The Giver Reflection #2

Why does Jonas find the instruction of lying so disturbing?

I think Jonas finds the instruction of lying so disturbing because of 2 reasons. One reason is that because he is in such a structured society, lying would be against the rules so he has not experienced it before. the second reason as to why Jonas finds instruction of lying so disturbing is because he feels it is a terrible crime to do it. Though he has never experienced it before, it is a sin to lie. For example, lying would probably be the equivalent to murdering someone here in Malaysia. You can get in a lot of trouble. In the novel, The Giver, Jonas has been raised to not lie. 'Finally he steeled himself to read the final rule again. He had been trained since earliest childhood

, since his earliest learning of language, never to lie.' (Page 70)

The first reason as to why I think Jonas finds lying disturbing is because he lives in such a united and structured society. I would rather not call it a perfect society because they are a lot of things about it that are not perfect. In Jonas' world, they have many rules and one of them would be to never lie. I think we can all agree that lying is bad. Even the slightest lie can change someone's future. For example, if someone is going for a college interview and you don't want them to get in so you call the interviewer and act as that person and tell him/her you're sick. You have just ruined that person's future. That person could have been successful, but now they won't be because you lied. All Jonas knew was that lying is bad because that is the way he was raised. Jonas also might've thought that there would be nothing to lie about in his world because they seem to b

e the "best society". I agree with Jonas as to how lying is bad. I have to admit, I have lied before and I regret lying, but if I hadn't lied, I might not be what I am today.

The final reason is that Jonas thinks that lying is a crime. I believe that lying is a crime, it just doesn't have the same punishments as murdering someone or being accused of a crime you didn't do. In our society, we have laws. If we don't follow them, it's either jail or death. Because you have been warned as you

didn't listen. Jonas' community must also have laws like this, but they are still different from ours. As I said earlier, lying to them might be murdering to us. We all have different levels of severe and minor. For us, it might be okay to lie sometimes but for Jonas' society, you can even get killed because they know it wasn't the way they were raised.

In conclusion, I think Jonas finds lying so disturbing because it's against his rules and he believes it is a crime to do it. We all think this, but I don't think, we classify it as important. Since Jonas has no intention of doing it, I think he will be safe from the law!

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