Baby Gabe
This photograph of a baby with pale eyes represents baby Gabe. This photo presents an innocent-looking baby, suitable for baby Gabe. Gabe is a pale eyed baby who doesn’t develop as fast as a baby is supposed to and therefore, is brought to Jonas’ home from the Nurturing Centre to be given special care and attention. Babies are often a sign of hope and a new start and in The Giver, Gabe is too. He is a symbol of a brighter future for the Community as he isn’t bound by the rules of the Community as he can still access the great memories Jonas transmits to him. Both Gabe and Jonas have pale eyes and can receive memories. Jonas identifies himself with Gabe. He becomes Jonas’ Receiver during his stay at their house and is the reason for Jonas to carry out the Giver’s plan ahead of time.
This picture presents the different shades of the colour red. Red is the first colour Jonas starts to see. Generally, and in this book too, red symbolises love, passion and well, just intense feelings. These are some things the citizens don’t experience but Jonas does. When Jonas starts to se the colour red, he's also starting to feel intense emotions. It also Illustrares how Jonas is different and separated from the rest of the Community as the others are not able to see the colour red or any other colour for that matter.
The Pale Eyes
This picture of a blue eye represents the pale eyes of Jonas, the Giver and baby Gabe, who have the ability to receive memories. The pale eyes show depth and thus imply that those with pale eyes are perceptive and can see ‘beyond’ and are insightful. It also symbolises separation from his Community, as very few people have pale eyes, showing that he is different. This difference shows that it is impossible for the Community to take control of nature completely, no matter how hard they try.
This picture represents the sled Jonas used to go down the slope of a snow hill in his first memory given by the Giver. Since Jonas goes down the snow hill on the sled in his first memory, the sled can symbolise a new journey. In the case of the Giver, the journey Jonas is about to undertake is discovering about the life of the past, about feelings, colours, and so on through the memories the Giver transfers to him. The sled is related to both pleasure and pain as Jonas’ first memory of pleasure and first memory of pain both involved the sled. This explains and signifies that they, i.e. pain and pleasure, are inter-linked and that one cannot exist without the other. In the end, when Jonas really uses sled, he learns that the emotions he experienced in his memories are possible in reality. I suppose it also symbolises hope as when it seemed to be the darkest, coldest, most hopeless moment towards the end of the novel, when Jonas was using his “final strength”, he found the sled.
1 comments:
Hey, Jove!
I didn't realise that part about Jonas seeing red. It was really good you spotted it! I was just wondering why the colour Jonas first saw was red, and if there were any special reasons.
True, that might have been because he was experiencing very intense emotions, much more intense than anybody in the community.
I think that aspect of him sets him aside as the Receiver of Memory.
Speaking of intense emotions, I feel that the censoring and removal of emotions by the censoring of language, individuality and freedom of choice really marked the biggest difference in Jonas's society between his world and ours.
In our world, we are given the freedom to feel whatever we would like to feel. There is no suppression of feelings, and individuality is brought out.
I feel that the fact that Jonas and his people in his society could not experience intense emotions from the beginning was really a pity, and I felt extremely sorry for them, for, although emotions like jealousy and hatred make the world chaotic, feelings like love and kindness cannot be removed.
Despite all of the perfections and control in Jonas's society, there are many flaws, and the most major one of it is the lack of emotions. With its utter control and perfect organisation, the society cancels out emotions like love at the same time without even realising it.
This causes the people to live in sameness, as it is emotions and colours which set each and every one of us apart from each other.
Therefore, after reading the Giver, I felt really thankful for the world we live in now, and I hope you, too, feel the same way as I do!:D
I do love your pictures, by the way. :)
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