Reader Response Journal #1
Date: 4/25/2019
Title: The Giver
Author: Louis Lawry
Pages Read: Pg.# 1- Pg#240
Prompt #: After reading, I wonder…
Reader Response:
After reading, I wonder… honestly since I finished the book super early, I’m wondering what happens in the next book. I wonder if in the beginning, when the family group get’s Gabriel to take care of at night, if Jonas has a special connection with him that he may only sense. In the novel it says that Jonas noticed that in Gabriel’s eyes he saw the same exact sparkle or gleam that Jonas saw in himself throughout his life. Which makes me wonder if some sort of genetic variation within the same “Birth Giver” enables these certain people to actually be truly “different”. Another thing I’ve been thinking about is how it relates to our modern society and it’s weird how well this guy predicted where were going. The book was written in 1988 and is based in the future. Since this future is in a society in which all pain and bad world memories are taken away from people to make everyone “equal”, it shows a resemblance to what’s happening today in our society. Like when it says they took everything beautiful in life away like colors and everything it shows you always sacrifice something. So, it’s showing when little things are taken from society one by one eventually you get rid of everything, because you never get everyone happy with everything. One last main thing I was pondering about while reading this book was; where’s the rest of the world at to help these people? When I was trying to ask myself this when I was reading there were a few clues to maybe lead to a cult like experiment. When the planes accidentally got lost and everyone was wondering why they could see planes so close, the society almost shot them down. They didn’t shoot them down because The Giver told them info that people make mistakes and if we shoot them, we may cause war that we don’t want.
Date: 4/25/2019
Title: The Giver
Author: Louis Lawry
Pages Read: Pg.# 1- Pg#240
Prompt #: After reading, I wonder…
Reader Response:
After reading, I wonder… honestly since I finished the book super early, I’m wondering what happens in the next book. I wonder if in the beginning, when the family group get’s Gabriel to take care of at night, if Jonas has a special connection with him that he may only sense. In the novel it says that Jonas noticed that in Gabriel’s eyes he saw the same exact sparkle or gleam that Jonas saw in himself throughout his life. Which makes me wonder if some sort of genetic variation within the same “Birth Giver” enables these certain people to actually be truly “different”. Another thing I’ve been thinking about is how it relates to our modern society and it’s weird how well this guy predicted where were going. The book was written in 1988 and is based in the future. Since this future is in a society in which all pain and bad world memories are taken away from people to make everyone “equal”, it shows a resemblance to what’s happening today in our society. Like when it says they took everything beautiful in life away like colors and everything it shows you always sacrifice something. So, it’s showing when little things are taken from society one by one eventually you get rid of everything, because you never get everyone happy with everything. One last main thing I was pondering about while reading this book was; where’s the rest of the world at to help these people? When I was trying to ask myself this when I was reading there were a few clues to maybe lead to a cult like experiment. When the planes accidentally got lost and everyone was wondering why they could see planes so close, the society almost shot them down. They didn’t shoot them down because The Giver told them info that people make mistakes and if we shoot them, we may cause war that we don’t want.
Reader Response Journal #2
Date: 5/2/2019
Title: The Giver
Author: Louis Lawry
Pages Read: Pg.# 1- Pg#240
Prompt #: Describe a character that you would like to meet (which doesn’t mean that you think you would like the character, but that you think the character would be interesting). List 4 questions that you would ask.
Reader Response:
In my book, The Giver, the character I would choose to meet would be The Giver. It sounds like an average answer but he’s the only one I’m super curious about right now. In the book he doesn’t seem too have much detail except for a few personal accounts. ‘d have many questions for this character because he’s the only link from the world in the book to the world (from a societal world of things) that everybody lives in right now. My first question for The Giver would be; with all the knowledge you have about the past and present, what type of political world was the country living in before this all happened? What political climate would you most likely see as fit for the most individual freedom among people? The reason I would ask him this is because being able to use this knowledge to come back into my current world, I could make it the most free and successful world imaginable. Whether I would agree with whatever path he told me would be best I would still pursue it to the best of my ability. Now, under the assumption that nobody knew I met with The Giver; I would not let anybody know anyways. I’d build up a reputable profile in my life and run for office. By doing so I would push and instill the values that The Giver told me would be best for everyone, and I’d hopefully win if people already woke up to how great they are. My second question to The Giver would be; why don’t you just break this society and fix everything already? The reason I would ask him this is because when you release all the memories to people nobody can handle it, because they have no bad memories to shape them as a strong individual. My reasoning for causing a disrupt would have one of two outcomes. Either people can handle it and the society becomes so broken it no longer has the power to exist as an entity anymore. Thus, not causing suffering for anybody who died because they will no longer be with us. Although, if people could handle it when it’s spread amongst everybody, there would be a gigantic uprising within the society, eventually freeing the people and having them form the best society based on their now impulsive memories. Now my third question would be a little bit different from the rest, a little more personal. So, Giver why have you never committed a violent crime, although you’re capable of it by remembering so many? I ask this because if bad memories are the things that corrupt society, how come it hasn’t affected you yet in that way? I know damn well you’ve thought of it before just because of the excitement you may remember from committing one prior to thinking of it. I mean honestly would it corrupt society by exposing them to one sliver of harm within society causing it to be broken once again? That’d be great to see you use yourself or someone else as a vessel for violence, to almost throw a cog in the wheel and just see what would happen. Ok, so my fourth and final question to The Giver would be; why haven’t you black mailed all the society leaders into giving people certain things that would make everyone happier? I ask you this because you have all the power imaginable in this society. You can corrupt it within one memory and that’s freaking awesome honestly. I know they don’t listen to you whatsoever unless you need advice and that’s messed up man honestly. But seriously you have the power so why not use it? I know it’s dirty to do that to everyone but like whatever now honestly, ya know. And if they threaten to send you off to go live on your own or kill you, then what’s the point. You can just screw everyone’s lives up within a few seconds. They know the power you have, and they’re scared that’s why they suppress you so much subconsciously, crippling you into believing that your only good for one thing. Alright, thank you Giver for everything!
Date: 5/2/2019
Title: The Giver
Author: Louis Lawry
Pages Read: Pg.# 1- Pg#240
Prompt #: Describe a character that you would like to meet (which doesn’t mean that you think you would like the character, but that you think the character would be interesting). List 4 questions that you would ask.
Reader Response:
In my book, The Giver, the character I would choose to meet would be The Giver. It sounds like an average answer but he’s the only one I’m super curious about right now. In the book he doesn’t seem too have much detail except for a few personal accounts. ‘d have many questions for this character because he’s the only link from the world in the book to the world (from a societal world of things) that everybody lives in right now. My first question for The Giver would be; with all the knowledge you have about the past and present, what type of political world was the country living in before this all happened? What political climate would you most likely see as fit for the most individual freedom among people? The reason I would ask him this is because being able to use this knowledge to come back into my current world, I could make it the most free and successful world imaginable. Whether I would agree with whatever path he told me would be best I would still pursue it to the best of my ability. Now, under the assumption that nobody knew I met with The Giver; I would not let anybody know anyways. I’d build up a reputable profile in my life and run for office. By doing so I would push and instill the values that The Giver told me would be best for everyone, and I’d hopefully win if people already woke up to how great they are. My second question to The Giver would be; why don’t you just break this society and fix everything already? The reason I would ask him this is because when you release all the memories to people nobody can handle it, because they have no bad memories to shape them as a strong individual. My reasoning for causing a disrupt would have one of two outcomes. Either people can handle it and the society becomes so broken it no longer has the power to exist as an entity anymore. Thus, not causing suffering for anybody who died because they will no longer be with us. Although, if people could handle it when it’s spread amongst everybody, there would be a gigantic uprising within the society, eventually freeing the people and having them form the best society based on their now impulsive memories. Now my third question would be a little bit different from the rest, a little more personal. So, Giver why have you never committed a violent crime, although you’re capable of it by remembering so many? I ask this because if bad memories are the things that corrupt society, how come it hasn’t affected you yet in that way? I know damn well you’ve thought of it before just because of the excitement you may remember from committing one prior to thinking of it. I mean honestly would it corrupt society by exposing them to one sliver of harm within society causing it to be broken once again? That’d be great to see you use yourself or someone else as a vessel for violence, to almost throw a cog in the wheel and just see what would happen. Ok, so my fourth and final question to The Giver would be; why haven’t you black mailed all the society leaders into giving people certain things that would make everyone happier? I ask you this because you have all the power imaginable in this society. You can corrupt it within one memory and that’s freaking awesome honestly. I know they don’t listen to you whatsoever unless you need advice and that’s messed up man honestly. But seriously you have the power so why not use it? I know it’s dirty to do that to everyone but like whatever now honestly, ya know. And if they threaten to send you off to go live on your own or kill you, then what’s the point. You can just screw everyone’s lives up within a few seconds. They know the power you have, and they’re scared that’s why they suppress you so much subconsciously, crippling you into believing that your only good for one thing. Alright, thank you Giver for everything!
Reader Response Journal #3
Date: 5/10/2019
Title: The Giver
Author: Louis Lawry
Pages Read: Pg.1-240
Prompt #: Are the characters realistic (do they seem like they could be read people)? Why or why not?
Reader Response:
There are a ton of characters in this book so it’s going to be a generalization of the actual structure of characters. The author in this book definitely decided to create realistic characters. Although, it’s really nice how he developed how people are the same and it’s about how you raise children. Not doing this by calling certain families out, but by raising an entire society without hurt. Everybody in this society is the same (as far as they know it), so stereotypes and discrimination aren’t really a big issue in society. But Jonas for example is different because he does what everyone does in modern day society, likes looks. He treats summer so much better than everyone else because he can see a difference in her that he likes. He became obsessed with her after he saw her glisten and turn red one time. Which was one example of when he could be chosen for being the giver. This shows how realistic these characters ae because it represents what we can’t change, our needing for individuality. Whether people like it or not looks matter, and the author does a really good job in representing this whenever he shows how much Jonas grasps on to only a reflection of red in her hair. Another example of them almost being able to represent real people would be Jonas’s parents. These people represent the wholesome, clueless type parents in the world raising kids. And Jonas’s little sister is tied to that example as well because as she gets older she makes funny remarks about things, and gets more mischievous. The author did a really good job on this. Another detail about how real the characters are is how the father of Jonas in the story lies. Whenever he tells everyone how babies die or how they get rid of inconsistencies within society (specifically the twins). He was taught to lie about what he does and just tell everyone that they float the baby down the river and it’s happy and will eventually be somewhere else to be taken care of. This is basically the entire town narrative just from these main doctors and professionals who can lie only about certain things. So, it represents a lot of society how we all lie to keep everything in order and make everyone happy. That’s why these character in “The Giver” closely resemble real life people.
Date: 5/10/2019
Title: The Giver
Author: Louis Lawry
Pages Read: Pg.1-240
Prompt #: Are the characters realistic (do they seem like they could be read people)? Why or why not?
Reader Response:
There are a ton of characters in this book so it’s going to be a generalization of the actual structure of characters. The author in this book definitely decided to create realistic characters. Although, it’s really nice how he developed how people are the same and it’s about how you raise children. Not doing this by calling certain families out, but by raising an entire society without hurt. Everybody in this society is the same (as far as they know it), so stereotypes and discrimination aren’t really a big issue in society. But Jonas for example is different because he does what everyone does in modern day society, likes looks. He treats summer so much better than everyone else because he can see a difference in her that he likes. He became obsessed with her after he saw her glisten and turn red one time. Which was one example of when he could be chosen for being the giver. This shows how realistic these characters ae because it represents what we can’t change, our needing for individuality. Whether people like it or not looks matter, and the author does a really good job in representing this whenever he shows how much Jonas grasps on to only a reflection of red in her hair. Another example of them almost being able to represent real people would be Jonas’s parents. These people represent the wholesome, clueless type parents in the world raising kids. And Jonas’s little sister is tied to that example as well because as she gets older she makes funny remarks about things, and gets more mischievous. The author did a really good job on this. Another detail about how real the characters are is how the father of Jonas in the story lies. Whenever he tells everyone how babies die or how they get rid of inconsistencies within society (specifically the twins). He was taught to lie about what he does and just tell everyone that they float the baby down the river and it’s happy and will eventually be somewhere else to be taken care of. This is basically the entire town narrative just from these main doctors and professionals who can lie only about certain things. So, it represents a lot of society how we all lie to keep everything in order and make everyone happy. That’s why these character in “The Giver” closely resemble real life people.