Imagine a place where there is no color, no choice, a place where individuality and freedom has been traded for sameness and security. Lowry has created such a place in the novel The Giver. This place, or rather community, is presumed to be in the future and is supposed to be a utopia where everyone conforms to the rules. The citizens have no connection with their past or what they have given up. There are only two people who can remember. One is the Giver and the other is the Receiver of Memory. These two people are the main characters in this story. The Giver is an old man that the council of elders turns to when they have a problem. He listens to their proposals and then tells them what they should do by basing his decisions on the …show more content…
The importance of individuality and choice. In the story “The Giver”, the narrator says that all people are the same and not one person is better than the other.“Look how tiny he is! And he had funny eyes like yours, Jonas. Jonas glared at her. He didn’t like it that she had mentioned his eyes.” pg 20, Lowry. The Danger of Extreme Governance. In the novel “The Giver”, the author says that all laws must be obeyed. “Everyone had known, he remembered with humiliation, that the announcement ATTENTION. THIS IS A REMINDER TO MALE ELEVENS THAT OBJECTS ARE NOT TO BE REMOVED FROM THE RECREATION AREA AND THAT SNACKS ARE TO BE EATEN, NOT HOARDED had been specifically directed at him, the day last month that he had taken an apple home. No one had mentioned it, not even his parents, because the public announcement had been sufficient to produce the appropriate remorse. He had, of course, disposed of the apple and made his apology to the Recreation Director the next morning, before school.” pg 23, Lowry. The Importance of Knowledge and Truth. In “The Giver” the author says making the citizens have no choices means that everyone will be safe. “Jonas had to stop and think it through. ‘If everything’s the same, then there aren’t any choices! I want to wake up up in the morning and decide things! A blue tunic or a red one? He looked down at himself, at the colorless fabric of his clothing. ‘But it’s all the same, always.” pg 97, …show more content…
The Importance of Individuality and Choice. In modern day society we all need choices. If we didn’t have choices then people would know how we like to act or what we want. Our individuality is what strives us to be different. For example, If someone wants to make a choice to go out of their house past 11 o’clock and go on a run or a drive they can, but not in our protagonist dystopian society. The Danger of Extreme Governance. In the modern day society we have our government to make laws and look over us, but we still have things that we could do without getting in trouble. Here is an example, If you’re playing tackle football and hit someone, then you will not get in trouble because it is apart of that game. If we are in the streets and we tackle and punch people then you will go to jail because that is against the law. So we are still eligible to do things but our government still watches us. The importance of knowledge and truth. In our society we are able to know what is going on. People do not hide things and keep everything a secret from us. For example, if someone dies, then people would tell about it and say the truth instead of hiding it from us. So for us knowing the truth with our society makes it from feeling like we are lied
“Ignorance is not bliss. Bliss is knowing the full meaning of what you have been given.” said David Levithan. In her dystopian novel, The Giver, Lois Lowry is able to convey the same idea as this quote. In this book, people created the Community in which the members are in a supposedly safe and happy environment. The Elders choose Jonas, the main character, to be the next Receiver of Memory and his training helps him to experience the past and see the deep flaws in the Community.
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
Lois Lowry describes a futuristic world with controlled climate, emotions, way of living and eliminates suffering in her book The Giver. The main character, Jonas, shows the reader what his world is like by explaining a very different world from what society knows today. Everything is controlled, and no one makes choices for themselves or knows of bad and hurtful memories. There is no color, and everything is dull. As he becomes the Receiver who has to know all the memories and pass them down to the next Receiver, he realizes his world needs change. He starts to believe that a world of sameness where no one can decide or make choices for themselves is boring. Lois Lowry is warning readers that living in a world of sameness is not something to create as it is boring and dull, but if the world follows conformity and does not value diversity and difference enough, society could become that of Jonas’s.
This book is about a community where everything is stainless. It is a blank world with no color or feelings. At the ceremony of Twelve, everyone is accepting their Life Assignments as they are going to the path of maturity. However, a boy named Jonas is instructed a special job with The Giver to learn about the power of feelings and lies. When he puts his power at his own risk, he gets his family and everyone he loves in danger.
So all the memories everyone had from the past has now created a world that is today, enjoyable. “Call me the Giver.” (Lowry 110). Quoted by the only old man who holds all the memories from years and years of the past to give to the new Receiver, which is Jonas. It is not just the happiness of past memories holding on throughout lives. But pain is the biggest part of memory that anyone will have to endure. It is not just the mental pain we suffer through, it also could have a pain in the physical body and mind that the elderly man had to be tortured with throughout his life. Lois Lowry is a powerful writer inflicting and teaching in the minds of all and how most important and delicate memory is in the novel, The Giver, and how it must not be forgotten or fade away as it will determine your future and fill the gaps of mistakes individuals have
Lois Lowry’s utopian novel, the giver, tells the story of a young boy named Jonas whom lives in a world of sameness. The intriguing story addresses issues that are destroying today's society. As readers we can see that sameness benefits towards a perfect world by eliminating racism and discrimination, removing differences in looks, meaning no one is unique and eradicating poverty. Sameness in the giver creates a united and inclusive community where no one feels judged.
Loss of Freedom in The Giver The Giver, a book written by Lois Lowry, questioned my ideas, thoughts and beliefs. The novel describes an ideal society, in which everything is supposed to be perfect, with all life’s problems solved. It is all about being happy with what the people have and not questioning their lifestyles because they did not know the difference between good and bad. The people are denied of their preferable way of life without their knowledge of how the real world is supposed to be. In the I can. However, the citizens of this society are not able to control their life; for example their choice of clothing, choice of loving and having feelings, or choice of family members. From all existing creatures, we humans differ because we are able to use our brain to make decisions. In the novel, the people of the given society have authority figures that show them how to live their life. “Katya, became a Nine and removed her hair ribbons and got her bicycle” (P The rules start with small things like what age one starts to ride a bike, which age group wears certain types of jackets, the clothing one wears each day, and even what to eat. In the real world, we humans make similar decisions for ourselves without thinking about it. People need guidance in their life to the right way of living but not a book of instructions. Many of us live each day dreaming of our future family and all the happiness we may get from that. I cannot imagine how it feels not to have freedom to feel and love. “Jonas, she said with a smile, the feeling you described as wanting? It was your the opposite sex. Beginning from early age, children are controlled not to feel or appreciate his/her opposite sex. The adults are made to take the pills to annihilate their sexual desires. When the children grow up and become adults, more decisions are made for them. When one is old enough to get married, the superior power chooses a mate for the person and is wedded. This is when I question the meaning of marriage. a future together, not a partnership that you deal with like a business. Although many cultures have different say in this sacred ceremony, most have similar ideas. To many people, love is affection based on admiration or common interests and warm attachment, enthusiasm or devotion. How can one live happy in life without the experience of such feelings? These individuals in the novel did not know better, if they knew how good it is to feel love or even know a good taste when it is good, then they would not be happy with the way of life in their community. “J What if they were allowed to choose their own mate?
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.”
I read the book The Giver by Lois Lowry. This book was really good and shows what life would be like if everything were a utopia. This book is really engaging and almost has you engaged from the beginning to end. I like the way it was written out and it really shows what life can be like in the future. However, It does show negatives about everything being the same and that was something I thought really stood out. The Author gives great detail about the way of life.
In the book, “The Giver”, by Lois Lowry, uses characterization throughout the book she uses is on, the main character Jonas, a 12-year-old boy, who was elected as the receiver in memory. In the being of the book, Jonas didn't know anything about sameness or that he was living in “ perfect world” until when he started receiving memories from the Giver. When he found out what he was actually living in and what the people were doing he saw everything from a perspective, he couldn’t see his father the same way again. The Giver told him that he could stop sameness by leaving the community, and Jonas was determined to leave the community. The Giver trained him and prepared him for the long journey.
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.
Here is my thesis for the book The Giver. Memories make us human,without it we would not function correctly. I will 2 reasons why my thesis is correct. The “Release” of “People” and The environment of their community and the way of life.
Sometimes in life things are unfair and sometimes in order for change you have to take action. The story “The Giver” by Lois Lowry is a story about a boy who realizes that his entire life is a lie and finds out that there is more to the world than his community. Lois Lowry uses character motivation to illustrate that Jonas is motivated to leave the community because he disagrees with the community’s rules and methods. Wants to to give all the memories to the community because he doesn’t want bear all the horrible memories. Lastly, he wants to save Gabriel from being released.
Imagine remembering all the amazing and different memories of love, happiness, pain, etc. you’ve ever had, but then you forgot them all. Well in the book The Giver by Lois Lowry, Jonas, and his Utopian community have no memories from the “outside world”. When Jonas is getting ready for the ceremony of "twelves" he is getting “apprehensive”. When the ceremony of "twelves" is all set to go, Jonas waiting for his turn for his job gets skipped by the Chief Elder, but, later on, she pulls him aside explaining that Jonas has been "selected" to serve as The Receiver. Through all his learning with The Giver, Jonas has realized that the community needs memories for a meaningful life.