Shades of GreyHUM 3285: Postmodern Adolescent Literature

Spring 2012Dr. PerdigaoApril 4, 2012

From Childhood to Adolescence• “The speech was much the same each year: recollection of the time of childhood

and the period of preparation, the coming of responsibilities of adult life, the profound importance of Assignment, the seriousness of training to come” (51).

• “‘thank you for your childhood’” (56).

• “Jonas did not want to go back. He didn’t want the memories, didn’t want the honor, didn’t want the wisdom, didn’t want the pain. He wanted his childhood again, his scraped knees and ball games” (121).

• “Jonas trudged to the bench outside the Storehouse and sat down, overwhelmed with feelings of loss. His childhood, his friendships, his carefree sense of security—all of these things seemed to be slipping away. With his new heightened feelings, he was overwhelmed by sadness at the way the others had laughed and shouted, playing at war” (135).

Repercussions of the Fall• “‘Sometimes I wish they’d ask for my wisdom more often—there are so many

things I could tell them; things I wish they would change. But they don’t want change. Life here is so orderly, so predictable—so painless. It’s what they’ve chosen’” (103).

A New Guru… The Guru? (not Yoda)• “‘But why can’t everyone have the memories? I think it would seem a little easier

if the memories were shared. You and I wouldn’t have to bear so much by ourselves, if everybody took a part’” (112).

• “‘But there are two of us now. . . Together we can think of something!” (113)

• “‘Jonas, you and I are the only ones who have feelings. We’ve been sharing them now for almost a year’” (154).

• “‘And having you here with me over the past year has made me realize that things must change. For years I’ve felt that they should, but it seemed so hopeless’” (155).

Bicycling into Oblivion• “Since 1980, the bleakness of the literature has modified, but the basic landscape is

in many respects unchanged. Fictional adolescents still struggle with a dysfunctional society, still deal with adults who are mostly unable to offer much help, and still contend with a staggering range of personal problems. Two differences stand out, however. First, fewer authors insist on the total isolation of their protagonists. . . . Second, fictional adolescents are less passive now than they were in the 1970s. They are still largely on their own, but in many novels they have the resources, in the form of friends, emotional maturity, and an occasional helpful adult, to deal with serious problems and even to arrive at an outlook that accommodates the pain of experience without blighting all hope.” (MacLeod127)

• “A recurrent figure in Crutcher novels is a coach or a trainer who functions as a guru. He or she challenges students to stretch their physical limits, inducing the Zen experience of dissolving boundaries between action and actor, and—sooner or later—supplies tough-minded wisdom. It is to these gurus that protagonists turn when troubles pile up, and it is they, rather than parents, who voice the philosophy that Crutcher offers to the young” (MacLeod 128).

Giver/Receiver/Giver• “Of course they needed to care. It was the meaning of everything” (157).

• “‘You have the colors. . . And you have the courage. I will help you to have the strength’” (157).

• “For the next two weeks, as the time for the December Ceremony approached, The Giver would transfer every memory of courage and strength that he could to Jonas. He would need those to help him find the Elsewhere that they were both sure existed. They knew it would be a very difficult journey” (158).

• “‘My work will be finished,’ The Giver had replied gently, ‘when I have helped the community the change and become whole’” (162).

• “There had been no time to receive the memories he and The Giver had counted on, of strength and courage. So he relied on what he had, and hoped it would be enough” (166).

• “So he had enough strength of his own, and had not needed what The Giver might have provided, had there been time” (168).

Survival and Fitness“Once he had yearned for choice. Then, when he had a choice, he had made the wrong one: the choice to leave. And now he was starving.

But if he had stayed . ..

His thoughts continued. If he had stayed, he would have starved in other ways. He would have lived a life hungry for feelings, for color, for love.

And Gabriel? For Gabriel there would have been no life at all. So there had not really been a choice” (174).

Bicycling into Oblivion• “But he had come this far. He must try to go on” (176).

• “Was there any left at all? Could he hold on to a last bit of warmth? Did he still have the strength to Give? Could Gabriel still Receive?” (176).

• “But there was no purpose in if-onlys” (178).

Adam?

• “But it was not a grasping of a thin and burdensome recollection; this was different. This was something that he could keep. It was a memory of his own” (178).

• http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/guides/give.html