Blog #23 Analysis of The Giver and Among the Hidden

After finishing both The Giver and Among the Hidden, the one thing that stuck out the most to me was that the main character of both was a male who was different than everyone else.

In The Giver, Jonas receives a job that secludes him from the rest of the community.  He isn't able to tell anyone what he is doing or learning.  This makes him be alone a lot of the time.  The only person he can talk to is the Giver because he is teaching Jonas.  Many times throughout the book, Jonas mentions that he doesn't like being alone or secluded.  

In Among the Hidden, Luke is considered to be against the law because he is the third child in his family.   In the community he lives in, parents are only allowed to have two children.  Since he is the third child, he has to remain hidden all of his life.  Being caught by the government means he could killed.  Luke doesn't have any friends and isn't allowed to go out of the house.  One day, he finds out he isn't the only other third child and escapes his house to talk to the girl he has been seeing in the house across the street.  He finds out that Jen is like him and there are others too.  Jen becomes Luke's first friend and he is able to talk to her about things he has had to keep bottled up inside.  

Although Jonas and Luke's lives are completely different, they do share the same characteristic of being unique individuals who struggle with being alone in the world.