The Giver: part 2

I could not even imagine what it would be like to experience life in the community let alone from Jonas's perspective. The fact that everyone's fate is determined by a council seems absurd, coming from the viewpoint of our society. I think it is so intereseting how Jonas recieves the memories from The Giver and is amazed by them, when for us it would be nothing out of the ordinary. The most powerful part of the novel for me was the scene where Jonas finally sees what "release" is. As the reader I could feel the anger building inside me as I saw how the baby was simply euthanized and disposed of simply for being a twin. In the end of the novel I was glad to see that Jonas took Gabe with him, and no matter how one interprets the ending, the baby's life was saved. Personally I did not see the ending as death, but that the two really did reach the town and safety. Overall I enjoyed the book, and am glad I decided to pick it up once again. However, I feel it would not have done the book justice had I read it all back in fifth grade. There are many situations where one would have to be more mature in order to fully interpret. Reading it as an adult definitely allowed me to have a greater understanding of the full text.