The Giver: By Lois Lowry Chapter 24- In my chapter, Jonas comes back to rescue his "perfect Utopian" society from the pain and sorrow the community experiences from the bad memories released.

The Giver

By Lois Lowry

Chapter 24

It has been a year since Jonas left his community with Gabriel in search of "elsewhere." Jonas reached this place of "elsewhere" only one week after leaving his community. Luckily, nothing had happened to Gabriel. But Jonas wasn't as fortunate. His entire right arm had gotten frostbite, and he needed it to be amputated. Fortunately, with the technology this city of "elsewhere" had, this was possible. They were even able to make a moving mechanical hand that responded to Jonas' nerve signals, which was exactly like a normal arm.

Upon arriving, Jonas was immediately helped to a hospital by a friendly citizen, who would become Jonas and Gabriel's parent. His name was Carl. He was just driving along to work when he saw the two. Upon noticing their condition, he instinctively drove them to the nearest hospital, where they got a lot of medical attention. This was the first time that a person from a "perfect community" has reached this city. But these doctors knew how to handle the situation. They amputated Jonas' arm and made a mechanical arm for him that day. And that was also the day Jonas and Gabriel were adopted by Carl.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Jonas, wake up Jonas! Time for school!" Carl said. For it was a routine for him now. Every day he would have to wake up Jonas and make sure he wasn't late.

"Ah! Dad! Can't I just sleep a few more minutes?" Jonas asked.

"No, school starts in ten minutes. You have to wake up now in order to make it on time!" Carl replied.

"Ok..." Jonas said groggily.

"Your lunch money is on the table, get ready, and go to school," Carl instructed.

"Yes sir!" Jonas laughingly said it while saluting to Carl. It was a joke between them both.

Jonas got on his clothes for school and hurried to the teleporter. Because Carl worked for a company that had just recently invented the teleporter a few months ago, Carl had received one for free. But even by now, most everyone had at least one teleporter. At first, Jonas was really scared to go on it, but now he really depends on it to travel, although Carl still likes to use "old ways" of driving electric cars.

Today at school was like many others, dull and boring, for the most part, at least until last period. Last period Jonas had social studies. Usually, this was Jonas' most boring class, except for today...

"Children, today we are going to learn about the difference between our society, in urban New York City in 2049, and the perfect communities," said Jonas' teacher, Mr. Hamilton.

At first, there were many feelings brewing inside of Jonas about this topic. But then, as he remembered about "precision of speech," realized he felt something weird. It was kind of a mixture of feelings. He really wanted to be exempt from this activity at first because of all of the memories it brought back, but then he realized that he should share his knowledge of this topic. He knew most about this because of his experience there, and chose to present to the class about his knowledge. He raised his hand.

"Jonas, you have a question?" Mr. Hamilton asked.

"Um...no. But I think that I can share about my experiences in a perfect community," Jonas said. It was a known fact that there were many of these "perfect communities" around the world, although none of them were exactly the same. But they did have similar qualities, such as having no choices and being "utopias."

"Sure Jonas! Step up to the front of the classroom and tell your classmates all about your adventures in a perfect community," Mr. Hamilton told Jonas. So Jonas got up and told his class everything about his old community. He told them about his colorless, music less, and weather less life. He told everyone about his life without and choices at all, and about being assigned jobs, family units, and names. It was a sad story for all of them; most of them started crying. Nearing the end of his story, he remembered about what the giver told him of the memories being released when a receiver is lost, and the chaos the community was in. It was then Jonas realized he must go back to his community and help the people leave the state they are in.

When he got home, Jonas thought of how exactly he would get back home and help them. Firstly, he had to get permission from his father, but he was sure that Carl would let him go back to his original home. Next was how he would get there. He thought and thought, and finally decided that he would have to ask his father about his opinion on how he should go there, and what he should do to help them. So he waited for Carl to return.

"Dad! You're finally home! I was wondering what had happened to you," Jonas said.

"Well, today I went out driving, so it took me a while to reach home with all of the traffic on the roads," Carl replied, seemingly exhausted from all of his work today.

"Dad! I need to ask you something..." Jonas told his father all about his plan to save his community from being destroyed by all of the stray memories. And his dad didn't really reject or say anything against it. In fact, he was for this idea. But he did make one change to it. He decided that Jonas should take Gabe with him, and that he (Carl) would drive Jonas to his community and to tell the elders about Jonas' arrival.

Upon arriving at his community, he didn't see and changes in appearance of it. But when he entered it, he could sense disarray within the peoples. Since he was born here, he could also feel all of the memories that were released when he left the community. Even Gabe felt it; he started crying. But the most intriguing part of this was that Carl didn't seem to pick up the lost memories.

Luckily, Jonas arrived late at night, so no one was outside to see them arriving. Immediately, he went to see the Giver to consult him on what to do. Surprisingly, the secretary at the place where the Giver stayed recognized Jonas, welcomed him, and directed him to the Giver.

"Giver...it's me Jonas," Jonas said, quietly.

"Welcome Jonas, come in. So, how was your life away from here? Was it like the memories that I gave you? Sit down child, tell me all about your experiences," the Giver replied. Surprisingly, he was very interested about what Jonas had experienced away from the community.

"Sorry Giver, I can't tell you everything. I have come here to save the peoples here from all of the terrible memories that have been released," Jonas told the Giver.

"Child...there is nothing we can do about that. Once the memories have been released, there is no way to gather them back again," the Giver replied.

"So, there is no hope of saving the community?"

"Well, the council of elders has talked to me about this matter many times, and I gave them the same answer every time: 'just let it pass, there is nothing we can do'. But they keep thinking that there is something we can do to remove all of these memories from the community."

"Giver, I need to ask you a question pertaining to the matter of saving this community. I was wondering, if you would give up your life in order to save the lives of everyone else in the community."

"What kind of a question is that? Of course I would, except that if I die, all of the memories will be released, and the community will die."

"Will it? I'm thinking that maybe that the community will be able to cope with this, and will turn into a place like I am living in, like elsewhere, I...uh... mean New York City."

"But what if the community cannot cope with all of this, it will be chaos for all of them, and they will suffer a most painful of deaths."

"But I really think that this idea will work...

"It wont, young Jonas. We can only do nothing..."

"Okay then, so long Giver, I have to head home..."

"Okay, see you Jonas. Nice to meet you again!" The Giver waved to Jonas. As he was leaving, Jonas placed an explosive on the floor in the Giver's room.

"Could you help them?" Carl asked.

"Well, not yet," Jonas replied as he took out the remote control for the explosive. "But I will now."

He pressed the button...