The Giver
The giver
How does Jonas show that he understands that the meaning of everything is to care about others?
How does Jonas show that he understands that the meaning of everything is to care about others?
I don't see this particular theme in the story more than Jonas's understanding of the need to experience emotion. Whereas the nightly sharing of feelings is intended to explain away and resolve the emotions of the day, Jonas learns that the most important emotions are those that cannot be explained or discussed but only felt, such as the Stirrings or the love of a family. In many cases over the course of the novel, Jonas instinctively feels that something is right but allows his intellect to convince him that it is wrong, such as when he takes the pills to counteract the Stirrings or when he tries to argue to The Giver that love and family can be very dangerous. Yet, by the end of the novel, Jonas has learned to embrace the full range of human emotion, including to an extent the negative ones, and he allows his emotions and instinct to inform his actions. In contrast, the other citizens of the community, such as Fiona and Jonas's father, have not learned to allow their emotions to reveal their character and help them develop a sense of right and wrong, so they feel no guilt at delivering lethal injections as part of their jobs.