In chapter 8 of The Giver, the author develops Jonas as a character by revealing that he is special among the others in his community. We learn that Jonas will be what they call “the keeper of memories,” something that is not common. There is only one keeper at a time. The current keeper of memories then will become the giver of memories.
This idea, that Jonas is special, becomes important. Lois Lowry begins to develop Jonas’s perspective through the fact that he can see things differently than the others in his community. He, alone of everyone, has the “capacity to see beyond”—like earlier, when he could see the color of the apple, something no one else can do.
Jonas, realizes that the elders are right when he gets another flash of color in chapter 8, as follows:
But when he looked out across the crowd, the sea of faces, the thing happened again. The thing that had happened with the apple. They changed. He blinked, and it was gone. His shoulder straightened slightly. Briefly, he felt a tiny sliver of sureness for the first time."
That flash of color helps assure him that he is different, and that puts him at ease. He doesn’t realize it yet, but his being different will lead to all the disruption caused in the latter parts of the book. We begin to understand how Jonas sees things differently. Seeing color is a metaphor for his change in perspective from the cult-like similarity of the community to understanding the truth about what is good and what is evil.
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