Usually I am not fond of books that leave you hanging at the end, wondering what to make of it. Yet, we recently finished the book The Giver in ROGATE class, and it contained a undefined ending, but I was glad that it did! It gave our class a whole lot to talk about, and grew into a quite intense debate. Now my side of the argument...............Jonas dies. For many reasons, I believe when the book talked about him sledding down the hill in a past memory, he was in heaven, reliving his past memories. As the story lead up to the end, its states that he grew weaker, more tired, and hungrier. This is indicating that he is near death. Also, it is not realistic that he could come to an Elsewhere and all of his pain would just magically disappear. I believe that all along, the Elsewhere he was heading for was heaven. It said in the book that as he grew closer to death, he felt more and more like he was close to the Elsewhere. Also, in his community, they believed that when they were released, they went to Elsewhere. Well, we learned that being released is being killed, meaning that when you were released you would go to heaven. So, from what we learned about release and Elsewhere, we can infer that Elsewhere is heaven. For all of these, reasons, I firmly believe that at the end of The Giver, Jonas dies.
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Now, you may be wondering what the author intended for the ending to mean. I wondered too! So, I did some research. These are my findings:
In an interview with Scholastic about The Giver, Lois Lowry took questions from children. The question and answer relating to the end was as follows:
Q: My teachers argue over the ending of The Giver! How does it really end?
A:It ends with Jonas and Gabriel going downhill in a sled towards a house with welcoming lights. Ho ho ho. Aren't I being a mean author, not to be more specific? I like it when you argue. It makes you think.
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/lois-lowry-interview-transcript
Likewise, after being showered with many questions about the ending of the book, Lowry wrote an author's message. It read like this:
I will say that I find it an optimistic ending. How could it not be an optimistic ending, a happy ending, when that house is there with its lights on and music is playing? So I'm always kind of surprised and disappointed when some people tell me that they think that the boy and the baby just die. I don't think they die. What form their new life takes is something I like people to figure out for themselves. And each person will give it a different ending.
http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/guides/give.html
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As you can now tell, the author had made the ending the way it was so that we could make our own assumptions about what had happened to Jonas. What do you think happened? Although I believe Jonas died, I will always be questioning the true message of the ending..........if there is one.
Camille <3
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