Messanger

in a nut shell, the end of the book is like this. the decision is made to close village in three weeks. Leader wanted Matty to take messages to nearby towns, and Seer wanted him to bring his daughter, Kira to village before it closed. leader warned him that forest was thickening. matty left in the morning with the puppy he had healed with his "gift" (I should have mentioned that erlier. he can heal things by touching them and releasing energy into them, but it leaves him very tired) that's another thing leader warned him about. "don't waste your gift" he headed through with more dificulty than usual and brought Kira through partway (sustaining aicid burns from vines and bad cuts from under-water branches) when Leader (also with a gift to "see beyond") sees they're in trouble and goes to help them. he get's caught by vines half way through, but manages to contact Kira (another gifted person, she can tell the future by her weaving) and through her tells matty to use his gift on forest. Is that possible? READ THE BOOK TO FIND OUT!

giver

he was in aroom filled with people, and it was warm, with a firelight glowing in the hearth. he could see through a window that it was night, and snowing. there were colored lights: red and green and yellow, twinkling from a tree that was, oddly, inside the room. As the holiday memory, Giver's favorite, continued, jonas saw the family gather, open presents, laugh, cook, and felt the warmth, happiness and... he could't name it... love, Giver told him. it was a new concept for him, and he liked it. that night he asked his parents if they loved him, they laughed and said "love" was meaningless, not percise, generalized, obsolite, and Jonas didn't like it one bit.
He and Giver made a plan to change things. Jonas would run away and give the memories bit by bit to the community.things were perfectly set up, but there was a slight change in plans. Gabe, the newchild jonas' family took care of, was going to be released.
jonas left by night on his dad's bike with Gabe strapped in the back he left and pedaled for days, sleeping by day and biking by night. he knew that something else was out there and was determind to get there. But does he? READ THE BOOK TO FIND OUT!

EXPLAIN

I'm a little pressed for time here, so the fallowing entries will be a little short. anyway, yes the people in Jonas' community are colorblind. there are no hills. there is no snow, or anything but good weather and a good temperature. it's all part of the Sameness that's been in the community for centuries. After the Giver gives Jonas more memories, Jonas can see all the colors. he give him memories of death and sunshine, good and bad, all the things that were nonexistent in the community.(well, they did have death but they don't know it as that, for the most part. they know it as releasing. yes, as Jonas learns by watching a release, the term release mean death by lethal injection) I have a question for you- do you think that there world is truly better, with no suffering, but no feelings, either?

giver

Jonas got a folder with the instructions for his training and he was surprised by how little there was. some people had gotten thick folders with complex rules and procedures, but all that was in his was one sheet of paper with 8 simple rules;
1. Go immediately at the end of school hours each day to the Annex entrance behind the House of the old and present yourself to the attendant.
2. Go immediately to your dwelling at the conclusion of Training Hours each day.
3. From this moment you are exempted from rules governing rudeness. You may ask any question of any citizen and you will receive answers. (this startled Jonas. his whole life he had been trained not to be rude, so the thought that now he could was unnerving.)
4. Do not discuss your training with any other member of the community, including parents and Elders.
5. From this moment you are prohibited from dream-telling. (no problem; he rarely dreamed anyway)
6. Except for illness or injury unrelated to training, do not apply for any medication. (he was nervous of this, as he had never really felt pain, but he realized that was only work injuries; he could still get medication for normal accidents
7.You are not permitted to apply for release. (he wouldn't dream of doing so in the first place)
8.You may lie.
that last part was most unnerving of all. as with the rudeness laws, he had been told not to lie his whole life, so this was a shock. he had never before needed to lie either. than he had a though- what if others got that same new rule? what if all the adults could lie. if he could be rude he could just ask, but how could he trust the answers?
The next day he went to the annex with Fiona, who was also training there. the attendant greeted him, calling him Receiver, and directed him to the locked door and unlocked it, explaining that the Receiver needed privacy to help him concentrate (locks were rare in the community, so Jonas was surprised and discomforted). everything in the Receiver's room was slightly different from the normal houses. a little higher quality. but the main difference was all the books. most houses just had a dictionary, the rule book, and a thick book with info on all the parts of the community. but this place had hundreds, maybe thousands of books of all kinds! the walls were covered with them! then he noticed the man sitting on the chair watching him. he greeted Jonas, again as the Receiver, and again Jonas was confused- he thought that he wasn't Receiver yet, that he was just a trainee, but the Receiver said that from then on Jonas was the Receiver. he said to call him the Giver.
They talked, and the giver mentioned some unfamiliar concepts: snow, sleds, runners, and hills. So he decided to transfer the memory of snow. Jonas lied down, closed his eyes, and the Giver put his hand on jonas' back, and he felt like he was on a hard flat piece of wood. he opened his eyes and saw white... snow swirling around him. he also knew that he was on a sled going down a hill. the giver finshed giving him the memory and asked if he saw the sled. they went back to the memory and Jonas looked at the sled, and gasped. it was like the apple, but it didn't change, it just was that way. he told the giver, and the Giver said that Jonas was starting to see red.

COMPARE

this section shows the main problem in messenger. Forest. The trees and plants themselves are alive, they can think, remember. Forest is a strange part of Village. It attacks those it doesn't want in it. and it does seem to actually think about it. The first time an unwanted person comes in, it just gives a warning. something small, sometimes unnoticed, like a cut. but they can't enter again. If they do- well, you read what happened what happened to Gatherer. Matty is an exception, though. he's gone through forest countless times, and forest hasn't given him a warning it's part of what makes him special in the story. trade mart is also a huge problem. people make trades and they come out... different. Also shown is the main part of the giver- his assignment. The Receiver of Memories is an important part of the community. He holds all the memories and wisdom of the past that the community fears. war, pain, starvation, sunshine, the ocean, all these things and more are part of what the receiver safeguards. I also should mention that the reason the he was chosen to be Receiver is that the current receiver said that jonas can See Beyond. That becomes more clear later. Oh, and forgot to mention; Keening is Village's way of mourning the dead. they come out and sing and moan for the lost person

Messenger, 2-4

chapter two starts out with the death of gatherer. He had tried to visit his home town but he, as the book puts it,"had been taken by Forest" he had been completely entangled by sticks and vines(see pg.14 of the book for the gruesome details.) there had been a keening ritual for him and he was buried in the cemetery.
Matty is called to delivery messages about a meeting to close village to outsiders. a petition had been signed by many people in Village,which was strange as most of the had come there themselves, and it had always been open to outsiders. It was lead by Mentor, the schoolteacher who had always been among the first to greet newcomers. They weren't themselves.
That night Matty tried to convince Seer to get a gaming machine like the one his friend Ramon got. he says it would be fun to have, that their nights would never be boring. But Seer looks past that to what the machine costs. Matty didn't know what the machine had cost his friend. Seer thought that Ramon's family must have traded something of great value to get it, and they didn't have anything to trade. Seer thought that something strange was happening to the ancient tradition of trade mart. it used to be simply trading items, but Seer fears it is something much more now(He doesn't know how right he is.)

giver, 6-8

(I'll skip a few chapters, in which not much happens except the arrival of a newchild, Gabriel, to be temporarily taken care of by Jonas's family, a trip to the House of the Old for his volunteer hours, and the morning ritual in which the family members share their dreams.)
the day for the ceremony is finally here. They head for the auditorium, where the ceremonies will take place. the whole community comes to watch and everyone is nervous, whether it's for their family or themselves. the ceremony of one is first, where the newchildren got their names and are assigned to a family unit. then ceremonies of 2,3 and 4, then a break for lunch, then Fives, Sixes, Sevens, and finally the Eights, which was Jonas's sister's age group. the Eights got a new jacket with smaller buttons and pockets to show more independence. the next day started with the Nines, who got their bikes, Tens got shorter hair cuts that signaled themas older, and the Elevens didn't change much, and finally the much anticipated Ceremony of Twelve! they went in order in wich they were born, and each had a number to tell it; jonas was Nineteen. each person got their assignment and a speech about them. One was a Fish Hatchery Attendant, Two was a Birthmother ect. until they got to 18, fiona, a friend of jonas's, was assigned Caretaker of the Old, and then ... (jonas got ready to go up at this point) Twenty, Twenty one... She skipped me!
Everyone but Jonas went, and the ceif elder called him up and said he had not been assigned, but selected. to be the new Receiver of Memory, one of the most importent jobs in the community!