The Pros and Cons of Release

You walk to the front of the group of the old, scared of what’s next to come. You approach the releasing door, and beyond that is who knows what. You see it open and as your heart beats faster and faster, you say one last goodbye, and walk through it to elsewhere. This is what people in Jonas’ community do when their end is near in The Giver. But is release fair? Some would say yes, and others no. Well I believe release is good and bad in many ways.

For starters, there are a few advantages to release. One is that people wouldn’t be sad when someone died, because you don’t see them die. You don’t even see them get released. With releases, people don’t feel sad to say goodbye. In fact, they try to treat release for the old as a celebration for living a full life. So, that cancels out sadness.

Other advantage is that since they’re going elsewhere, the community doesn’t have to deal with dead bodies. Not to creep you out but they don’t care if elsewhere is full of piles of lifeless humans, decaying to nothing. The good thing about this is people would never see dead bodies, so they wouldn’t be sad and/ or scared. No funeral, just a speech and a last goodbye when their still breathing.

               Where there are advantages, there are also disadvantages. One disadvantage is that you don’t get to say goodbye to your “parents”, your friends or anyone. Only the old see the releases. I think they do that so you don’t feel sad to miss your friends and “family.”

       In Jonas' community, release has its advantages and disadvantages. You feel no sadness to say goodbye and you don’t even get to say goodbye. So, I think thoughts on release can go both ways.