Jonas 'Perception Of Truth In The Giver'

In court, witnesses must say an oath that includes, I swear to tell the whole truth, the truth, and nothing but the truth. But what exactly is truth? In today’s world, truth is not lying to one another, or being honest. However, in the world in which Jonas lives, everyone around him and even he has an idea of truth that is distorted and morphed into what their government wishes it to be. Truth, in Jonas’s world, is distorted because the government hides the emotional aspect of life from them. Furthermore, to the people, truth is simply doing what they’re told by going to their Selection when they’re twelve, taking injections every day, etc. However, when Jonas is chosen to be the Receiver, successor to the Giver, his visions of truth change
When Jonas becomes successor to the Receiver, he receives the reality of what life should be like, not the freedom deprived way he had been living for the past twelve years. He begins to feel emotions, sees in color, and realizes how much he, his friends, and his family are missing in their lives. Also, his old way of life seems different to him, almost false. “Thinking, as he always did, about precision of language, Jonas realized that it was a new depth of feelings that he was experiencing” (Lowry 131). This quote shows how Jonas is changed by the memories; how he now sees everything he used to in a different light than he did before. Furthermore, he now knows the truth about the government, and how they have been keeping these feelings and memories from everyone. On a different note, this truth opened several doors for not only him but also for the people in his community. This is so because they, meaning Jonas and the people in his community, can now live their lives in the true state that life is meant to be lived
Truth is what was taken from the people, what Jonas hopes to achieve for his people when he leaves, and what the government fears will get out to the people. Digging deeper into why the government fears the painful, and joyful, memories get out we can come to the conclusion that the government thinks people are evil by nature. If they thought people were good, than all the control and deception that comes with “sameness” wouldn’t be necessary. Take into account how little freedom people have, and how every move they make is carefully monitored. It is as if they are prisoners without even knowing it. One example as to how deceived the people are is when Jonas’s dad kills a child just because he an identical twin. “He killed it! My father killed it!” (Lowry 150). This quote is Jonas’s reaction to what his father has done, not realizing that his father has been blinded into thinking that this is acceptable to do. He is deprived of the truth. Overall, the truth of life is the key to everything in this book for it is the baseline for Jonas’s story once he breaks out of the false life everyone he knows