforward way that the writer uses to show his shock also shows how big and terrible this discovery for Jonas is as he cannot cope with it, and needs to express it simply and loudly. The utopic society that Jonas has taken his Community for does not seem so perfect to him any more.

thanks for reading

LISA

Labels: euthanasia., Utopia?

3 comments

Sunday, June 6, 2010

In the book, Jonas cannot see colour. However, he sees flashes of it throughout the book. He saw it while playing with an apple and also in Fiona's hair, which was red. While these are only two instances of him seeing colour, people in Jonas’ community cannot see colour. Therefore, it is considered an unusual skill and this was one of the reasons that he was selected to become the Receiver. As his gradual realization of colour and also the names of the colours he learns appear regularly in The Giver, this shows that the idea of colour is important.

Colours.

Also, another recurring theme in the book is the importance of having memories. The notion of needing someone to take care of the entire community’s memories in order to ensure a controlled society shows that Jonas' community thinks that memories are a very precious thing. If they had not thought that way, they would not have found someone like The Giver to control their memories.

Several illustrations showing the importance of memory

One recurring motif in The Giver is release. Release is talked about frequently in the book as a peaceful procedure into Elsewhere. Also, Jonas finds out the truth about release in the book- that actually it refers to euthanasia. This is also a very important motif because many people are released in the book and the discovery about the truth of release also is one of, if not the main impetus that makes Jonas leave home into the unknown in search of another Community. This is another portrayal of release as Jonas is leaving the community, yet he was not euthanised. This shows a kind of release as he left the community with Gabriel.

Release: portrayed as a peaceful experience

Labels: colour, memory, release

0 comments

Monday, May 31, 2010

In The Giver, a very futuristic society is portrayed in the book. Nowadays, there are many problems in the world such as environmental problems, political problems and so on. However, Lois Lowry has used her imagination in the book to counter all these problems and show an utterly perfect society where Jonas lives.

However, this is only on the surface. When Jonas turns twelve, he is assigned a very special job – to be a Receiver of Memories. When he goes to work every morning under his mentor, otherwise known as the Giver, he realises that his society is not a perfect as it seems and has to go through a lot of painful training to make sure that the rest of the community does not suffer. I think Jonas is very noble as he was given a very honourable job, but it was difficult. Moreover, Jonas was not allowed to apply for release from his job. This implies that he is bound to the contract as the next Receiver until another Receiver takes his place. Therefore, as Jonas is made to do a very hard job for the entire community, he is forking out his youth, innocence and age while doing this job. This is a very noble thing to do. Undoubtedly, the job will make him all the wiser and the community would seek his help during crises, but along the way Jonas makes several painful and even traumatising discoveries such as the real meaning of release – euthanasia. As a foster family member Gabriel may have had to be released in the book, the discovery of the true meaning of release – supposedly a blissful experience – renders him unable to think of Gabriel undergoing the same treatment, and this thus spurs him on to leave home with Gabriel in search of another community. I think that Jonas is somewhat pitiful as he has to leave the safety of his home into the unknown, where his only companion is Gabriel. Both of them are vulnerable and defenceless, but this journey was only embarked on as Jonas could no longer stand living with his family who were so blissfully unaware of the processes going on in their Community, and this was again caused by his appointment of becoming the new Receiver. Therefore, it shows that the job Jonas has to do is more difficult than it seems because he has to cope with much harder things than the rest of his peers, who are given more physical jobs rather than jobs which engage the person emotionally and physically.

I think The Giver is a very pleasant read because its concepts are simple and it also lets us realise that, though our world seems chaotic, sometimes chaos is better than utmost perfection because most of the time, humans are unable to maintain perfection and in order to maintain the high standards that they have set, would have to use easy ways out – such as employing the Giver to remove all bad memories or good memories that may encourage rebellion in the community and poses a threat to the internal security of the community. This makes us appreciate what we already have, despite the many problems we face in life.

The Giver also portrays simple concepts in a different way. For example, in Jonas’ world, the people cannot see colour. However, Jonas is singled out be being given the ability to see colours. This concept of colour may be simple and obvious to nearly every one of us, but in Jonas’ world, colour is unheard of and it is considered an unusual gift to be able to see in colour. This presents the originality of the story and is also what makes it a pleasant read. It is written in simple English and therefore, it is enjoyable to read as it is not difficult.

The Giver also made me reflect a lot on whether we treasure the abilities we have, no matter how ordinary or normal they seem. Although Jonas' special ability was to be able to See Beyond, in his Community he was considered different from the other children due to this ability and was even skipped in the Ceremony of Twelve. This made me very ashamed of myself as being a more whiny human, I have always complained a lot about my failing eyesight and the bothersome need to wear spectacles. However, I did not think about my ability to see all the different shades and hues on the trees, buildings and people around me. The Giver has made me very thankful for all this.

Also, The Giver is a coming-of-age story that shows the many problems that tweens or teens face. As I am very near Jonas in age, I can somewhat understand some of the feelings that he feels or I have also sometimes gone through some of the problems he faces, though not that extreme. This helped me to identify with the book a lot.

Overall, I think that everyone should read the Giver because it is an engaging read that shows many old ideas repackaged differently. Also, it makes us think and reflect on what we humans are doing well in society and what can be improved on. It also helps us to appreciate that we do not come from birthing machines but have real parents and siblings, who love us deeply and should be treasured. Therefore, I think that the Giver is a very well-written book and should be appreciated.

Thanks for reading!

LISA

Labels: think.

3 comments

I have been released.

I have been released.

I have been released.

Left alone in the past

I have been released.

I have been released.

I have been released.

I have been released.