Four weeks. Four weeks since Jonas stopped
taking the pill. The stirrings returned, but just for Fionna, of course. There
are unscheduled holidays and just before the Ceremony of December there was
one. Everyone was happy and relieved to not have to work, or go to school.
Jonas decided to spend the day with his friends. He found them on the park
playing a war game with little kids. All of it was fun and laughter until Jonas
remembered. He has the memory of war and all stunned of a sudden the game was
not fun anymore and he decided to stop playing and left. That evening, during
the night ritual, Jonas hides his feelings while father talks about a release ceremony
he was performing the next morning. Twins, one of them, the thinner one, had to
be released. Jonas started to question the idea of “release” and even asked the
Giver about it. He was pretty much indifferent about it and instead, started to
talk about the previous Receiver of Memories and her story. Rosemary, that was her. Rosemary could not handle the pain and applied for release. She was
gone, and all the memories returned to the people. Everything was chaos. That
very night Jonas was more curious of the release thing and saw his very own
father perform a ceremony of release to one of the twins. In other words, Jonas
saw his father kill a baby. That was the turning point in Jonas’ life. He and
the Giver decided to make a plan. One way or another, all the memories will
return to the people.
 | |||||||||
| To be honest, Jonas has to do a similar thing. |
Jonas’
father basically killed a new born baby; Jonas was in shock by just seeing a
murder scene. And to add to his panic attack, his very own father was the
murderer. Of course, his father probably had no idea what he was doing, but
still, he killed an innocent life! “He killed it! My father killed it! Jonas
said to himself, stunned at what he was realizing. He continued to stare at the
screen numbly.” Pg. 150 I think Jonas was not prepared to see his dad take a
life away. Yes, he had some memories of crime scenes, but apparently it was not
enough. Jonas reacted terribly; he was confused, overwhelmed and even scared. Scared
of his own father! Jonas lived in this community for so long, he is not used to
violence at all. Seeing this changed him, forever. Murder scenes change people,
and it is demonstrated in each and every episode of CSI.
The
only thing certain in this community is that everything is uncertain. Everything
could be a lie or a joke. A disaster. The only choice left for Jonas and even the
Giver is to try to safe these soon-to-be confused people. Save the memories,
and for once in forever destroy the Sameness.
