Notes

Character development
(POV) Third person POV
He is a sensitive, polite, compassionate 12-year-old boy. Jonas is a dynamic character. He changes during the course of the novel due to his experiences and actions. We know how Jonas changes because Lowry narrates The Giver in the third person, limited omniscient viewpoint in order to reveal Jonas' thoughts and feelings.

Persepolis is a bildungsroman due to Marji’s loss of innocence, which caused her to mature from being a young child to being someone more mature, and finally, now that she is mature, she rebels against society and its rules.
--> Marjane shows that she lost her innocence throughout Persepolis when she stole a cigarette from her Uncle. “I sealed my rebellion… by smoking the cigarette I’d stolen from my Uncle 2 weeks earlier… with this first cigarette I kissed childhood goodbye” (117) Marjane decided to take her first step in deciding that she was losing her innocence and growing up by smoking the cigarette that she stole from her Uncle. Then when Marjane went to buy some jeans an unexpected missile exploded in Marjane’s neighborhood. “A crowd had gathered in front of my street! The bomb had hit my street… When we walked past the Baba-Levy’s house which was completely destroyed, I could feel that she [Marji’s mom] was discreetly pulling me away. Something told me that the Baba-Levy’s had been at home… I saw a turquoise bracelet. It was Neda’s… the bracelet was still attached to… I don’t know what…” (139-142) Marjane had ran home to check if her family was still alive and when they were trying to get out of the area she spotted one of her neighbor’s bracelet that was still attached to a body part. Marjane lost her innocence from this experience because she saw one of her friend’s body part just lying there with a bracelet still attached. The loss of her innocence led her to mature more and transform from youth to maturity.

I really enjoyed Jonas as a character because his character development from a scared boy, to someone willing to risk his future to save the community, is enjoyable to follow. This book shows the path of growing up; at first we are scared to accept that there are new responsibilities, but as we slowly get used to it we want to move more and more away from childhood.

Jonas has made choices for himself rather than being told what to do. Whatever happens to him, it is still better than his life in the community would ever have been.

The plot of the story



Environment

Yes, in both works, The Giver by Lois Lowry, and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, the author presented the inspirational aspect of their book through the character development, the plot of the storyline and the environment of the story.