A hero has been betrayed, in his moment where he needed help the most. In his greatest battle he will have to remember the magic and the advice from a wise old man. This story could have a sad ending or a joyous one. In this type of story lies a framework that is in many other marvelous stories, the romance motif. The romance motif is one of my favorite types of stories. It has everything that makes a story exceptional. It has a faithful follower, a wise old man, dreams, the number three, magic, testing of the follower, and betrayal. The romance motif is the backbone to most great stories. The Giver, for example has everthing from the romance motif that makes it the magical story it is.
The faithful follower in this book could be Gabe. Gabe was an innocent baby that seemed to have the same gift as Jonas. He was the only one that Jonas wanted to keep safe from a world that kept him from true happiness. Jonas's gift allowed him to meet his mentor, the wise old man brilliantly named The Giver. This wise old man had that magic to give his memories to Jonas; both memories of happiness and of pain. These magical memories took the form of very realistic dreams.
The powerful number three also has a place in this story. There are threee people who have the gift to see the world for what it really is. Jonas, Gabe, and the Giver all had the gift, but those three characters had to follow different paths. Jonas found out that his father has betrayed him by lying and killing people when they were released. When Jonas started to realize that the world he lived in was all wrong and unjust he chose to run away from his community and find a better world outside. He took Gabe with him out into the wilderness where he had seen things he's never experienced before.
The Giver chose to stay behind to help the community. After Jonas left, his memories would scare the community and The Giver wanted to stay and support them. In the meantime Jonas was testing his follower by bringing Gabe through freezing cold and starvation. The ending is both sad and blissful. Either way the reader interprets it, though, Jonas and Gabe were still free.
This story, just like many others, wouldn't be great without the blueprints of the romance motif. It is classic and also modern in how it is used. After learning about it I now notice the romance motif in almost all of the stories I read, and even in the movies I see. There is something romantic in the way the readers see the hero if he goes through the same framework of the romance motif. It's what makes a hero memorable.
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