Yes, I loved the description of the way they dealt with different stages of child development. They've clearly thought through absolutely everything.
Jonas sees the redness of the apple before he meets the Giver; he also sees color in the faces of the people in the audience during the ceremony when he's selected to be the Receiver. So clearly color is still there, but somehow the society has made it so most people can't see it...
I think there is a metaphor here for the way that society can make people blind to things that ought to be perfectly obvious. And yet it's clearly more than that. It's not just that Jonas doesn't have a word for red: he's literally never seen it before.
I think the implication is that Jonas has a unique inborn ability to receive memories: not only does he start seeing color on his own, but he has light eyes, as does the Giver and the baby Gabriel to whom Jonas gives some memories. He tries to give memories to his sister and a friend (who are dark-eyed, like most of the people in the community), but it doesn't work.
But at the same time, his plan hinges on the fact that people will receive the memories he abandons when he leaves the community. So they must have some ability to do so...
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Date: 2014-09-25 04:30 pm (UTC)Jonas sees the redness of the apple before he meets the Giver; he also sees color in the faces of the people in the audience during the ceremony when he's selected to be the Receiver. So clearly color is still there, but somehow the society has made it so most people can't see it...
I think there is a metaphor here for the way that society can make people blind to things that ought to be perfectly obvious. And yet it's clearly more than that. It's not just that Jonas doesn't have a word for red: he's literally never seen it before.
I think the implication is that Jonas has a unique inborn ability to receive memories: not only does he start seeing color on his own, but he has light eyes, as does the Giver and the baby Gabriel to whom Jonas gives some memories. He tries to give memories to his sister and a friend (who are dark-eyed, like most of the people in the community), but it doesn't work.
But at the same time, his plan hinges on the fact that people will receive the memories he abandons when he leaves the community. So they must have some ability to do so...