The Giver:
Epilogue
Disclaimer: I don't own rights to The Giver. Though I don't think this is disclaimer-like, I am sorry if I offend or anger anybody with using the idea of religion in the story. I am Christian and very religious, and while reading The Giver I found the lack of religion quite surprising, so I decided to include Jonas' encounter with the idea of religion. Oh, and I didn't add a lot of physical descriptions of new characters, because in The Giver, they usually don't give physical descriptions.
Author's Note: This epilogue was first created as a culminating task after my class had done studying The Giver. I decided to put it on FanFiction.Net after finding out that the website had fanfics of The Giver, including epilogues. So here you go! What I think SHOULD have happened after Chapter... What chapter did The Giver stop at? I haven't read it in a long time. Well, this is what I think should have happened after the last chapter.
A Look Back: The last time we read about Jonas, he was struggling to walk through a blurry storm of snow, holding the newchild Gabriel. This resulted from him escaping the Utopian community he belonged to, to teach the members of the community to deal with pain and suffering. After climbing up the top of a hill, he found a sled in front of him. Holding Gabriel, he sled down the hill, as he saw lights and music at his destination., or was it just an echo...
As Jonas felt with absolute certainty that the place of Elsewhere was close at hand, he, with Gabriel held tight to him, sped quickly down the steep and snow-layered hill on the sled to the seemed-to-be-very-near area of time and space filled with colourful lights and music. Though Jonas' hands and feet were colder than he ever felt, he was flaming with warmth inside of him. While this mysterious and beautiful feeling spread through Jonas' body, he transmitted the feeling to Gabriel.
Just like what Jonas had been taught by the Giver the first day of his sessions as Receiver-in-training, the sled started to slow down, with bits of snow coming from the front of the sled flinging in Jonas' face. Gabriel, who hadn't stirred or made a noise for a long time since Jonas started to make his way through the snow and up the hill, was starting to wiggle and move as bits of snow flew on his face. Inch by inch, the sled started to lose speed and slow down in pace as snow built up at the front of the sled, until it didn't move at all.
Tired and achy, Jonas lifted himself up from the sled, still holding Gabriel. He gently brushed the snow off of him, and turned around to see the state of the sled. Except that there was no sled to be found. Jonas looked all around him, and realized that the sled was nowhere to be seen. So where had the sled gone? Was it even there in the first place? The sled was shrouded in mystery, annoying and confusing Jonas.
With the cold wind blowing in their faces, Gabriel slowly opened his small eyelids and groaned as he woke up. Once woken up, the little newchild, with all his small strength, pointed ahead and called out, "Lights! Lights!"
Jonas turned away from the mystery of the sled and looked at what Gabriel was pointing at. Though Jonas may have imagined the sled, he knew that as he went down the hill, he did not imagine the glow of lights and music. There, in front of Jonas and Gabriel, was a small community, snowy and merry, with unique dwellings and structures with coloured lights all around. It had the same theme of the scene the Giver had transmitted to Jonas of the family around the tree inside the dwelling, exchanging gifts. Jonas could almost feel that same warmth, and he had a feeling that that scene was occurring inside each unique dwelling, with a colourful light shining out of the windows, and peculiarly, balls of colourful light on strings hung from lampposts and around dwellings. Now why would someone hang around strings of colourful light when they already had light coming from lampposts? asked Jonas to himself.
And very far in the distance, either in the dwellings or scattered throughout the streets, was the wonderful and beautiful sound of what the Giver had told Jonas about: music.
This gorgeous community, so full of music, colour and lights, seemed to have that certain thing, that thing that the Giver told Jonas about - love, that's it - that felt so welcoming to Jonas. Even Gabriel, who had only had the slightest grasp of such aspects through the memories Jonas transmitted, was trying to grab and reach in the direction of the community. Jonas felt drawn to the area. Was this Elsewhere?
Jonas walked across the snowy terrain into the streets of the merry community. He and Gabriel stared amazed at all the snow-coated houses, windows full of light. Jonas pressed his face to the window of one dwelling, and could see that inside, there was a family unit gathered around a tree inside the house near a fireplace, and with their mouths they made the thing called music as a plate of food unfamiliar to Jonas was laid on a table in front of the family. Jonas could only hear a bit of the music inside, but still enjoyed it just the same. He felt like stepping into that house, as if all the members of the family unit would rush to him and Gabriel and invite them into their gathering of love and happiness. But alas, that would seem rude, so Jonas left the window and kept on walking, Gabriel complaining in moans that he didn't want to leave the window.
Looking at each side of him, Jonas could see that each window was filled with a certain scene similar to that in the memory. And the family units in the windows seemed so different too. In Jonas' community, each family unit was only allowed to have 1 male and 1 female as children, but in the families Jonas and Gabriel saw, it wasn't like that at all. There were families with only 1 male child, families with only 1 female child, families with 2 females and 1 male - there was even one family with 5 females! All of this interested Jonas, but he knew that he had to keep on walking through the quiet and small snowy streets of the community.
Walking through the streets, Jonas saw a certain structure that looked almost like a dwelling, but larger than any of the other dwellings around it. This dwelling was made of white bricks and a large roof top. The door was magnificently carved in wood and a lovely style of window glass. Two large white columns, one on each side of the large cement step in front of the door, stood tall and stable. Tired, Jonas noticed a bench in front of the nice dwelling, and decided to sit down to rest.
While Jonas bounced Gabriel on his knee and played with him, a man in apparel that covered him and kept him warm from the snow was walking through the street Jonas was on. The adult male noticed Jonas and Gabriel sitting on the bench in front of the building, so he quickly approached them. The man stood in front of the bench, looking at Jonas and Gabriel, until Jonas realized there was someone standing in front of him.
"Hello," greeted Jonas standardly.
"Hello," greeted the man back. "Are you Jonas, the Receiver-in-training? From The Community?"
"Yes I am," said Jonas. "How do you know who I am?"
"The Receiver sent me a message, telling me that you were coming here. However, he didn't tell me someone was accompanying you," said the adult, looking at Gabriel.
"Oh," said Jonas. "Will you punish me for it?"
"Punish you? Of course not!" said the adult in a chuckle. "You and your little companion must be so cold and tired. Come, let us go inside the building behind you. That is what you would call 'a dwelling', isn't it? In this community, we call it a 'house'."
Jonas stood up, held Gabriel tightly to his chest, and followed the strange adult into the giant dwelling. It seemed so strange to Jonas how this dwelling was very different from the other dwellings, since all the dwellings in Jonas' community looked exactly the same.
Jonas entered the dwelling, and saw that it was as nice inside as it was outside. The decor reminded Jonas very much of the office of the Giver, with the shiny-framed mirror to the delicately-made fabric on the seats in all rooms.
"Maggie?" called the man. "Maggie, can you come here please?"
Quickly, a woman (with a large width and was slightly bulky in stature) in uniform came to the man's aid, looking at Jonas and Gabriel confusingly.
"Hello, Arthur," said the woman. "How may I help you?"
"Can you take care of the baby the boy is holding? I will need you to send for someone to bring him new clothes, and could you feed him as well?"
"Of course!" said the woman enthusiastically. Jonas handed Gabriel gently to the woman, who cradled Gabriel in her arms. Gabriel started to get fussy from being taken away from Jonas. "Oh don't worry, you little buttercup!" spoke the woman soothingly to Gabriel. "Goodness, he's so cold! We have to get some new clothes for him right away!"
The woman hurried out of the room with the fussy Gabriel. Jonas turned to the man confusingly.
"Who was that?" asked Jonas.
"That's my maid," answered the man, who Jonas figured out was named Arthur. "Don't worry, she'll take good care of Gabriel."
"What's a maid?" questioned Jonas.
"Silly me, you don't know what a maid is, do you? In our community, there are certain Assignments that are given to members of our community that involve housekeeping and the well-being of those in the house. These Assignments are for the housekeeping of members of the community who are so busy that they can't take care of their houses. Do you know what housekeeping is? Housecleaning, things like that?"
"Do you mean cleaning up things that you've misplaced?" asked Jonas.
"Something like that. They also clean dust. Do you know about dust, Jonas?
"Dust?" spoke Jonas with a perplexed expression. "I do not know about 'dust'."
"It's probably been removed in your community. You'll learn about it some other time. Jonas, I'd like you to follow me into my office."
Jonas followed Arthur into a room from the hallway. Arthur's office looked just like the Giver's, with a nicely-carved desk, bookcases filled with books, lovely lamps and upholstered chairs and sofas. Arthur sat himself behind his desk in a large upholstered chair that seemed to have wheels at the bottom of its support, making it mobile. Arthur gestured with his hand for Jonas to sit down on the upholstered chair across from him, on the other side of the desk. Jonas shyly sat down.
"Jonas," spoke Arthur, "the Receiver of Memory from your community intended for you to come here. Our community, called Merryville - "
"I apologize for inconveniencing your communication," spoke Jonas formally, "but you seem to speak of your community as if it was named like a person."
"It is," said Arthur. "Communities do have names. Your community, called simply 'The Community', didn't tell any of your citizens about names of communities so your citizens couldn't tell the difference between them, or so that there wouldn't be any quarrels about the community name. There are many other communities with names; Town Standard, Village Utopia, and us, Merryville.
"The Receiver of Memory, which I was reported you called 'the Giver', thought it best that you escape to somewhere that hadn't been controlled and manipulated to create such a standard town. We have snow, colour, animals and love, things that The Community doesn't have. The Giver wanted you to escape to this place, because it was the closest of its kind to your community."
"How many other communities are there like this?" questioned Jonas.
"Only a few. Most have used science and technology to perfect their environment. To continue, the Receiver of Memory had intended for I, who is also a Receiver of Memory and in charge of foreign affairs for Merryville, to take you in, Jonas, and to make you a citizen of Merryville.
"My spouse and I were never able to have children. In our community, we do not have Birthmothers, but instead, family units have their own children. You will not understand what I am saying, and I cannot explain to you how we don't have Birthmothers, because that is a VERY complex topic. We never got to have a real family unit, so when the Receiver of Memory told me that you were coming, I agreed that I would accept you into our 'family unit' and become your father. Since you brought someone else along with you to Merryville, he'll be accepted into the family unit as well."
Jonas was overwhelmed with all positive emotions at the news. He'd be a member of a new family unit, with Gabriel! And there'd be love! He'd finally be able to have a family unit that would love him.
"Thank you," choked Jonas. "Thank you so much!"
"Your welcome. Now Jonas, we have a very different system here for our community. Our community does have a Receiver of Memory, myself, who's in charge of all the memories of the past, but our community shares those memories together. We do not make the Receiver of Memory or Receiver-in-training keep all their memories and feelings and make them suffer while all others are ignorant to their past. We do have a Committee of Elders and Chief Elder appointed every 10 years, but they do not control every detail of the community. Jonas, in our community, the members of the community have the freedom of choice."
Jonas was shocked at the statement. Choice? Given freely to the community? How could the members of the community be trusted to make right choices? What a dangerous place this was!
"How can there be freedom of choice? It's dangerous!" said Jonas. "What if the members of the community choose wrong?"
"Jonas, what happens when something bad happens to you? I was told that you once had an injury to your fingers when a door closed on them."
"Yes, that's true."
"Did you learn anything from that moment?"
"Learn? Learn what?"
"Didn't you learn to pay attention the next time you used a door? Didn't you learn that you should be conscious not to injure yourself in that matter again?"
"Yes, I did."
"That is what happens when we all make a wrong choice. When something bad happens, we learn from it. When we have choice, we also think a lot harder about our decisions. We become more responsible and cautious of our actions."
"That's interesting," said Jonas,. "I never thought about it like that."
"It's good that you know now. We feel that our world shouldn't be changed to fit our needs, because it is selfish. We should accept the faults that we see in our world, be careful of them, and go around them. A negative quality to someone else may turn out or lead to a positive quality."
"Just like snow."
"Exactly. As you know, we have snow, seasons, animals, and love. We also have traditions, such as 'Christmas', an event that is coming up. I think you know about Christmas, don't you? You can see it through the town. It's a holiday, almost like in your community, except that each holiday has a meaning. The meaning of Christmas is to experience the feeling of giving, love and family, including many other concepts you will learn. Our community may have flaws that do not exist in your previous community, but our community has many other things that we cherish, like love."
Jonas and Gabriel were quickly made members of the community of Merryville, and they realized that this community was very different from their prior home. There was food distributed to each house, either in full meals or in ingredients so that the citizens could make their own meals. Jonas participated in this 'making of meals' with Maggie by baking a cake, and he realized that though it took a lot of work, he enjoyed the satisfaction of making his food than it being brought to him. There were even small places for special occasions that produced food to be given whenever someone asked for it when they went to that place. Jonas witnessed an example of this called a bakery, which choked his nose in delicious aroma, and the baked goods produced in that 'bakery' satisfied his hunger like nothing else could.
Unlike the community with their standard tunics and clothing of the same hues, clothing could be chosen. Jonas had so much amusement picking out different colours of various styles of clothing. Every time he put on a piece of his new clothing, he felt free and alive.
The holiday of Christmas came very quickly in the community, and Jonas was finally able to physically experience the loving memory in front of the fire place. Maggie prepared a giant feast for Arthur, his wife Halie who was a doctor, Jonas, Gabriel and herself, which everyone enjoyed. Afterwards, music was played by Halie with something called a flute, an instrument that produced a sweet sound and rhythm that Jonas never heard before.
The following day, gifts were given from one person to another and vice-versa (except Gabriel). Arthur gave a certain amount of something called 'money' to Jonas, which he would need to purchase things in that money range. Jonas looked through a catalogue in the dwelling and found such things as a comfort object called a monkey for Gabriel, a nice watch for Arthur, a bracelet for Halie (something he never heard of in The Community, but liked the concept when he was explained the use of a bracelet), and a mirror for Maggie. Jonas could not explain the wonderful feeling he experienced for the first time when he saw the look on everyone's faces when they received their presents. He was given an instrument of music playing from Halie, that was a personal compact disk player along with a few compact disks, a painting of a scene of Christmas from Maggie, and a large book about all the different kinds of communities from Arthur.
That day, everyone went to a certain structure that Arthur called a church. Jonas was confused about the whole entire concept of church and its purpose, but when he entered the structure, he felt a strange feeling come over him. He felt warm, and welcome. The candlelight provided inside the structure felt comfortable and enlightening, and strange three-dimensional likenesses called statues with loving expressions made Jonas feel loved and belonging. Once Jonas was seated and the ceremony began, certain statements were said that Jonas did not understand. What was this God, and Jesus? What did they mean by heaven, glory and faith?
When it got to the point where a certain adult male called a priest in unique clothing made a speech, Jonas listened intently, wondering what other bizarre things the adult would say. The adult was named Father Jesse, though why he was called a 'father' Jonas did not know.
"Today, fellow members of the community, we welcome a few new citizens named Jonas and Gabriel into our parish. Both Jonas and Gabriel do not understand what the idea of faith is. But do we all know what faith is too? It is this I will be talking about in my homily.
"So what is faith? When we have 'faith' in someone, it means we trust them. That is what the social meaning of faith is, but what's the religious meaning of faith? The religious meaning of faith does also mean trust. It is the trust and belief we have of what we spiritually believe. It is a strong bond and reliance we have in the ideas we possess about how the world works, and of our morals.
"What does the Christian community believe in, then? To put it simply, we believe in God, a superior power that has no physical form, that has created all of us and is supreme to all. To someone who hears this for the first time, it may seem bizarre. For those who have heard this for the first time, I would like to ask you something: have you ever experienced something so marvellous that you can't explain? Something that when you were in a horrible situation, you experienced a positive thing which made everything slowly better again? This something may be a gesture of kindness, such as a smile when you feel that everyone else isn't acting nice to you that day, or it could be a strange phenomena that's too complicated to explain in words. That thing, that may even be called a miracle, is an example of the work of God."
This concept of 'God' that Jonas was listening to seemed so abstract and hard to understand, but when the priest mentioned the part of an event that he couldn't explain, Jonas suddenly started to understand, because he had experienced that very event: the sled on the hill. At a point when Jonas felt that he could no longer go on, something that represented happiness and life for him that The Community never supported, the sled, showed up right in front of him. His transmitted memory of a sled came into physical existence as he went on the sled and rushed down the hill, though when he was at the bottom of the hill and he turned around to see the sled, it was gone. Jonas honestly believed, though it wasn't proven or certain, that what he experienced had something to do with God.
"But God isn't just some sort of power that makes a positive thing happen when you're surrounded by negative things. He is so much more. God is who we believe created everything, from the bare trees outside to the ground beneath us. We humans, our flesh, blood and body, are even created by God. Most of you know that we have many systems in our bodies, such as our nervous system, digestive system, and circulatory system. Let's discuss the details of the digestive system. The digestive system helps us break down the food that we eat for energy. First, we chew up the food that we eat in our mouth, which then goes down the oesophagus, or simply our throat, and into our stomach, where it is broken down with acid. Afterwards, it goes out of the stomach and into our intestines, which absorbs and takes in all of the nutrients in the food that goes into the blood stream and is transported to all the parts of the body for their energy. The rest of the stuff continues through the intestines through... out... well, it goes out the end.
"It seems quite simple after you understand it, but how did this all come about? If you look at it, the digestive system, and everything in this world, fits so amazingly together that it seems perfect. It is beautiful and wonderful how everything comes together, so precise and perfect that we believe, as Christians, that everything was created perfectly and in precise detail by God. I feel that it's hard to believe that all the aspects around us, the materials that fit all of our needs and desires, the systems we have in our bodies for our living, and even the balance we have between humans and plants that we inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide and plants inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen, just came up by coincidence. I don't think that how everything 'just is' makes a good explanation."
The explanation Father Jesse just gave following the talk about miracles really made Jonas feel that there was this God. He too had wondered how everything came together and was created. He remembered studying in school about the circulatory system, and it seemed so interesting and perfect that Jonas asked his Instructor who created the circulatory system. Jonas' Instructor thought that Jonas was perplexed and didn't know what he was talking about, but Jonas did know what he was speaking of, and it confused him for a long time until he forgot about the whole subject. Nonetheless, the enlightenment of the idea of God started to make so much sense.
The priest continued with other ideas and explanations about the topic of religion and God, and even when Jonas didn't understand him very well, he felt deep inside him that what the priest said was true and was great wisdom. How could he not have thought of such a remarkable idea?
When mass was over, Jonas felt a strange emotion... almost a feeling of completeness and understanding. He felt that everything made sense after the idea of God, and he had great respect for everything around him. He looked admiringly at the trees, for the priest said that it was God who designed them so significantly. He used gestures and acts of kindness to everyone around him, since he now knew that every single person was created with such care and dignity, and everyone was made up of the same flesh and same intelligence. It gave Jonas a whole new perspective in life.
As the days went on, Jonas experienced more things in his new community. After a few weeks of holidays, he went to the school. He was surprised at the selection and variety of children at the school, who had such diverse interests and personalities, both negative and positive. In March, he witnessed the changing of seasons, and how the snow melted away with the heat and plants started to grow again.
Once Jonas was settled down and had grown accustom to the new community (as was Gabriel), Arthur and Halie explained to him in difficulty why the town didn't need Birthmothers. The discussion made Jonas uneasy afterwards and gave him embarrassing and complex emotions, which made him feel uncomfortable whenever he saw family units. He couldn't even look at the family with 5 female children anymore without blushing and feeling odd! Though later on, he became used to the idea, and realized that 'the dream' and the strange feelings of wanting he had before corresponded to that exactly.
Everything was wonderful for Jonas, until one day in May. Jonas had just come inside the dwelling from school after playing a game with a few of his new friends when he spotted Arthur in his office, seeming depressed and angry as he looked down at a sheet of paper on his desk. Jonas, curious of Arthur's expression, entered his office and laid his schoolbag down on the carpeted floor.
"Arthur?" asked Jonas curiously. "What's wrong? You seem like you're in a negative mood."
"I am," mumbled Arthur, looking up to Jonas. "I'm absolutely furious. I would have thought better of The Community."
"Thought better of what of The Community?" questioned Jonas. "Is something wrong there?"
"Yes, something terribly wrong, though the Council of Elders do not feel that they've done anything bad. In fact, they feel that they've made a wise choice, not that they know what wisdom is!"
"Please, Arthur, tell me what has happened in The Community."
"It's so hard to say it, for it makes me furious to hear myself say it. Jonas, do you remember the plan you had with the Receiver of Memory to let The Community experience the memories you kept inside you two?"
"Yes, I remember everything about it. I can never forget it, it was a perfect plan. Why do you ask about it?"
"Well, then I'm afraid to tell you that your plan didn't work."
"What?" spoke Jonas, taken about with such shock. "Why didn't it work? What went wrong?"
"When the memories were shared with the members of The Community, they were frightened beyond words. They were in fear and experienced every horrible feeling imaginable, just like you had. However, they didn't understand the importance of this and weren't as strong as you and the Receiver of Memory were, Jonas. So they felt that they didn't need memories."
"What do you mean?" questioned Jonas, perplexed. "I do not understand."
"This letter," said Arthur, as he picked up the paper that was on his desk and stood up from his desk, "will explain everything."
Arthur walked over to Jonas and handed the letter to Jonas, as he took it with shaking hands. Jonas looked curiously at the letter. Jonas read it aloud.
"It says:
"Dear Foreign Receiver of Memory of Merryville,
Since the disappearance of our Receiver-in-training, our Community has been under the responsibility of holding memories. Because of this, fear and negativity have terrorized our Community and has not made it an enjoyable place to live. Our Community is not holding the Utopian-structure of the Union of Utopian-Communities.
"What's that?" asked Jonas.
"That's a union of many communities around our area who discuss topics together and have decided to try and make a system to help our communities become a better place. There are various categories of the Union, including categories that are stricter than ours. Our category, The Christian Communities of Peace, are not as strict as the category The Community is from, called The Standard-Perfect Communities. Read on."
"After much discussion with our Council of Elders," continued Jonas, "we have decided that the terror in The Community has to stop. Therefore, the Council of Elders hereby rejects the receiving of memories.
"What? How can they do this? They need memories, or else they'll make so many mistakes without realizing what they've done!"
"I know," said Arthur. "It's also against the policies of the Union of Utopian-Communities. They have a chance of being banished from the Union. Believe me, the letter gets worse."
Jonas continued to read. "Because our Community does not need the use of memories, there is no use for a Receiver of Memory. Therefore..." Jonas saw what was next to be read, but he could not believe his eyes. He didn't want to read it. He couldn't. The shock and horror or what he read brought him to anger and despair, making him cry. "I can't read the rest!"
"Yes you can," said Arthur. "It's hard, but you can read it."
"Therefore..." read Jonas with difficulty. He started over again. "Therefore, our Receiver of Memory... will be... released."
Jonas burst out crying and let out all the despair and fury bottled up inside him. "HOW COULD THEY?!?" Jonas shouted. "HOW COULD THEY?!?! HOW COULD THEY KILL - NO, MURDER! - THE WISEST AND MOST NECESSARY PERSON IN THE COMMUNITY AND JUST STUFF HIM IN A BOX AND SHOVE HIM DOWN A CHUTE!!!! THEY'RE STUPID!! I HATE THEM!!! I HATE - "
"I know," said Arthur, giving Jonas a hug and letting him cry on his shoulder. "I know, they're stupid and foolish."
"He hasn't been released yet, as he? Can I see him again? Can I?"
"I'm sorry, you can't. The letter was given too us too late. The letter was received today, May 23rd, but it reads on the letter..."
Jonas read the rest of the letter out loud though in a low tone.
"The release of the Receiver of Memory will happen... May 22nd."
"It has already happened. I'm so sorry."
Jonas continued to cry, and did so all that evening. The next day, he woke up depressed, though it wasn't as bad as he thought. When he went to school and entered his classroom, he saw a banner on the instruction board that said, "WE'RE SORRY, JONAS. WE ARE ALL GRIEVING FOR YOU AND THE RECEIVER OF MEMORY OF THE COMMUNITY". His groupmates and his Instructor came into the room, and each one of them told him that they heard of what happened and were mourning with him. They told him stories of loved ones of theirs dying and the grief they felt, and they told him that they knew what he was going through. All of his groupmates helped Jonas feel better about his grief, that his grief wasn't hidden like it was when he was in The Community. He felt that the grief was shared and supported by everyone around him, and he felt better.
For the rest of his life, Jonas lived in Merryville and experienced the differences between Merryville and The Community. While The Community tried to be errorless and perfect that they got to the point that they became the opposite, Merryville cherished the gifts and the flaws they had, knowing that nothing is perfect at first, though it all comes together in the end. Even though there were many things that were not perfect, like the vanity of clothes to wear, the pickiness of colour, being carried-away and too strict with religion, Jonas got through them and learned to accept them. When Jonas was older, he became the Receiver of Memory and in charge of foreign affairs for Merryville so Arthur could retire. Though he dearly missed The Giver and a few things from The Community, like Asher and Fiona, and though The Community may have seemed "perfect", Jonas would still prefer the love and warmth that this community supported.
Author's Note: It's done! So since it's done, you're going to review, right?!?!?! PLEASE REVIEW! Although I am learning to accept flames, I appreciate that you not use vulgar language or plain rudeness that is meant to simply offend the other in your reviews. I hope very much that you liked the story.
Epilogue
Disclaimer: I don't own rights to The Giver. Though I don't think this is disclaimer-like, I am sorry if I offend or anger anybody with using the idea of religion in the story. I am Christian and very religious, and while reading The Giver I found the lack of religion quite surprising, so I decided to include Jonas' encounter with the idea of religion. Oh, and I didn't add a lot of physical descriptions of new characters, because in The Giver, they usually don't give physical descriptions.
Author's Note: This epilogue was first created as a culminating task after my class had done studying The Giver. I decided to put it on FanFiction.Net after finding out that the website had fanfics of The Giver, including epilogues. So here you go! What I think SHOULD have happened after Chapter... What chapter did The Giver stop at? I haven't read it in a long time. Well, this is what I think should have happened after the last chapter.
A Look Back: The last time we read about Jonas, he was struggling to walk through a blurry storm of snow, holding the newchild Gabriel. This resulted from him escaping the Utopian community he belonged to, to teach the members of the community to deal with pain and suffering. After climbing up the top of a hill, he found a sled in front of him. Holding Gabriel, he sled down the hill, as he saw lights and music at his destination., or was it just an echo...
As Jonas felt with absolute certainty that the place of Elsewhere was close at hand, he, with Gabriel held tight to him, sped quickly down the steep and snow-layered hill on the sled to the seemed-to-be-very-near area of time and space filled with colourful lights and music. Though Jonas' hands and feet were colder than he ever felt, he was flaming with warmth inside of him. While this mysterious and beautiful feeling spread through Jonas' body, he transmitted the feeling to Gabriel.
Just like what Jonas had been taught by the Giver the first day of his sessions as Receiver-in-training, the sled started to slow down, with bits of snow coming from the front of the sled flinging in Jonas' face. Gabriel, who hadn't stirred or made a noise for a long time since Jonas started to make his way through the snow and up the hill, was starting to wiggle and move as bits of snow flew on his face. Inch by inch, the sled started to lose speed and slow down in pace as snow built up at the front of the sled, until it didn't move at all.
Tired and achy, Jonas lifted himself up from the sled, still holding Gabriel. He gently brushed the snow off of him, and turned around to see the state of the sled. Except that there was no sled to be found. Jonas looked all around him, and realized that the sled was nowhere to be seen. So where had the sled gone? Was it even there in the first place? The sled was shrouded in mystery, annoying and confusing Jonas.
With the cold wind blowing in their faces, Gabriel slowly opened his small eyelids and groaned as he woke up. Once woken up, the little newchild, with all his small strength, pointed ahead and called out, "Lights! Lights!"
Jonas turned away from the mystery of the sled and looked at what Gabriel was pointing at. Though Jonas may have imagined the sled, he knew that as he went down the hill, he did not imagine the glow of lights and music. There, in front of Jonas and Gabriel, was a small community, snowy and merry, with unique dwellings and structures with coloured lights all around. It had the same theme of the scene the Giver had transmitted to Jonas of the family around the tree inside the dwelling, exchanging gifts. Jonas could almost feel that same warmth, and he had a feeling that that scene was occurring inside each unique dwelling, with a colourful light shining out of the windows, and peculiarly, balls of colourful light on strings hung from lampposts and around dwellings. Now why would someone hang around strings of colourful light when they already had light coming from lampposts? asked Jonas to himself.
And very far in the distance, either in the dwellings or scattered throughout the streets, was the wonderful and beautiful sound of what the Giver had told Jonas about: music.
This gorgeous community, so full of music, colour and lights, seemed to have that certain thing, that thing that the Giver told Jonas about - love, that's it - that felt so welcoming to Jonas. Even Gabriel, who had only had the slightest grasp of such aspects through the memories Jonas transmitted, was trying to grab and reach in the direction of the community. Jonas felt drawn to the area. Was this Elsewhere?
Jonas walked across the snowy terrain into the streets of the merry community. He and Gabriel stared amazed at all the snow-coated houses, windows full of light. Jonas pressed his face to the window of one dwelling, and could see that inside, there was a family unit gathered around a tree inside the house near a fireplace, and with their mouths they made the thing called music as a plate of food unfamiliar to Jonas was laid on a table in front of the family. Jonas could only hear a bit of the music inside, but still enjoyed it just the same. He felt like stepping into that house, as if all the members of the family unit would rush to him and Gabriel and invite them into their gathering of love and happiness. But alas, that would seem rude, so Jonas left the window and kept on walking, Gabriel complaining in moans that he didn't want to leave the window.
Looking at each side of him, Jonas could see that each window was filled with a certain scene similar to that in the memory. And the family units in the windows seemed so different too. In Jonas' community, each family unit was only allowed to have 1 male and 1 female as children, but in the families Jonas and Gabriel saw, it wasn't like that at all. There were families with only 1 male child, families with only 1 female child, families with 2 females and 1 male - there was even one family with 5 females! All of this interested Jonas, but he knew that he had to keep on walking through the quiet and small snowy streets of the community.
Walking through the streets, Jonas saw a certain structure that looked almost like a dwelling, but larger than any of the other dwellings around it. This dwelling was made of white bricks and a large roof top. The door was magnificently carved in wood and a lovely style of window glass. Two large white columns, one on each side of the large cement step in front of the door, stood tall and stable. Tired, Jonas noticed a bench in front of the nice dwelling, and decided to sit down to rest.
While Jonas bounced Gabriel on his knee and played with him, a man in apparel that covered him and kept him warm from the snow was walking through the street Jonas was on. The adult male noticed Jonas and Gabriel sitting on the bench in front of the building, so he quickly approached them. The man stood in front of the bench, looking at Jonas and Gabriel, until Jonas realized there was someone standing in front of him.
"Hello," greeted Jonas standardly.
"Hello," greeted the man back. "Are you Jonas, the Receiver-in-training? From The Community?"
"Yes I am," said Jonas. "How do you know who I am?"
"The Receiver sent me a message, telling me that you were coming here. However, he didn't tell me someone was accompanying you," said the adult, looking at Gabriel.
"Oh," said Jonas. "Will you punish me for it?"
"Punish you? Of course not!" said the adult in a chuckle. "You and your little companion must be so cold and tired. Come, let us go inside the building behind you. That is what you would call 'a dwelling', isn't it? In this community, we call it a 'house'."
Jonas stood up, held Gabriel tightly to his chest, and followed the strange adult into the giant dwelling. It seemed so strange to Jonas how this dwelling was very different from the other dwellings, since all the dwellings in Jonas' community looked exactly the same.
Jonas entered the dwelling, and saw that it was as nice inside as it was outside. The decor reminded Jonas very much of the office of the Giver, with the shiny-framed mirror to the delicately-made fabric on the seats in all rooms.
"Maggie?" called the man. "Maggie, can you come here please?"
Quickly, a woman (with a large width and was slightly bulky in stature) in uniform came to the man's aid, looking at Jonas and Gabriel confusingly.
"Hello, Arthur," said the woman. "How may I help you?"
"Can you take care of the baby the boy is holding? I will need you to send for someone to bring him new clothes, and could you feed him as well?"
"Of course!" said the woman enthusiastically. Jonas handed Gabriel gently to the woman, who cradled Gabriel in her arms. Gabriel started to get fussy from being taken away from Jonas. "Oh don't worry, you little buttercup!" spoke the woman soothingly to Gabriel. "Goodness, he's so cold! We have to get some new clothes for him right away!"
The woman hurried out of the room with the fussy Gabriel. Jonas turned to the man confusingly.
"Who was that?" asked Jonas.
"That's my maid," answered the man, who Jonas figured out was named Arthur. "Don't worry, she'll take good care of Gabriel."
"What's a maid?" questioned Jonas.
"Silly me, you don't know what a maid is, do you? In our community, there are certain Assignments that are given to members of our community that involve housekeeping and the well-being of those in the house. These Assignments are for the housekeeping of members of the community who are so busy that they can't take care of their houses. Do you know what housekeeping is? Housecleaning, things like that?"
"Do you mean cleaning up things that you've misplaced?" asked Jonas.
"Something like that. They also clean dust. Do you know about dust, Jonas?
"Dust?" spoke Jonas with a perplexed expression. "I do not know about 'dust'."
"It's probably been removed in your community. You'll learn about it some other time. Jonas, I'd like you to follow me into my office."
Jonas followed Arthur into a room from the hallway. Arthur's office looked just like the Giver's, with a nicely-carved desk, bookcases filled with books, lovely lamps and upholstered chairs and sofas. Arthur sat himself behind his desk in a large upholstered chair that seemed to have wheels at the bottom of its support, making it mobile. Arthur gestured with his hand for Jonas to sit down on the upholstered chair across from him, on the other side of the desk. Jonas shyly sat down.
"Jonas," spoke Arthur, "the Receiver of Memory from your community intended for you to come here. Our community, called Merryville - "
"I apologize for inconveniencing your communication," spoke Jonas formally, "but you seem to speak of your community as if it was named like a person."
"It is," said Arthur. "Communities do have names. Your community, called simply 'The Community', didn't tell any of your citizens about names of communities so your citizens couldn't tell the difference between them, or so that there wouldn't be any quarrels about the community name. There are many other communities with names; Town Standard, Village Utopia, and us, Merryville.
"The Receiver of Memory, which I was reported you called 'the Giver', thought it best that you escape to somewhere that hadn't been controlled and manipulated to create such a standard town. We have snow, colour, animals and love, things that The Community doesn't have. The Giver wanted you to escape to this place, because it was the closest of its kind to your community."
"How many other communities are there like this?" questioned Jonas.
"Only a few. Most have used science and technology to perfect their environment. To continue, the Receiver of Memory had intended for I, who is also a Receiver of Memory and in charge of foreign affairs for Merryville, to take you in, Jonas, and to make you a citizen of Merryville.
"My spouse and I were never able to have children. In our community, we do not have Birthmothers, but instead, family units have their own children. You will not understand what I am saying, and I cannot explain to you how we don't have Birthmothers, because that is a VERY complex topic. We never got to have a real family unit, so when the Receiver of Memory told me that you were coming, I agreed that I would accept you into our 'family unit' and become your father. Since you brought someone else along with you to Merryville, he'll be accepted into the family unit as well."
Jonas was overwhelmed with all positive emotions at the news. He'd be a member of a new family unit, with Gabriel! And there'd be love! He'd finally be able to have a family unit that would love him.
"Thank you," choked Jonas. "Thank you so much!"
"Your welcome. Now Jonas, we have a very different system here for our community. Our community does have a Receiver of Memory, myself, who's in charge of all the memories of the past, but our community shares those memories together. We do not make the Receiver of Memory or Receiver-in-training keep all their memories and feelings and make them suffer while all others are ignorant to their past. We do have a Committee of Elders and Chief Elder appointed every 10 years, but they do not control every detail of the community. Jonas, in our community, the members of the community have the freedom of choice."
Jonas was shocked at the statement. Choice? Given freely to the community? How could the members of the community be trusted to make right choices? What a dangerous place this was!
"How can there be freedom of choice? It's dangerous!" said Jonas. "What if the members of the community choose wrong?"
"Jonas, what happens when something bad happens to you? I was told that you once had an injury to your fingers when a door closed on them."
"Yes, that's true."
"Did you learn anything from that moment?"
"Learn? Learn what?"
"Didn't you learn to pay attention the next time you used a door? Didn't you learn that you should be conscious not to injure yourself in that matter again?"
"Yes, I did."
"That is what happens when we all make a wrong choice. When something bad happens, we learn from it. When we have choice, we also think a lot harder about our decisions. We become more responsible and cautious of our actions."
"That's interesting," said Jonas,. "I never thought about it like that."
"It's good that you know now. We feel that our world shouldn't be changed to fit our needs, because it is selfish. We should accept the faults that we see in our world, be careful of them, and go around them. A negative quality to someone else may turn out or lead to a positive quality."
"Just like snow."
"Exactly. As you know, we have snow, seasons, animals, and love. We also have traditions, such as 'Christmas', an event that is coming up. I think you know about Christmas, don't you? You can see it through the town. It's a holiday, almost like in your community, except that each holiday has a meaning. The meaning of Christmas is to experience the feeling of giving, love and family, including many other concepts you will learn. Our community may have flaws that do not exist in your previous community, but our community has many other things that we cherish, like love."
Jonas and Gabriel were quickly made members of the community of Merryville, and they realized that this community was very different from their prior home. There was food distributed to each house, either in full meals or in ingredients so that the citizens could make their own meals. Jonas participated in this 'making of meals' with Maggie by baking a cake, and he realized that though it took a lot of work, he enjoyed the satisfaction of making his food than it being brought to him. There were even small places for special occasions that produced food to be given whenever someone asked for it when they went to that place. Jonas witnessed an example of this called a bakery, which choked his nose in delicious aroma, and the baked goods produced in that 'bakery' satisfied his hunger like nothing else could.
Unlike the community with their standard tunics and clothing of the same hues, clothing could be chosen. Jonas had so much amusement picking out different colours of various styles of clothing. Every time he put on a piece of his new clothing, he felt free and alive.
The holiday of Christmas came very quickly in the community, and Jonas was finally able to physically experience the loving memory in front of the fire place. Maggie prepared a giant feast for Arthur, his wife Halie who was a doctor, Jonas, Gabriel and herself, which everyone enjoyed. Afterwards, music was played by Halie with something called a flute, an instrument that produced a sweet sound and rhythm that Jonas never heard before.
The following day, gifts were given from one person to another and vice-versa (except Gabriel). Arthur gave a certain amount of something called 'money' to Jonas, which he would need to purchase things in that money range. Jonas looked through a catalogue in the dwelling and found such things as a comfort object called a monkey for Gabriel, a nice watch for Arthur, a bracelet for Halie (something he never heard of in The Community, but liked the concept when he was explained the use of a bracelet), and a mirror for Maggie. Jonas could not explain the wonderful feeling he experienced for the first time when he saw the look on everyone's faces when they received their presents. He was given an instrument of music playing from Halie, that was a personal compact disk player along with a few compact disks, a painting of a scene of Christmas from Maggie, and a large book about all the different kinds of communities from Arthur.
That day, everyone went to a certain structure that Arthur called a church. Jonas was confused about the whole entire concept of church and its purpose, but when he entered the structure, he felt a strange feeling come over him. He felt warm, and welcome. The candlelight provided inside the structure felt comfortable and enlightening, and strange three-dimensional likenesses called statues with loving expressions made Jonas feel loved and belonging. Once Jonas was seated and the ceremony began, certain statements were said that Jonas did not understand. What was this God, and Jesus? What did they mean by heaven, glory and faith?
When it got to the point where a certain adult male called a priest in unique clothing made a speech, Jonas listened intently, wondering what other bizarre things the adult would say. The adult was named Father Jesse, though why he was called a 'father' Jonas did not know.
"Today, fellow members of the community, we welcome a few new citizens named Jonas and Gabriel into our parish. Both Jonas and Gabriel do not understand what the idea of faith is. But do we all know what faith is too? It is this I will be talking about in my homily.
"So what is faith? When we have 'faith' in someone, it means we trust them. That is what the social meaning of faith is, but what's the religious meaning of faith? The religious meaning of faith does also mean trust. It is the trust and belief we have of what we spiritually believe. It is a strong bond and reliance we have in the ideas we possess about how the world works, and of our morals.
"What does the Christian community believe in, then? To put it simply, we believe in God, a superior power that has no physical form, that has created all of us and is supreme to all. To someone who hears this for the first time, it may seem bizarre. For those who have heard this for the first time, I would like to ask you something: have you ever experienced something so marvellous that you can't explain? Something that when you were in a horrible situation, you experienced a positive thing which made everything slowly better again? This something may be a gesture of kindness, such as a smile when you feel that everyone else isn't acting nice to you that day, or it could be a strange phenomena that's too complicated to explain in words. That thing, that may even be called a miracle, is an example of the work of God."
This concept of 'God' that Jonas was listening to seemed so abstract and hard to understand, but when the priest mentioned the part of an event that he couldn't explain, Jonas suddenly started to understand, because he had experienced that very event: the sled on the hill. At a point when Jonas felt that he could no longer go on, something that represented happiness and life for him that The Community never supported, the sled, showed up right in front of him. His transmitted memory of a sled came into physical existence as he went on the sled and rushed down the hill, though when he was at the bottom of the hill and he turned around to see the sled, it was gone. Jonas honestly believed, though it wasn't proven or certain, that what he experienced had something to do with God.
"But God isn't just some sort of power that makes a positive thing happen when you're surrounded by negative things. He is so much more. God is who we believe created everything, from the bare trees outside to the ground beneath us. We humans, our flesh, blood and body, are even created by God. Most of you know that we have many systems in our bodies, such as our nervous system, digestive system, and circulatory system. Let's discuss the details of the digestive system. The digestive system helps us break down the food that we eat for energy. First, we chew up the food that we eat in our mouth, which then goes down the oesophagus, or simply our throat, and into our stomach, where it is broken down with acid. Afterwards, it goes out of the stomach and into our intestines, which absorbs and takes in all of the nutrients in the food that goes into the blood stream and is transported to all the parts of the body for their energy. The rest of the stuff continues through the intestines through... out... well, it goes out the end.
"It seems quite simple after you understand it, but how did this all come about? If you look at it, the digestive system, and everything in this world, fits so amazingly together that it seems perfect. It is beautiful and wonderful how everything comes together, so precise and perfect that we believe, as Christians, that everything was created perfectly and in precise detail by God. I feel that it's hard to believe that all the aspects around us, the materials that fit all of our needs and desires, the systems we have in our bodies for our living, and even the balance we have between humans and plants that we inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide and plants inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen, just came up by coincidence. I don't think that how everything 'just is' makes a good explanation."
The explanation Father Jesse just gave following the talk about miracles really made Jonas feel that there was this God. He too had wondered how everything came together and was created. He remembered studying in school about the circulatory system, and it seemed so interesting and perfect that Jonas asked his Instructor who created the circulatory system. Jonas' Instructor thought that Jonas was perplexed and didn't know what he was talking about, but Jonas did know what he was speaking of, and it confused him for a long time until he forgot about the whole subject. Nonetheless, the enlightenment of the idea of God started to make so much sense.
The priest continued with other ideas and explanations about the topic of religion and God, and even when Jonas didn't understand him very well, he felt deep inside him that what the priest said was true and was great wisdom. How could he not have thought of such a remarkable idea?
When mass was over, Jonas felt a strange emotion... almost a feeling of completeness and understanding. He felt that everything made sense after the idea of God, and he had great respect for everything around him. He looked admiringly at the trees, for the priest said that it was God who designed them so significantly. He used gestures and acts of kindness to everyone around him, since he now knew that every single person was created with such care and dignity, and everyone was made up of the same flesh and same intelligence. It gave Jonas a whole new perspective in life.
As the days went on, Jonas experienced more things in his new community. After a few weeks of holidays, he went to the school. He was surprised at the selection and variety of children at the school, who had such diverse interests and personalities, both negative and positive. In March, he witnessed the changing of seasons, and how the snow melted away with the heat and plants started to grow again.
Once Jonas was settled down and had grown accustom to the new community (as was Gabriel), Arthur and Halie explained to him in difficulty why the town didn't need Birthmothers. The discussion made Jonas uneasy afterwards and gave him embarrassing and complex emotions, which made him feel uncomfortable whenever he saw family units. He couldn't even look at the family with 5 female children anymore without blushing and feeling odd! Though later on, he became used to the idea, and realized that 'the dream' and the strange feelings of wanting he had before corresponded to that exactly.
Everything was wonderful for Jonas, until one day in May. Jonas had just come inside the dwelling from school after playing a game with a few of his new friends when he spotted Arthur in his office, seeming depressed and angry as he looked down at a sheet of paper on his desk. Jonas, curious of Arthur's expression, entered his office and laid his schoolbag down on the carpeted floor.
"Arthur?" asked Jonas curiously. "What's wrong? You seem like you're in a negative mood."
"I am," mumbled Arthur, looking up to Jonas. "I'm absolutely furious. I would have thought better of The Community."
"Thought better of what of The Community?" questioned Jonas. "Is something wrong there?"
"Yes, something terribly wrong, though the Council of Elders do not feel that they've done anything bad. In fact, they feel that they've made a wise choice, not that they know what wisdom is!"
"Please, Arthur, tell me what has happened in The Community."
"It's so hard to say it, for it makes me furious to hear myself say it. Jonas, do you remember the plan you had with the Receiver of Memory to let The Community experience the memories you kept inside you two?"
"Yes, I remember everything about it. I can never forget it, it was a perfect plan. Why do you ask about it?"
"Well, then I'm afraid to tell you that your plan didn't work."
"What?" spoke Jonas, taken about with such shock. "Why didn't it work? What went wrong?"
"When the memories were shared with the members of The Community, they were frightened beyond words. They were in fear and experienced every horrible feeling imaginable, just like you had. However, they didn't understand the importance of this and weren't as strong as you and the Receiver of Memory were, Jonas. So they felt that they didn't need memories."
"What do you mean?" questioned Jonas, perplexed. "I do not understand."
"This letter," said Arthur, as he picked up the paper that was on his desk and stood up from his desk, "will explain everything."
Arthur walked over to Jonas and handed the letter to Jonas, as he took it with shaking hands. Jonas looked curiously at the letter. Jonas read it aloud.
"It says:
"Dear Foreign Receiver of Memory of Merryville,
Since the disappearance of our Receiver-in-training, our Community has been under the responsibility of holding memories. Because of this, fear and negativity have terrorized our Community and has not made it an enjoyable place to live. Our Community is not holding the Utopian-structure of the Union of Utopian-Communities.
"What's that?" asked Jonas.
"That's a union of many communities around our area who discuss topics together and have decided to try and make a system to help our communities become a better place. There are various categories of the Union, including categories that are stricter than ours. Our category, The Christian Communities of Peace, are not as strict as the category The Community is from, called The Standard-Perfect Communities. Read on."
"After much discussion with our Council of Elders," continued Jonas, "we have decided that the terror in The Community has to stop. Therefore, the Council of Elders hereby rejects the receiving of memories.
"What? How can they do this? They need memories, or else they'll make so many mistakes without realizing what they've done!"
"I know," said Arthur. "It's also against the policies of the Union of Utopian-Communities. They have a chance of being banished from the Union. Believe me, the letter gets worse."
Jonas continued to read. "Because our Community does not need the use of memories, there is no use for a Receiver of Memory. Therefore..." Jonas saw what was next to be read, but he could not believe his eyes. He didn't want to read it. He couldn't. The shock and horror or what he read brought him to anger and despair, making him cry. "I can't read the rest!"
"Yes you can," said Arthur. "It's hard, but you can read it."
"Therefore..." read Jonas with difficulty. He started over again. "Therefore, our Receiver of Memory... will be... released."
Jonas burst out crying and let out all the despair and fury bottled up inside him. "HOW COULD THEY?!?" Jonas shouted. "HOW COULD THEY?!?! HOW COULD THEY KILL - NO, MURDER! - THE WISEST AND MOST NECESSARY PERSON IN THE COMMUNITY AND JUST STUFF HIM IN A BOX AND SHOVE HIM DOWN A CHUTE!!!! THEY'RE STUPID!! I HATE THEM!!! I HATE - "
"I know," said Arthur, giving Jonas a hug and letting him cry on his shoulder. "I know, they're stupid and foolish."
"He hasn't been released yet, as he? Can I see him again? Can I?"
"I'm sorry, you can't. The letter was given too us too late. The letter was received today, May 23rd, but it reads on the letter..."
Jonas read the rest of the letter out loud though in a low tone.
"The release of the Receiver of Memory will happen... May 22nd."
"It has already happened. I'm so sorry."
Jonas continued to cry, and did so all that evening. The next day, he woke up depressed, though it wasn't as bad as he thought. When he went to school and entered his classroom, he saw a banner on the instruction board that said, "WE'RE SORRY, JONAS. WE ARE ALL GRIEVING FOR YOU AND THE RECEIVER OF MEMORY OF THE COMMUNITY". His groupmates and his Instructor came into the room, and each one of them told him that they heard of what happened and were mourning with him. They told him stories of loved ones of theirs dying and the grief they felt, and they told him that they knew what he was going through. All of his groupmates helped Jonas feel better about his grief, that his grief wasn't hidden like it was when he was in The Community. He felt that the grief was shared and supported by everyone around him, and he felt better.
For the rest of his life, Jonas lived in Merryville and experienced the differences between Merryville and The Community. While The Community tried to be errorless and perfect that they got to the point that they became the opposite, Merryville cherished the gifts and the flaws they had, knowing that nothing is perfect at first, though it all comes together in the end. Even though there were many things that were not perfect, like the vanity of clothes to wear, the pickiness of colour, being carried-away and too strict with religion, Jonas got through them and learned to accept them. When Jonas was older, he became the Receiver of Memory and in charge of foreign affairs for Merryville so Arthur could retire. Though he dearly missed The Giver and a few things from The Community, like Asher and Fiona, and though The Community may have seemed "perfect", Jonas would still prefer the love and warmth that this community supported.
Author's Note: It's done! So since it's done, you're going to review, right?!?!?! PLEASE REVIEW! Although I am learning to accept flames, I appreciate that you not use vulgar language or plain rudeness that is meant to simply offend the other in your reviews. I hope very much that you liked the story.