Aah, I have some questions and things to say about this book, let me see if I can order them:
At the end, does Jonas reach the other place, or is that an illusion and he is just dying (along with the baby)? Sometimes I read it as if yes, he reached his goal and is in another human settlement, but other times I wonder and think he’s dying and those are his final thoughts. The reason that I believe he’s dying (besides his poor physical state at the time) is that the description of the snow and sled resembles the scene in which he learned what a fracture was (the dream with the sled at the beginning of his training).
The rules mention the age at which stuffed animals and other toys are taken from the kids, yet Jonas’s sister keeps her stuffed toy for longer than usual, although in a shelf. Is there something I missed?
This is a book I would like to see converted into a movie.
There are a few different ideas. How about this one that occurred to me at some point - he’s actually just gone in a big circle. He’s back at the community. But, as he lost the memories, the community got them back, and so they changed. Sure, it’s a little far-fetched, I guess, but I like it. It even kinda makes sense. The snow and such things (i.e, no more climate control) came when most of his memories were already gone, IIRC…
Yes, that would make more sense, but his escape from the community and the appearance of animals, weather changes, memory loss, etc. occurred in the space of a few days (no more than a month, I think). It’s a bit of a stretch that the changes happened so quickly.
Yes, Karl, it does seem like he’s dying because if he took a moment off from the present and thought of the past, he’d fall asleep. But do a search on authors; there are several interviews with Ms Lowry. She says Jonas does not die. He gets there, but Lowry left the details out so you could imagine it your own way.
I just wish she had done it saying a person was looking out a doorway, so you know that he was found.
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Does anyone know if Ms. Lowry’s name is pronounced Lao-ree or Loh-ree?
After reading The Giver, I picked up another of her books set in the future entitled Blue (or Finding Blue, etc.). Was anyone else entirely dumbfounded by the ending in that one?
