Nick Long blog #10 The individual

Blog #10 - Grant

Release:

Jonas waited as the airplane passed the sky. The bush he was concealed under was a very dark green, the leaves covering the branches were thin like paper. The sound of the plane disappeared after a few minutes.

After about five minutes of waiting in the bush, another plane approached. That was two in less that 10 minutes, Jonas thought. 

"Plane! Plane!" Gabe muttered.

Gabe began to crawl out from under the bush. He made his way toward the road, the plane was now only seconds from them.

"Gabe, come here Gabe." Jonas whispered as he stood.

The baby was now on his feet. By the time Jonas was up and moving, Gabe had already made his way back onto the road; out in the open. Jonas broke out into a run toward the baby. The plane zoomed overhead as Jonas ran into the road, grabbing the baby. The plane continued on its course. Jonas believed that he and Gabe were unseen. Suddenly, the plane halted and turned drastically. A siren blared as the plane faced Jonas.

"No!" Jonas shouted as he firmly gripped Gabe and entered the woods. Jonas could hear the plane approaching. It was only a matter of time until the plane would be overhead. Jonas remembered that the plane had heat-seeking devices within them that could identify any type of body heat. Jonas dove into a bush hidden under a thick layer of canopy. The plane was now overhead. The tree branches and leaves all began to disperse as the plane lowered its descent close to the trees. Jonas knew that his plan had now failed.

Jonas peered his vision upward, holding on tightly to Gabe as the wind blew harder and harder. He could see two men on a rope, attached to the plane, reaching down closer and closer to the ground. 

Thomas changes his point of view to Gabe, "I'm sorry Gabriel. I only wanted the best for you." he spoke. It was the first time he ever called the child by his assigned name, and probably his last as well. It was different. Jonas felt as if he failed everyone of the world. The Giver, his father, his mother, Lily, Asher, Fiona. The men touched down beside the two. One grabbed Gabe from his arms. The other took hold of Jonas. Jonas felt a slight prick on his shoulder, then after a few seconds he was asleep.

Jonas awoke in a room of all white. He sat in a chair to which both his wrists and his ankles were strapped too. Jonas began to stir and struggle in the chair. The door opened, it was The Giver.

"The Giver!" Jonas shouted as he jumped in his chair against his restraints.

"I'm sorry Jonas, I have failed you." The old man replied. He looked about 10 years older than when Jonas had left him.

"It's more like I have failed you, sir."

The Giver shook his head, peering down at his feet.

"Jonas... You are-" he hesitated, "you are being released." 

"I understand, I know this is more painful for you than it will be for me. So I'm just going to get it over with." 

The Giver took out a needle, the needle was very familiar to Jonas. It was what his father used to release the twin. The Giver approached the boy and gently placed his hand down on this wrist, prepping Jonas for the injection.

"I'm so sorry." The Giver spoke.

The Givers robe once purple began to fade, the color was no more than a light shade of black. Thomas' flinched as the needle penetrated his skin. Thomas looked up at The Giver, the man was hunched over him looking at the needle. He shifted his view to Jonas' eyes. A tear streaked down his face and fell onto Jonas' arm. Jonas smiled back at him as he began to black out.

Yey or Nay?

The Giver:

Our group has decided that we all liked the novel as a whole; however there were few parts that we disagreed with. Grant believes that since the book set in a futuristic world, that a bicycle is not the most efficient way of transportation within and between communities. Thomas didn't like that after Jonas left, he was never able to see the Giver again. Abbie disliked the fact that near the end of the book, Jonas never got to go back to his community, and see everyone again. Nick disliked that the author never went into full detail of how communities interact with each other. But along with all these things that our group disagreed with, there were many aspects of the novel that we all enjoyed: The plot was well thought out and had amazing structure to support it. For Grant, it is probably both the most sophisticated dystopian novel (in means of how to world was set up, and how everything was regulated; the world as a whole), but also the simple novel as well (it was very very simple to understand what the author was trying to get across the the reader. The setting was also well described by the author by both dialogue and the interactions between the characters and their surroundings. As a group, we've giver the book 4.5 out of 5 stars. We all recommend the novel to really any age group. The book was no where near as complicated to understand as any other novel we have read all year. All in all, the book was entertaining for our group to read and only took a short amount of time to complete.

A New Life - Blog Number 10 - Thomas

 Behind him, across the distance, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too. Maybe it was only an echo. It was difficult to concentrate with the adrenaline pump from the ride. But just as he remembered that, the sled came to a nice peaceful stop. He got off and forced his hurt legs to move. The pain was almost unbearable, but he knew it was necessary for their survival. I have to keep going for Gabe, he thought to himself. Pick it up, put it down. Over and over he told himself this so he wouldn't stop moving. Jonas could see the first house. He was so happy that he started to run even though it hurt really badly. His feet were very heavy. He tripped and started to fall. Jonas threw his hand out to stop himself from crushing Gabe but his arm gave out and he fell right on top of Gabe. It didn't hurt Gabe too much. The ice and the snow were deep, but as Jonas stood up chunks of snow fell down his jacket, freezing Gabe. It didn't bother Jonas too much since his body was numb but Gabe started to cry! Jonas got the snow out best he could and started walking to the house. He placed a foot onto the neatly shoveled step. He put a hand out to steady himself. Too late, he passed out.

 Warmth filled his body. "Mom, how'd you know I wanted a brother?" There was group of people laughing; maybe four people or more? Jonas started to open his eyes then squeezed them closed again. It was very bright. "Go turn the lights down; he wants to open his eyes." The darkness got darker behind his eyes. He opened his eyes and looked around. There were five people, a family. There was a tree in the corner with different colored light hanging over it. He was lying down on his back and everyone was staring at him. "Hello, my name is Betsy." She looked like she was the mother of the three children he could see. "Where’s Gabe?" His voice seemed tired. One of the children left and then came back with a glass of water. "The baby? Oh, he’s asleep in one of our cribs. He's doing great! Don't worry about him. He's being kept nice and warm. "Here you go," the girl said as she handed the cup of water to Jonas. He took a sip of the water. Feeling refreshed, he started to tell his story. By the end of his story, everyone was sitting in disbelief, just staring at him. Finally Jonas knew that he would be living a whole new life. A different life from the one he had been used to. His eyes began to hurt and he burst out crying. "Oh you poor baby!" Betsy yelled and she grabbed Jonas and gave him a big hug. "Betsy, don't smother the kid!" The father figure put a hand on Betsy’s shoulder and she moved back. "Well, I think both of you will like this place a lot." "This is where your new life will begin."