Integrity means standing up for one's beliefs. It means that a person values doing what is right over anything else; and, sometimes standing up for what is right means making decisions that are unpopular. Jonas, in The Giver, shows integrity by choosing not to participate in a society that kills babies for being colicky and eliminates color, music, and snow in order to avoid personal hardships in life. The following passage demonstrates Jonas's courage and integrity when he could have easily turned around and not taken a stand for what he believed was right:
"Jonas reached the opposite side of the river, stopped briefly, and looked back. . . At dawn, the orderly, disciplined life he had always known would continue again, without him. The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without color, pain, or past. He pushed firmly again at the the pedal with his foot and continued riding along the road" (165).
By Jonas leaving the community, all of the memories would flood back into the people's lives and they would more fully understand what they have been missing in life. If Jonas did not follow through with what he believed was right, the people would go on living without the fulness of joy that life has to offer.
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