Our modern day society is far from being perfect; however, societies from the novel The Giver, it may appear to be a utopia with the perfect living styles/environments such as laws, a happy family “units”, but deep down it may just turn out to be a more dangerous than modern day. If you ask someone if our modern day laws are harsh you might find someone who says they are, but compared to Jonas’s society laws ours seem to to easy. Sure some of our rules are the same as Jonas’s, for example rules on theft and curfew are quite the same “First, he had left the dwelling at night. A major transgression. Second, he had robbed the community of food: a very serious crime, even though what he had taken was leftovers, set out on the dwelling doorsteps for collection.” (Ch. 21 The Giver). But there are rules that will most definitely stand out against our laws, such as the law of certain age groups having to wear certain clothes “There are things that each age group is allowed to do and wear. Fours, Fives, and Sixes must wear jackets that are buttoned in the back. Sevens can start volunteering and wearing front-buttoned jackets. Nines start riding bicycles. Every stage of one's life in the community is organized and controlled.” (Bookrags, author unknown). …show more content…
They get their first one when they apply and then a second one by applying a few years later. This can almost be compared to modern day life in china where parents are only permitted to have 2 children due to overpopulation. One thing that is way different from modern day families is that each night at dinner every member of the family is required to talk about their day and how they feel. “Jonas sighed. This evening he almost would have preferred to keep his feeling hidden. But it was, of course, against the rules.” (Ch. 1 Page 9 The
The Giver is a dystopia is that the citizens get harsh punishments for even the smallest errors. This is
The Giver was an example of a dystopian society. In this community citizen doesn`t had any freedom. It had a lots of information about why it was dystopian, but today I will talk about few thing. First reason was the natural world was banished and distrusted. Second was information, independent thought, and freedom were restricted. The last was they had fear of the out side world.
In The Giver, a narrative by Lois Lowry, Jonas’s father illustrates his feelings during his Ceremony of Twelve and Jonas tells about his own feelings concerning the forthcoming event. In the text it states, “‘But to be honest, Jonas,’ his father said, ‘for me there was not the element of suspense that there is with your ceremony. Because I was already fairly certain of what my Assignment was to be,’”(Lowry, paragraph 3). This segment of text elucidates the reason of Jonas’s father’s lack of surprise of his Assignment. As stated above, Jonas’s father was already certain of his Assignment, which he continues to explain to be a Nurturer. Jonas’s father explains that as a result of the love he showed all the Newchildren and the time he spent at
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.
Life is a very valuable asset, but when lived on someone else’s terms its nothing but a compromise. The seemingly perfect image of Utopia which combines happiness and honesty with purity, very often leads in forming a dystopian environment. The shrewd discrepancy of Utopia is presented in both the novel ‘The Giver’ by Lois Lowry and the film ‘The Truman Show’ directed by Peter Weir. Both stories depict a perfect community, perfect people, perfect life, perfect world, and a perfect lie. These perfect worlds may appear to shield its inhabitants from evil and on the other hand appear to give individuals no rights of their own. By comparing and contrasting the novel ‘The Giver’ and the film ‘The Truman Show’, it can be derived that both the main characters become anti-utopian to expose the seedy underbelly of their Utopian environment which constructs a delusional image of reality, seizes the pleasures in their lives and portrays a loss of freedom.
Throughout history, people had made numerous futile attempts to create an Utopian society. The term "Utopia" depicts on an imaginary ideal state. Such a state is describe in The Giver. In The Giver, Jonas's community believes in the renunciation of personal properties, rights, one's unique characteristics and of binding personal relationships (such as marriage). This society is believed to be perfect, free of pain and sorrow; everything is under control and "same". This serene society greatly contradict with the one we live in. Our society is furnished with hatred and warfare, yet in return, we are given freedom and the privilege of having distinctive characters. Given the nature of human beings, our society is more idealistic to live in.
Lowry writes The Giver in the dystopian genre to convey a worst-case scenario as to how modern society functions. A dystopia is an “illusion of a perfect society” under some form of control which makes criticism about a “societal norm” (Wright). Characteristics of a dystopian include restricted freedoms, society is under constant surveillance, and the citizens live in a dehumanized state and conform to uniform expectations (Wright). In The Giver, the community functions as a dystopian because everyone in the community conforms to the same rules and expectations. One would think that a community living with set rules and expectations would be better off, but in reality, it only limits what life has to offer. Instead, the community in the novel is a dystopian disguised as a utopian, and this is proven to the audience by the protagonist, Jonas. Jonas is just a norma...
“The Giver” a novel by Lois Lowry (1993), is an, engaging science fiction tale that provides the reader with examples of thought provoking ethical and moral quandaries. It is a novel geared to the young teenage reader but also kept me riveted. Assigning this novel as a class assignment would provide many opportunities for teachers and students to discuss values and morals.
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.
It is one of the few brave books that exposes the horrors of humanity and serves as a cautionary tale for us all. Even in a “paradise” like Jonas' community, people still try to control others in order to keep the world pure, innocent, and shaped in their image, while they are ignorant of the past, of history, and their abilities to harm others even when they have good intentions. The Giver is a vital piece of literature for society today; its lessons of the horrors that can occur in society and the beauty that humanity offers are invaluable to us all. Freedom and choice are vital to a successful and fulfilled society. A world without freedom and choice “is a frightening world. Let’s work hard to keep it from truly happening.”
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.
Our laws make sure we stay within the guidelines and protects our liberties and rights. They certainly do not overpower our society. We have the freedom to express ourselves freely and be who we want to. We are not limited to what clothes we wear or how we feel. If we had rules like Jonas's community, then our world would be very depressing, and nothing would be unique. We would see the same old color, same old weather, and same old people every day. I'm pretty sure I would go crazy! Feelings are what makes a human, if you take that away then what remains is simply the physical
The Giver provides a chance that readers can compare the real world with the society described in this book through some words, such as release, Birthmothers, and so on. Therefore, readers could be able to see what is happening right now in the real society in which they live by reading her fiction. The author, Lowry, might build the real world in this fiction by her unique point of view.
In the novel The Giver by: Lois Lowry, the reader is reading from the point of view of Jonas, a soon-turning twelve-year-old boy living in a society were major issues such as suffering, fear, violence and hunger have all been eliminated. However, to eliminate these powerful issues, many of the freedoms and choices a normal society would have had to also be taken away. Such choices as: the freedom to chose ones job, the freedom to marry whom they want, or even the choice to have children. All of these choices have been replaced with rules and guidelines, for instance, citizens are assigned a job at the age of twelve, the must apply to have a spouse and also must apply to have children who are not born within the family unit. When citizens