Wanting More

Wanting Mor by Rukhsana Khan and The Giver by Lois Lowry have two main characters. Jameela from Wanting Mor and Jonas from The Giver. These two novels are an adaption of emotional and physical oppression impacting these two young kids. They are oppressed by society, by their community, and by their own family. Jonas is part of a community with no climate, no emotion, no choices, and no memories. Imagine a world with no fear, pain, warfare, poverty, hunger, or terror. It almost sounds perfect. But reading on into this book and realizing to accomplish all of these things, some fundamental elements of life are taken away, such as feelings, love, diversity, choices, and even the ability to see colours. Jonas unfortunately is a part of this community and has to adapt to this living style. After being chosen as the receiver of memory, which means the memories of generations past, before the community was created, will all be transferred to him to hold. As Jonas receives memories, his concept of the world around him drastically changes. Jonas starts out as twelve-year-old boy with perceptions different from those around him, He then begins to see the community for what it really is, and he makes a plan to change it. On the other hand, Wanting Mor takes place in a small village in Afghanistan. Jameela lives with her mother and father, despite the fact that there is no school in their poor war-tone village, and though Jameela lives with a birth defect which leaves her with a cleft lip, she feels secure and sustained by her strong faith and loving mother, Mor. But when Mor suddenly dies, Jameela’s father decides to seek a new life in Kabul. Jameela, a devoted Muslim, has to face her father drinking alcohol and doing drugs and when he suddenly remarries, this changes Jameela’s world from top to bottom. This change turns Jameela into a slave for her father and new cruel stepmother. This story is basically showing a young girl struggling through her tough life. She has to face many things but one thing she always keeps in mind is her Mor and her beautiful religion. Jameela can’t stay emotionally oppressed throughout the whole book, yet she is oppressed at times. Jonas’s whole community is oppressed because they are told what to do; the Elders are the only ones who have the “right” to decide what is best for everyone. This is what Jonas wants to change. Jameela is emotionally oppressed because after her Mor passes away she doesn’t have the strength to even stand up to her father or her stepmother. But it is her right and she can do it, but the only thing that keeps her behind is lack of education, her cleft lip (birth defect) and fear of her father, which basically means she is emotionally oppressed. At times, Jameela’s father will beat her. That’s what they show in the book, which means she is also physically oppressed. Like Rukhsana Khan mentions in the book: “They go up in a puff of fragrant smoke. Will he notice? Will he yell at me for wasting tea? I’m shaking so hard that the leaves bounce around in the little tin in my hand. Put it down. Before you spill more. So I do. He comes and stands right behind me, and I’m not sure why. I hold my breath. Then he drops his hand on my shoulder, and I flinch, but he isn’t squeezing. He’s not pressing hard. He’s patting me. He’s not angry. In fact he’s telling me to step aside, that I must be tired, and he’ll make tea,” ( Khan, Page#14-15).
This paragraph shows that before Mor’s death, Jameela has someone to support her, which means she doesn’t really have to talk to her dad much, but after her Mor’s death everything changes. She’s left alone with her father, basically meaning she has to face him.
Parts in The Giver show that Jonas is emotionally oppressed because “The Elders” choose everything for the community and they don’t give them any right to even decide what they want, It seems like their opinion doesn’t really matter, and when they disobey or do something “against” the laws, they’ll be “released” which means they will be killed. At the age of 12, Jonas will be given his assigned “Job” just like every kid and the elders also choose that for him. He’s emotionally oppressed because he doesn’t have the right to do basically anything because he’s threatened that the Elders would do something to him (Being released). Lois Lowry mentions this in The Giver: “Earlier that day, dressing in his own dwelling, he had practiced the kind of jaunty, self-assured walk that he hoped he could make to the stage when his turn came. All of that was forgotten. He simply willed himself to stand, to move his feet that felt weighted and clumsy, to go forward, up the steps and across the platform until he stood at her side. Reassuringly she placed her arm across his tense shoulders. “Jonas has not been assigned,” she informed the crowd, and his heart sank. Then she went on. “Jonas has been selected.” (Lowry, Page#60).
Emotional oppression is more damaging then physical oppression because when Jameela or Jonas are being oppressed, it basically damages them from the inside which means that no one can tell how they feel, or what their emotions are. Physical oppression can show because they will be being oppressed from the outside and being emotionally oppressed is from the inside. Emotional oppression is basically pushing away feelings, painful or unwanted thoughts, fantasies, memories and impulses, and store them a in subconscious mind and body and this is what Jameela is doing throughout the whole book. She ignores the feelings she has and continues with life and stays strong. But this can lead to even worse situations, like illnesses. It could also lead to weird addictions and distractions. The best way to deal with emotional oppression is if Jameela will actually share her feelings. But that’s not what she does. She keeps the feelings stored inside of her and stays quiet. Rukhsana Khan mentions this in Wanting More: “Baba steps forward then, with a dramatic flourish; he pats Soraya on her head and says, “You will be like my own daughter to me!” I gasp so loudly that everyone turns and looks. I wish I could run out of this room. Or I wish the floor could open up and swallow me. They keep staring at me. It takes forever for them to look away. The mullaa is all sympathy. He touches Baba on the arm and says, “May this girl be a comfort in your loss”, around the room many say “Ameen.” That woman turns to Soraya and whispers loudly enough for everyone to hear, “His daughter was lost.” She pauses. “In a minefield.” This time I don’t gasp, but Soraya does. Khalaa Gul nods sympathetically. From across the room Soraya’s eyes meet mine. Her mouth is open. She looks like she doesn’t know what to do. The best thing about a chadri is that unless you make a sound, nobody can tell you’re crying. The ceremony goes on. That woman puts her arm around Soraya’s shoulders. Am I the only one who sees her glance at the people watching to make sure her affection looks genuine? And Baba, bending down to kiss Soraya on the forehead, welcoming her to the family, to my family. When was the last time he kissed me like that? I can’t even remember,” (Khan, Page#163).
In The Giver the only thing Jonas knows is that his world is just perfect and nothing can go wrong. Every family has two kids and everyone has food, no violence and a perfect job. But once Jonas turns twelve and receives his assigned job for the rest of his life, which is “The Receiver of memories”, he realizes his world isn’t so perfect anymore. He realizes that the community has to give up so much for their world to become like this. When he goes through all the memories, all he can do is stay quiet because the Chief Elder gave him a warning that he is not allowed to share any memories with anyone, not his parents, nor his friends. If he does, the same thing that happened to the previous “Receiver of memories” would happen to him, and this is what he is unsure about. He is emotionally oppressed because he is not allowed to share any of his feelings or the memories that he witnesses, even though he really wants to. Lois Lowry states this is the novel: “But the receiver-in-training cannot be observed, cannot be modified. That is stated quite clearly in the rules. He is to be alone, apart, while he is prepared by the current Receiver for the job which is the most honored in our community,” (Lowry, Page#61).
: “Now, for the first time in his twelve years of life, Jonas felt separate, different. He remembered what the chief Elder had said: that his training would be alone and apart. But his training had not yet begun and already, upon leaving the Auditorium, he felt the apartness. Holding the folder she had given him, he made his way through the throng, looking for his family unit and for Asher,” (Lowry, Page#65).
: “1. Go immediately at the end of school hours each day to the Annex entrance behind the House of the Old and present yourself to the attendant,
2. Go immediately to your dwelling at the conclusion of Training Hours each day.
3. From this moment you are exempted from the rules governing rudeness. You may ask any questions of any citizen and you will receive answers.
4. Do not discuss your training with any other member of the community, including parents and Elders.
5. From this moment you are prohibited from dream-telling.
6. You may lie,” (Lowry, Page#68)
At the end of the book, Jameela learns that the only way to get her right will be if she stands up for herself, and that’s what she exactly does when her Baba asks her to come back with him. She refuses to go with him. She has now received education, her cleft lip is fixed and she has now found a home, a place where she belongs. The words that always support her and help her through the hard moments of life are the words of her Mor. “Jameela if you can’t be beautiful, at least be good, people will appreciate that.” These words are the true words that help her. Her Mor has always taught Jameela to be modest, honest, quiet, respectful, and hard working and that’s everything Jameela does even till the end. To calm herself down, Jameela remembers the hadith that her Mor has always told her: “Jameela remember the man who asked the prophet (peace be upon him) for advice? What did the prophet (peace be upon him) tell him? “Don’t become angry” “Don’t become angry”, “Don’t become angry,” He said it three times. This book shows the strength of a strong amazing girl and how she looks at life without a mother supporting her. At the end, in the last chapter of Wanting More, Jameela shows an act of defiance showing the fact that she is no longer oppressed and she will no longer be burdened by any oppressor. She reveals her feelings at the end after holding them in for so long. Controlling her emotions, believing in Allah and having a strong iman in her religion, is everything Jameela does throughout the novel. She finally says “No” and stays in her real home as Rukshana Khan mentions in Wanting Mor: “Come with me! We’ll go somewhere they don’t know us and start a new life. I’ll find you a nice husband. We’ll be rich. Never mind that awful woman and her treacherous son. I promise I’ll take good care of you!” He just watches me for a moment, an impossible expression of hope on his face. “Come on daughter. It’s getting late. We should be going if we want to make good time out of this god-forsaken place!” Asthaghfirullah! I take a deep breath. “I hope you find a good place, Baba I can’t go with you.””Yes, you can! That witch, she knows she can’t keep you. Not when your own father has come. We can leave right now. Nothing can stop us.” He starts to get up, but this time I’m the one who grasps his arm to stop him. “No, Baba. I didn’t say it right. It’s not that I can’t go with you, it’s that I won’t go with you. I’m staying here.” For a long time Baba just stares at me. The expression on his face gradually changes from shock to rage. Then he glances at the door. That’s right he can’t do anything to me, not with all those people in the room. But, still I should get out if his reach. I get to my feet and put on my chadri. “Assalaamu alaikum, Baba.” Peace be upon you. And I mean it,” (Khan, Page#181).
The ending of The Giver leaves much for the reader to imagine. They can decide for themselves what happens next. Perhaps the people behind the windows with the colored lights find Jonas and Gabriel and take them into their lives. Perhaps the windows with the colored lights are only in Jonas’s mind, not real, and they are freezing to death. Or, something else could be about to happen. Regardless of what happens to Jonas and Gabriel, Jonas enables his community to receive the memories and to experience color, love, and pain. He is finally open to himself and others. He finally has freedom for “the community” He is in and he also freed not only himself but also Gabriel as Lois Lowry mentions in the novel: “The runners sliced through the snow and the wind whipped at his face as they sped in a straight line through an incision that seemed to lead to the final destination, the place that he had always felt was waiting, the Elsewhere that held their future and past. He forced his eyes open as they went downward, downward, sliding, and all at once he could see lights, and he recognized them now. He knew they were shining through the windows of the rooms, that they were the red, blue, and yellow lights that twinkled from trees in the places where families created and kept memories, where they celebrated love. Downward, downward, faster and faster. Suddenly he was aware with certainty and joy that below, ahead they were waiting for him; and that they were waiting, too, for the baby. For the first time, he heard something that he knew to be music. He heard people singing. Behind him, across vast distances of space and time, from the place he had left, thought he heard music too. But perhaps it was only an echo,” (Lowry, Page#178-179).
In conclusion, the only way that Jameela and Jonas will free themselves from emotional and physical oppression was if they stand up and do something and that’s what they both do. Jameela stands up for her right and stays at the orphanage and Jonas runs away with Gabriel and starts a new life, and enables his community to receive memories once again. They both show an act of defiance that helps them very much.
The only way Jameela learns about her rights is because she gets separated from her real family and maybe this is actually a good thing, because it happens and it made her life much better. Mor will be really happy to see Jameela starting a new life. Whereas Jonas only realizes what was going on his “perfect community” when he became “The receiver of memories”, and once he does, he wants to change many things and save the society. At the end, he ends up saving himself and Gabriel. These two novels show us that power and oppression can be competed against and can be stopped. Jameela is being oppressed in Wanting Mor, and the only way she overcomes this oppression is standing up for her rights. After receiving education and seeing her beautiful side she realizes that she does have hope. She starts to believe in herself, gain hope and have faith. Once she’s left alone, and once she gets to do things on her own and make her own decisions, she knows that no matter what happens she’s not going to make a mistake once again. Her new home is the orphanage and that’s one place where she is not oppressed physically or emotionally, her real home.
Jonas is being emotionally oppressed in The Giver, but he only realizes that when he gets assigned to the job of being the “Receiver of Memories”. He realizes that their “community” is not perfect at all; so much basic elements of life are taken away. Realizing this, he wants to change it all and has to go against rules. He runs away with Gabriel and enables their community to receive memories once again. He stands up for his right and his communities no caring what the “Chief Elder” says. He wants his family and everyone else to feel and love again.
End.
Thank you .

Wanting Mor The Giver By: Rukhsana Khan By: Lois Lowry

“The beauty of standing up for your rights is others will see you standing and stand up as well.”
“If you can’t beautiful, you should at least be good, people will appreciate that.”-Mor