earticle

영어

This paper attempts to illuminate the ambiguous ending of Lois Lowry’s The Giver by examining the complicated relationship between time and space. Countering the view that interprets Jonas’s journey from the community to Elsewhere simply as a journey undertaken in physical space, this paper contends that Jonas’s journey is an act of rectifying the community’s skewed understanding of time and space and that the Elsewhere he strives to reach is a realm of existence in which he is allowed to have past, present, and future and thereby freely act on his love for others. In comprehending the community’s distortion of the relationship between time and space, the term, “release,” is particularly significant. As the euphemism for death, the word, “release,” defines death in terms of space rather than time and thereby deprives the community members of the opportunity to grasp the concept of death, which is essential to the development of capacity for love. Jonas’s training as The Receiver of Memory helps him learn the true meaning of death and life which has been obstructed by the word, “release,” and thereby grow in his ability to love as a human being who not only exists in time but also has present, past, and future.