In The Giver, the members of the community must give up choice in order to obtain perfect harmony with each other. I believe that, in a well ordered universe, all communities should be living in peace. Peace is almost essential to happiness. Although I feel that unity is important, I would argue that this trade is extreme. Being different and unique is critical. Choice creates individuality and diverse personalities. If people aren’t able to choose, their ability to be individual is taken away. The community is harsh and isolated from the outside world. The community takes away all choices, including the capability to read. Reading fosters imagination and encourages thinking for yourself. It could give members of the community ideas that the leaders don’t want. All it takes is for one person to think about running away and potentially finding a better place somewhere else and then everyone thinks the …show more content…
Having no books means that there is no choice, or imagination to create your own choice. There is no creativity, and without creativity, there is no “between the lines meaning” about words. When you speak, you learn to speak clearly and never ever lie. Children are taught at a young age the significance of correct language, and there are no secrets because no one may lie, even on accident. There is a void where all those should be, a part missing from their lives that cannot be replaced because they don’t know how to replace it. Words have no real meaning because they can’t read them in a context that is meaningful to them. They have no idea what it is like to discover a whole second meaning for the words that have had only one clear meaning so everyone knew precisely what you were saying. Writing is also not a huge option because the people in charge of the community fear that it will be used to convey a hidden message or create plans and give people dangerous
The story goes on to introduce the audience to a new perspective of a ‘ fireman’ in this blind, corrupted society. “ With his symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his stolid head, and his eyes all orange flame … he flicked the igniter and the house jumped up in a gorging fire that burned the evening sky red and yellow and black” ( Bradbury ) page 3. This quote shows that these fireman do not allow anything “bad” to get in the way of society. The firemen eradicate any trace of books to avoid the cost of having people feel conflicted while reading because of the natural necessity to think while reading. While it is quite possible to understand what one is trying to get across, in the end people will not have the knowledge they need to survive in life. This society has surprisingly advanced technology that is similar to that of today’s society that has similar negative effects on humanity. “Will you turn the parlor off?” he asked. “That’s my family”. ( Bradbury ) Page 48-49. The negative effect that this has among the citizens of this society is the sad replacement of family. It isn’t far off to call the television their family because the people are as equally dull and ignorant as that of the T.V characters. The last idea that does not benefit humanity is the removal of books, this is the most crucial factor to ruining the lives of many by censoring knowledge
”I’ve always said poetry and tears, poetry and suicide and crying and awful feelings, poetry and sickness; all that mush!” exclaimed Mrs. Bowles to Montag in Ray Bradbury’s book Fahrenheit 451 (103). Mrs. Bowles thinks written words can make an individual really gloomy and disconsolate. Because the goal of this society is to always be satisfied, and to stay satisfied people watch TV, made up stories, which never makes them think or wonder, that is why Mrs. Bowles is convinced that poems are nasty. How does banning of books affect a whole community? Does the human civilization really differ without them? According to Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury assembles a civilization that is affected in three ways from having a lack of books: more brutality is among people, preternatural relationships cultivate, and intelligent capabilities decrease.
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.
“Their optimism, their willingness to have trust in a future where civilizations self-destruction comes to a full stop, has to do with their belief in the changed relationship between humans and their world” says Lee (Lee 1). In “As the Constitution Says” by Joseph F. Brown, Brown talks about a NEA experiment that found American’s have been reading less and less and our comprehension skills are dramatically dropping because of this (Brown 4). Bradbury saw little use in the technology being created in his time, he avoided airplanes, driving automobiles, and eBooks. Bradbury did not even allow his book to be sold and read on eBooks until 2011. If one takes away books, then one takes away imagination. If one takes away imagination, then one takes away creativity. If one takes away creativity, then one takes away new ideas for technology and the advancement of the world. People nowadays have lost interest in books because they see it as a waste of time and useless effort, and they are losing their critical thinking, understanding of things around them, and knowledge. Brown says that Bradbury suggests that a world without books is a world without imagination and its ability to find happiness. The people in Fahrenheit 451 are afraid to read books because of the emotions that they
The Giver presents a community that appears to be perfect on the surface. Jonas's community is free of warfare, pain, sorrow and other bitterness we suffer in our society. The world seems to be secure and undergoes little conflict. Such a community seems flawless and is the idealistic society that we longed to live in. However , through Jonas's training, the imperfections of the Utopian community are revealed. The community allows little individual freedom and choice. In allowing only one person, the Receiver, to bear the memories of the world, the community frees itself from suffering and conflict. As a result, it gives up the ability to experience true feelings, passion, individual privacy, freedom and knowledge. To maintain the community's order, strict rules are applied to the inhabitants. "Releases" ( a less offensive term for kills) are performed to the citizens who jeopardize the stability and peace of the community. The inhabitants' careers and spouses are chosen by the Elders (or government).
society, everyone wears the same clothes, follows the same rules, and has a predetermined life. A community just like that lives inside of Lois Lowry’s The Giver and this lack of individuality shows throughout the whole book. This theme is demonstrated through the control of individual appearance, behavior, and ideas.
First of all, Bradbury shows that when man represses intellectual endeavor, progress cannot be made. In this society, people are not allowed to be creative or make improvements as well as not being allowed to read. This is described by the protagonist Montag when he confronts the chief and explains how easy someone could change the programming of the hound. The chief tells Montag that he’s not being realistic because no one has enough knowledge to do so (Bradbury 27). This explains that people are viewed as normal or plain because no one believes that a person could think like that. Also, this is evident when Montag’s wife is watching television. Montag asks his wife “Why don’t you watch something useful for a change instead of these soaps? Because I don’t need to be useful” (Bradbury 51). This shows how most of the people rely on the government rather themselves. In addition, when the fire chief Beatty visits Montag they begin to talk about books. Beatty tells Montag “What do people see in books? They’re just paper and ink” (Bradbury 30). This shows Beatty’s view on books and how they are of no importance to anyone. Therefore, when man represses intellectual endeavor, progress cannot be made.
In “The Closing of the American Book,” published in the New York Times Magazine, Andrew Solomon argues about how the decline of literary reading is a crisis in national health, politics, and education. Solomon relates the decline of reading with the rise of electronic media. He believes that watching television and sitting in front of a computer or a video screen instead of reading can cause the human brain to turn off, and lead to loneliness and depression. He also argues that with the decrease of reading rates, there will no longer be weapons against “absolutism” and “terrorism,” leading to the United States political failure in these battles. The last point Solomon makes is that there is no purpose behind America being one of the most literate societies in history if people eradicate this literacy, and so he encourages everyone to help the society by increasing reading rates and making it a “mainstay of community.” Solomon tries to show the importance of reading in brain development and he encourages people to read more by emphasizing the crisis and dangers behind the declination of reading.
The idea of literature being an important aspect of life has always been greatly prevalent in my upbringing. This notion that I supported was spurred on at the cause of my obstinate parents insisting upon my reading of two books a week to benefit my vocabulary and to develop the articulate thought process of a skilled reader. As a young child, my biggest influences were my parents’ passionate and persuasive ideas regarding the correlation between
Even though both the society in The Giver by Lois Lowry and modern society are both unique in their own ways, our society is a better society to live in. Our society gives us more freedom to choose for our own benefits and
We gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others” (97). In the book The Giver by Lois Lowry, no one has seen a rainbow after a storm, no one knew what colors were; what choosing was; what it meant to be an individual. Everyone lived in complete Sameness, and never learned what it meant to be an individual. By eliminating as much self expression as possible in Sameness and society, Jonas's community has rejected the individuality of a society where people are free to move society forward. In The Giver individuality is represented by colors, memories, and pale eyes.
The story in The Giver by Lois Lowry takes place in a community that is not normal. People cannot see color, it is an offense for somebody to touch others, and the community assigns people jobs and children. This unnamed community shown through Jonas’ eye, the main character in this novel, is a perfect society. There is no war, crime, and hunger. Most readers might take it for granted that the community in The Giver differs from the real society. However, there are several affinities between the society in present day and that in this fiction: estrangement of elderly people, suffering of surrogate mothers, and wanting of euthanasia.
“We believe in personal choice, rather than society dictating how we must live our lives.”- Mike Peters. In the book The Giver by Lois Lowry, the citizens in the community live without choice, meaning they have no control over their own lives. Because of that they do not suffer the consequences for any choice but they do not get to experience freedom. Lois Lowry is saying, the importance of personal choice can change a person's emotions, helps people’s abilities to be independent and affects the freedom which allows a person to pursue what they want in life and to make their own decisions for their future. A person’s emotions can change because they do not know what to feel since all their decisions are made for them, being able to choose
The community in the giver has no freedom, they are controlled by everything. They don’t know the true meaning of choice. They wake up to live another plain day with no choice. They don’t know what the feeling of choice is. They don’t
Literature is used throughout the world and many consider it as a language itself. It is used to express emotions and the human's imaginations through creative writing. Literature is written work that is superior and has artistic merits. Schools and officials are stating that literature has no real values that will help students in the real world. They are wanting to restructure schools to better fit what is now needed in our society, but many argue that literature has merits that far exceeds the real world problems. In our history, literature not only gave humans an outlet to record their thoughts through creative writing, but it also allowed us to explore the deepest parts of our mind and have an eloquent way to record it, and allowing access for others to experience. Without Literature, our world would be blunt and would be lacking in color.