Thursday 3 March 2011

Chapter one: Summary and Comment

Summary:
In the first chapter of the book "The Giver" the author Lois Lowry (    ) introduces a boy named Jonas and his family.
The story begins with a interior monoloug of Jonas who thinks about a word discribing his feelings. He notes that he isn´t frightened, how he thought at the beginning, he discribes his feeling as apprehensive. 
In the evening Jonas family has the ritual to speak about their feelings of the day. Jonas seven years old sister Lily begins to told about her angry feeling during a visiting group did not obey the rules at the play area. The parents calm Lily and ask her weather the children only didn´t obey the rules because they are different with their own. At next the father talks about his day. He feels worry because one of the newchildren at his work wasn´t going well. It has to release if it doesn´t matter. The father thinks about to take it at home. The mother has similar problems like the father. She works at the Department of Justice and has somebody there who has impinge against the rules for a second time, if he will do it again he will release too. Jonas doesn´t want to talk about his feelings but because it is against the rules he does it. He says his family that he feels apprehensive because of the Ceremony of Twelve. As reaktion the parents want to talk privately with him.


Comment:
This scene begins with an open beginning. The reader gets more and more clear that Jonas lives in a different world with us. His world is full of rules like the first chapter makes clear. The reader finds out that there are different communitys who visit each other, but they have different rules. On the work of Jonas father also a committee decides about the newchildren and wheather they get release. He talks about two different kinds of realease: the first if somebody is old and the second as newchild. A other thing which we learn in this chapter about Jonas world is that the newchildren don´t live with their parents in their first year. Another rule which gets out of the dioloug of the family members is that every family can only have two children: a male and a female. From the worry of the mother the reader knows that somebody can only impinge twice and not a third time because then he gets released. This released is a negativ thing how we can think of the reaktions and worrys of the family. It seems like it is something how maroon somebody or let him starve. Also in the family are rules. The ritual talking of the day feelings is one rule of the family, also Jonas address the Ceremony of Twelve which everyone has survive. The reaktion of the parents makes it more interesting and creates suspense. I think the first chapter creates all in all a lot of suspense. Because of this different livestyle and the rules it seems to be a different world. This first chapter creates interest to this world and makes the reader to read away.

4 comments:

  1. This release thing must be something really strange. I'm glad we don't have it in our society. Is it somebody who has to leave the society and has to live somewhere else then?
    Another thing I really became curious about was the idea about the newchild you wrote about. Why do newchildren not live with their parents?
    I'm curious whether you will find out more and ket us know soon.

    PS: It's ReaCtion in English!

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  2. Thank you for your comment. I think somebody who is release is something like dead. But I don´t know. In chapter four the old woman Larissa talks about it. But she only says that this Roberto was away with happiness in his face.

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  3. You're right. The first chapter of any good novel must ask questions and leave the reader wanting to know more. You've hit the nail on the head: What is "release"? It's clearly something unpleasant, but in this society, where everybody shares feelings and is so reasonable, surely it can't be that bad.. can it?

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  4. I am not sure, but because nobody returns it can be bad too. I think in the people don´t speak very much about it, they trust the community. Roberto goes out with a happy face but does he know what happens to him?

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