Blog Post 2/23: The Giver

    “The Giver” by Lois Lowry is a young adult novel set in dystopian earth. Everyone lives in a perfect community where everything is the same. At age 12, children are put into the job that they would potentially thrive in until they would be “released.” To make this world perfect the “Chief Elder” controls how the world works, and the human emotions. At the beginning of each day residents of the community must take injections to numb their feelings. The “Chief Elder” offers a great injustice, she takes away the people’s freedom.

    The protagonist, Jonas has been assigned the job as the Receiver. This job is assigned to one person every ten or so years. Jonas is an average boy in the community, he goes to school, he volunteers and he takes his injections. As the new Receiver he meets with the Giver everyday. The Giver provides information on what the world was like with history and laughter, with joy and emotion -- with colour. The community lives in black and white because the “Chief Elder” has taken away colour.

    The ‘Chief Elder” is the superior of the community, she chooses everything for everyone. This is a great injustice because no one ha freedom. They don’t understand what real emotions feel like, they don’t understand what the real world is like. Instead they abide by strict rules and all they do is make sure the community is healthy and they reproduce. She has taken away the freedom of the people, they aren’t allowed to do anything.

    We live in an era where we have freedom of speech, we see in colour, and although we hate to, we make mistakes. “The Giver” is really about the world that w could be living in, but instead we are rewarded with this one.

Blog Post: The Diary of Anne Frank

                         The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan is a fictional novel written from the perspective of four women and each of their daughters. The women; Suyuan Woo, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong talk about their past. And these women’s daughters; Jing-mei “June” Woo. Rose Hse, Waverly Jong and Lena St. Clair talk about the present. All these women suffer small to great injustices. Whether it’s with their husbands, or with the war. They all suffered.

    When Suyuan Woo was first married, she had twins; two girls. But war was going on, and the Japanese invaded. “I packed my things and my two babies into this wheelbarrow and began pushing to Chungking four days before the Japanese marched to Kweilin. On the road I heard news of the slaughter from people running past me. It was terrible… I pushed toward Chungking until my wheel broke. I abandoned my beautiful mah jong table of hong mu… I tied scarves into slings and put a baby on each side of my soldier. I carried these things until deep grooves grew in my hands. And I finally dropped one bag after the other when my hands began to bleed and became too slippery to hold onto anything… By the time I arrived in Chungking I had lost everything except for three fancy  silk dresses which I wore one on top of the other,“ including the babies. Suyuan had to face a great injustice, she was driven out of her home and forced to leave without her babies.

This taught me to appreciate what I have, and how unfair life can be. I have to appreciate my family, because one day I won’t have them. The Joy Luck Club is about getting closer to family, even if they are unfair and understand each other