Thesis: The Giver and Pleasantville, each in black and white settings, tell the story of characters that live in strict, colorless, seemingly-perfect communities and then begin to see color as they are enlightened about the corruption that exists in their worlds. A world without color would be almost lifeless; people celebrate color. The vibrancy that color provides wakes you up and keeps you present.We see rainbows as assurance that the worst has passed and everything will turn out fine. The stories of each main character involve seeing color where it is not commonly seen; Jonas’ first encounter with color occurred while tossing an apple with his friend, Asher, and noticed a change in the apple that he could not explain. In Pleasantville, …show more content…
These characters no longer wanted to remain complacent as they knew they had been for so long. They wanted to learn more about the natural world and their utopias became dystopias. “There was no dinner” George, the father character in the sitcom said. He was astonished upon his arrival to his home where there was no wife and no dinner as there was every single day. George’s wife, Betty, was more curious and had actually gained color which she covered up with black and white makeup to hide any of her changes from her husband. Instead of continuing her complacency and staying home to make dinner every night for her family, Betty wandered off to take a stroll through the town on her own and discovered a painting of various colors on the window of a diner.The colors caught her attention, woke her up. Betty walked into the diner to discover the owner of the diner, still in black and white, painting. The paintings had Betty in awe. The man showed Betty a book of paintings then continued to remove her makeup because he enjoyed the changes that color brought. Betty and the man spent the night together in the diner and woke up to be in full color after experiencing natural love rather than the marriage Betty was kept in and told exactly what to …show more content…
The memories were of humans who lived in the normal world before everything became “perfect”. Jonas’ community was not allowed to lie or to love. Through the memories, Jonas experienced several types of feelings that his entire community would never know. Jonas was now allowed to lie and now learned how his community was operated and it horrified him. Jonas learned that the way people lived wasn’t always this way. He learned that things were once different and people used to live naturally rather than controlled. This scared Jonas because he used to believe that his living situation was flawless and that he knew everything, but instead it was completely flawed; he really did not know anything. The giver told Jonas he could not give the others this information so Jonas fled the dystopian community. Color symbolized the truth in this story, just as in
The Giver and Matched are both futuristic societies with a lot of rules. In The Giver the Elders choose their match as well as their children. Jonas starts loving Fiona but isn’t allowed and stops taking the pill. In Matched the officials choose their match but they can have their own children. Cassia is matched with Xander but also loves Ky and doesn't know what to do. In both story they all get jobs for the rest of their lives but in Matched they just call it vocations. Jonas gets the Receiver of memory and Cassia is supposed to be the sorter.
Jonas decides to leave and change the lives of his people so that they can experience the truth. “The Giver rubbed Jonas’s hunched shoulders… We’ll make a plan” (155). Their plan involves leaving sameness and heading to Elsewhere, where Jonas knows the memories can be released to the people. He has a connection with Gabe, a special child who has experienced the memories, unlike the rest of the community. Jonas has a strong love for Gabe, and he longs to give him a better life. “We’re almost there, Gabriel” (178). Even with a sprained ankle, Jonas keeps pushing forward because he wants everyone to experience what The Giver has given him. He wants them to have a life where the truth is exposed. His determination allows him to make a change for a greater future in his community. This proves that Jonas has the strength to change his community for the
When one examines the similarities between Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and The Giver by Lois Lowry, they may be baffled. They may think that Lowry just did a run off of Huxley's highly successful masterpiece. The similarities are extraordinary, but so are their differences. Many aspects of these novels are almost identical while others are completely foreign to each other. Both of these novels feature structured societies, but the societies are not the same. In Brave New World, there are no families or definite partners, but neither society believes in love or true family. The Giver has no specific caste system, but the members of their community do not have control of their own future; that is left to the elders of the community. Lastly are Jonas and John. They are basically the main characters and both endure severe inner troubles, but are they similar enough to make the novels similar?
“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.” - Lois Lowry, The Giver. The much loved novel, The Giver, written by Lois Lowry was turned into a movie by Phillip Noyce. Authors and movie producers often have different ideas about how to portray a subject, in this case, the beloved story of The Giver. When you compare the two versions of The Giver, the novel and the movie, you will find very apparent and important differences not only in the plot, but in the characters and setting as well.
Jonas is the protagonist in The Giver. He changes from being a typical twelve-year-old boy to being a boy with the knowledge and wisdom of generations past. He has emotions that he has no idea how to handle. At first he wants to share his changes with his family by transmitting memories to them, but he soon realizes this will not work. After he feels pain and love, Jonas decides that the whole community needs to understand these memories. Therefore Jonas leaves the community and his memories behind for them to deal with. He hopes to change the society so that they may feel love and happiness, and also see color. Jonas knows that memories are hard to deal with but without memories there is no pain and with no pain, there is no true happiness.
Even though the community does benefit from Sameness, there are some things it is deprived of. While color is not absolutely necessary for the proper functioning of a society, it is still something important that this community lacks. “The red was so beautiful” (Lowry 95). This quote shows that once Jonas is exposed to color, he realizes how beautiful and important they are. Whenever he sees rare flashes of red, he gets excited and likes it. After being able to experience color, he looks at th...
This action made the community unfeeling and emotionless. The people of the community do not feel the same way Jonas and The Giver do. In the book, The Giver tells Jonas, "Listen to me, Jonas. They can't help it. They know nothing." (Page 153) The Giver told Jonas this after Jonas witnessed his father releasing a baby. The Giver explained to Jonas how the community is trained to do things like this without questioning it since they have no feelings. Without memories the people of the community are unfeeling, so having memories will make them feel things like pain and happiness.
In our society and in The Giver there are many variations in color, how we see them or who can see them. In Jonas’s society there is color, but not everyone can see them. Nobody is different from each other, they are all the same. If they were able to see colors then they would all be different. Nobody is able to choose or make decisions themselves.“If everything’s the same, then there aren’t any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things! A blue tunic, or a red one?” (Lowry 97). On the other hand, in our society everyone can see color from the day they are born to the day they die. Jonas and The Giver are the only people in the society
Perfection is something that people have been trying to achieve since the beginning of humankind. The Giver and Pleasantville are two of the many fictional societies that try to reach this so-called perfection. Both societies limit or eliminate differences and freedoms of their fellow citizens. This usually leads to the downfall of a society, making it a dystopia. The Giver has ideals such as no bad weather and hard decisions are made for the citizens while Pleasantville has no extreme weather. Issues like fire are practically non-existent. In both stories, the protagonists reject their society by breaking laws. The communities in The Giver and Pleasantville have their similarities and differences, making each society one-of a kind.
Throughout the history of the world, there has been many societies. All these societies had similar structures and ideas, but they all are different by their own special traditions and ways of life. Similarly, both our society and the society in The Giver share similar ideas, but they are different in certain areas. For example, they both celebrate birthdays and have family units, but they have their own way of doing so. Based on the celebration of birthdays and the formation of family units, our society is better than the society in The Giver by Lois Lowry.
In the book, “The Giver,” it reads, “...now he saw the familiar wide river beside the path differently. He saw all of the light and color and history it contained and carried in its slow - moving water; and he knew that there was an Elsewhere from which it came, and an Elsewhere to which it was going” This quote reflects two elements of text, color, and landscape. The dialogue, landscape and colors play a big role in both stories, but are very different. The novel, "The Giver" and the movie adaptation, uses color, landscape, and dialogue, they use color because it can set the stage and create the tone. Dialogue is to add or even remove emotion from the people in the novel and movie, and landscape because it can also set the stage and act as boundaries or limits for the characters
The sincere awareness of colors is not only forgotten, but dismissed into mere memories, and consigned into oblivion. Jonas, after gaining the awareness of colors, comes to the conclusion of wanting the choices that he could make in his daily routine. “I want to decide things! A blue tunic, or a red one?” (97). After The Giver asks Jonas why it is not fair that nothing has color, Jonas realizes that, for him, color is not just an nature. It also represents a level of individual freedom and choice that he has never known in his rigidly controlled society. This forces Jonas to face the disadvantages of living in such a community where self-expression is stifled. Jonas is talking about the sameness in the community and how he has to wear the same, old gray tunic. The Giver points out that choice is at the heart of the matter; when you can’t choose, it makes life very dull. “It’s the choosing that’s important” (98). Because the world in which Jonas has grown up has no color, the appearance of color in the story is important and meaningful. Color represents Jonas’s want for more individual expression. Colors brighten in a special way and Jonas, coming fro...
Jonas misses the way it was before he had memories where there was no pain or feeling, because everything was innocent. But he understands that although there was innocence nobody feels true happiness.Jonas thinks: “But he knew he couldn’t go back to that world of no feelings that he had lived in so long” (Lowry 131). Jonas wishes he could go back when everything was innocent and when he had no burden of pain, but although there was innocence the bad memories were stripped away to avoid the feeling of pain but also leaves everyone emotionless. But he knows it can never be the same again because of all the knowledge he gained from memories. He learns that memoires need to be valued, even the painful ones. Jonas feels that his community can change and things could be different. He thinks they should live in a world with memories. Jonas says: “Things could be different. I don’t know how, but there must be some way for things to be different. There could be colours [...] and everybody would have memories [...] There could be love” (Lowry 128). Jonas wishes that they could all have memories because everyone would be able to experience love. Love is one of the most important things in human life. He knows that there are bad memories, but without them, he wouldn’t be able to enjoy the good ones. Eventually, with his feelings
Imagine living in world where there are no feelings, color, or pain, and everyone is the same besides you. Jonas realized he was living in a world without color, pain, or feelings. Without color, pain, and feeling Jonas wasn’t able to express true happiness, and he therefore left the community. “Lois Lowry’s childhood escapades inspired her books,”(Dellinger). Also Lois loved photography and it resulted in the cover of The Giver, which is a photo of a blind painter. This connects to the book because no one can see in color besides the giver and the receiver, which is Jonas. Lois Lowry uses the literary elements foreshadowing, symbolism, and imagery to express the theme that one cannot have happiness without pain, in the book The Giver.
The Giver is about a boy named Jonas who was chosen to be the community’s next Receiver of Memory. He lived in a community where everything was chosen for the citizens, and everything was perfect. During Jonas' training, he realized that the community was missing something and that there was more in the world. Jonas wanted everybody to know that. The Giver book was then made into a movie. Though the two were based with the same story plot, there are three important differences that results with two different takes on the same story. The three main differences between the book and the movie are Asher and Fiona's Assignments, the similarity all Receivers had, and the Chief Elder's role.