Humberto Valencia -- Final Exam Essay

The Hero's Journey
The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Hero's Journey is a term used to define the storyline of a certain character, it's divided in stages: separation, initiation and return; these stages are also divided into events, which describe the way the story unfolds. One example for this, is the novel by Lois Lowry, The Giver.

This book mainly talks about the issues and hero's journey of a relatively young boy , when he faces a new challenge, which, in this case is becoming the next receiver of memory in his community. The character called Jonas daces some changes on his way to his twelfth ceremony; he begins to feel different and somehow apart of the "normal" people of his community, this event can be associated with the Calling event of the separation stage, when the character feels there is some spacial task that he must fulfill or complete; he also analyzes his own surroundings from a different perspective.

Jonas later meets the current holder of memories, who becomes The Giver after he transfers some memories of the world we know to Jonas, this memories are strange to him because Jonas lives in a homogeneous society in which there is no color, feelings or originality between members, everything seems to be under control. The moment Jonas meets The Giver, he enters into the initiation stage, where one of the events is finding a mentor, who guides the character in some tasks in order for him to get closer to becoming a hero.

Finally, Jonas finds out a way for the community to feel again, Jonas feels sad of not being able to share his feeling with them; he decides to leave, so the memories go back to the society, but also, he is leaving to look for "elsewhere." He takes his little adopter brother named Gabriel, when he finds out the true meaning of releasing people in his community (killing them). Gabriel is also susceptible to receive memories, which helps on the harsh journey to elsewhere, that's when the event of creation takes place, Jonas leaves the community in order for his people to feel the beautiful things he felt, like love and many other emotions to learn that there are far more experiences than the ones they've felt so far; even though he won't be able to enjoy them along with his family unit.

He finally gets to the top of a snow covered hill, and he remembers one of the memories that The Giver once shared with him, he then slides down the hill, and gets to elsewhere, that's how the book ends, quite interesting, but it also leaves us wanting to know more about it.