Rochelle’s Comments (group member since Jan 17, 2012)

Rochelle’s comments from the EDUC 567 Spring 2012 group.

When reading The Giver I was so intrigued by the idea of sameness in their "Utopian" community. I was interested in the concepts behind the way the place functioned and the foreshadowing of change kept me reading. Although I did not fully accept the ideas of sameness some of the ideas made sense. For example, keeping the community from overpopulation by allowing only two children per family and making sure every person had a place in the community to keep it functioning. The Ceremony caught me off guard as the celebration of birthdays in our are important, for them to all transition age at the same time baffled me. The community was too structured yet peaceful and ignorantly blissful. I enjoyed continuing to read the story and compare the society to our own as well as finally finding out who this giver actually was. Watching as Jonas changes and begins to see "beyond" his world was interesting and I felt myself understanding his dilemma. I felt that after finally learning the truth behind release and the community blatant disregard for life I felt that Jonas did the right thing.