Why does the community in ‘The giver’ by Lois Lowry's
book keep reminding me? It feels like visiting Japan, which is quite different
from the place where I have traveled so far.
On the lonely road where the crows were crying,
I took off my shoes and walked tired barefoot. Ducks ride on a clear stream of
clean street, where even the small pieces of garbage cannot be seen. Buses, taxies
and cars were as shiny as they had just been from car wash. Every two-story house
looks neat as if the dust had just been washed away in the rain.
Empty bottles are cleaned and sorted by color
and non-color. After the garbage truck passes, an elderly neighborhood cleans
up after. The pond is filled with silk carps, reminiscent of the brilliant
colors of kimono. In the street, people dressed traditional costumes are as
beautiful as silk carps. New York's common crime-free society, the admiration
of my son who says no one will takes the goods of others.
It was a mistake that a small person like me was
Japanese. They have hick hair like thick wooden bushes in the mountains. They
look healthy and handsome figures that appear to be mixed with other races.
Wives talk to each other in quiet way and wear colorless neat clothes or take
their kids home on bicycles after school. I did not hear the car horn or the
ambulance sirens.
Supermarket goods are glossy and clean. I
bought ice cream. The clerk asked me, “Do you want me to put it in dry ice?” My
heart sinks at their kindness. I hear the words Sumimaseng (excuse me) and
Arigato Gozaimas (thank you) constantly.
The community in the book "The
giver", which I have read before, is constantly reminiscent of the life of
the Japanese, who are tranquil and clean in a restrained life. Jonas, the main
character in the book, lives in a perfect community without any pain or sorrow
that he feels is under control. In the end, however, he escapes into a lonely
and rough world where pain and joy coexist.
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