The Giver: Journal Topics 1-11

The words loss, elsewhere, and release do not mean a lot in Jonas’ community.
This community takes place in the future and is perfect. It is a utopia. These utopians do not really know what really happens if your “lost” or where elsewhere leads too. They do not even know what happens behind the release room doors. They think these terms mean happy things and so they celebrate it. But if the Committee of Elders ever revealed the truth it would be a whole new world for them.
In this utopia the term loss means nothing to the people. They think it means there going to a better place. But really loss means that they die. It means that they had an accidental death. The committee does not want to make a big deal out of whatever happened to them incase the community figures out the truth. But in the story few people die because of all the security and safety in the community. So it is very rare to happen.
Loss is a sad event that if the person is “lost” he or she will never be spoken of again.
They don’t even name a child that name again. That is how much they do not feel.
The word “elsewhere” was a place where the community thinks people go after they have been released. But really its a place completely different then what they were living in. It was a whole different community. It was a whole world outside Jonas’ society where they are believed to be free and live completely different. It is forbidden for people inside of the community to go outside of it unless they have official business

The Giver: Journal Topics 1-11 to attend to. Which usually only applies to the Committee of Elders. So no one actually knows what goes on in “Elsewhere.”
The term being released means being killed, putting it bluntly. In the story, the nurturers took someone who was sent to be released goes into the release room and they give you a shot and you die. The community thought they were just going to go to elsewhere or to a better place. They didn’t think it meant taking someones life away if your not perfect or if you get to a certain age. But in my opinion, if they knew that their lives would of changed a lot faster and they would have more independence.
We know of the word “loss” in the community we live in today. Loss today still means dying. But we take it more literally and heartfelt. If a family lost one of its members they would care more. They would grieve. But in the utopia, they would just move on and not mourn. Most likely they did not even know how to mourn. The community did not have any feelings for one another. They could not love like we can.
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