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 …show more content…
For instance, the rules where family units must consist of parents and 2 children was a rule that had to be followed, and under no circumstances should that rule be disobeyed, “Two children—one male, one female—to each family unit. It was written very clearly in the rules” (Lowry 8). Rules in a society usually do not cover how many children should be allowed into a household, in most societies there are not any such rules. Later in the novel however, the rule was justified so that the community would not become over-populated and cause some family to begin living in hunger (a societal issue which had been eliminated from the community). While this rule is justified, the elders of this community should not be able to make such a decision for the greater good of the entire community. This type of rule, whether to have more or less than 2 children, should depend on the decisions made by each family unit separately. Because, if the only problem with having more than 2 children plus 2 parents in each household was hunger, the elders could easily make the decision to produce more food for each family. Another way the citizens of the community is placed under constant order is the rules which govern everyday life. Such as the rules where each family unit must share their dreams in the mornings and …show more content…
There are only a few choices a citizen of the community can make freely, such as the choice to be “release” whenever one would like. When someone choses to be “release”, means to purposely end their own life through the use of assistance, or could also be called to commit assisted suicide. This choice offers anyone the chance to die under their own circumstances, however, this can be seen both ways. Certainly, assisted suicide can be useful to end someones life because of an illness, but since disease has also be eliminated, there is no such thing as illness. Which therefore assisted suicide in the case of the society portrayed in The Giver, could only mean the thought of ending their own life because it is not what they hoped it would be. In today’s society, suicide is not something that is remarked as a “good thing”, in which case, it is hard to imagine a community where anyone has the choice to kill themselves freely without being looked at differently. Nevertheless, the option of committing assisted suicide is surly a way citizens of the community have a choice they can make freely without the discretion of the elders. Throughout the novel also, the reader see how the elders can also limit the choices of the citizens of the community. As mentioned above, the choice of having as many children is limited to only having 2 children, however other examples include not having
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.
The society in Lois Lowry’s book The Giver is like a freshly printed newspaper every page is crisp and clean, but when a page is crumpled or stained the only solution is to remove it. Problems in the town are created and solved by the same cause, euthanasia. Euthanasia, in the book, is used on multiple types of people; the young who would create problems for the society; the old; and anyone who threatens the order and structure of the place. The leaders euthanize people to protect their community. Usually in situations where many suffer and only one or few benefit, it is whoever is in charge that gets blamed, but since the rulers of the society are just as unaware as the people, it is the creators of the society that are at fault.
The novel, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, is an everlasting story that shows the importance of individuality. This novel is about a young boy named Jonas who was elected as the Receiver of Memories, a person who is given the memories from the world that existed before their current society, Sameness. In this society there is no individualism. People can not choose who to marry, or what they want to do for a living. Over time Jonas becomes more and more wise, and realizes that the supposedly perfect community actually has some very dark and negative aspects. The author, Lois Lowry is a 76-year-old writer who focuses her writing on helping struggling teenagers become individuals. Lowry had a very tragic childhood. After both of her parents were separated and killed in the middle of a war, she was devastated and the only way she was able to block and forget all of the horrifying things that were happening, were books (Lowry). “My books have varied in content… Yet it seems… that all of them deal with the same general theme: the importance of human connections,” Lowry explained in her autobiography. In the novel The Giver, Lois Lowry uses the literary elements symbolism, foreshadowing, and imagery to express the theme: importance of an individual.
Parents have raised protest against The Giver because it references euthanasia; a concept many believe corrupts youthful readers' minds and values. Indeed, the author initially does minimize the significance of mercy killing by euphemistically denoting it as, "release" (139). However, when Jonas learns the true definition of this term, he grows determined to awaken the community to what it is condoning. He realizes that the process of release is a "feeling of terri...
What is the basis for being called a hero? Is it as simple as doing good deeds for others without asking anything in return? Or, do we sacrifice our lives to save the others? Empathy may become a standard for heroism. We can all be considered heroes by the small acts that we do, as long as we choose to better our society. In the book The Giver by Lois Lowry, Lowry tells the story of a young 11-year-old boy Jonas who lives in “the community.” The people of the community all practice “Sameness,” where there is no war, death, and suffering. There is no freedom of choice in the society, which is why Jonas decides to leave his hometown. Everyone and everything are treated equally. Despite abandoning his community, Jonas is an example of a heroic character and demonstrates true meaning of heroism. Using the outline of The Hero’s Journey, the outline justifies
We have the freedom the choose our own jobs, our own homes, our own partners and our own dinner. Whereas in Jonas’s society they can’t pick between those sorts of options. Early in the story, when Lily and Lily's mom are having a conversation about what job would be nice, Lily brings up she thinks it would be nice to be a birth mother but Mother said,“Don’t say that. There is very little honor in that assignment” (Lowry 27). And she said assignment. As it was given to other people. They did not get to choose it.
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?
Why do the rules exist? The laws exist because they help the society function together, but in reality, they are to control the citizens and keep them from manifesting against their government. Since the day they’re born the government makes them learn to use “we” to refer to themselves, and that being together as one is good, but being oneself is evil. Every day the people who lived there have to say, “We are nothing. Mankind is all. We exist through by and for our brothers who are the state.” their lives are governed by a system, telling them what and when to eat when to sleep, what to work on. The government uses this type of system to keep them occupied so they wouldn’t think for themselves. They think having available time is evil because it leads to thinking. Everone has a profession and can’t hang out with others that are not from the same profession as them. Also, the male population is not allowed to have any contact with the females. Only when is the time for mating. During the time of mating, a random male and female
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.”
In the novel, The Giver by Lois Lowry, Jonas lives in a society with no homelessness, no racism, and no war but at what cost? No one in this Community has feelings because of the pills the leaders of this society make them take. But no one minds because they don’t know they have options. Jonas is the only one that questions what it means to his Community and to himself. He intuitively questions that nobody feels any strong emotions; anger, sadness, loneliness, happiness, love. They are only allowed to experience shallow versions of some of these emotions. Any choice the Community might have is becomes void with one swallow of the mandatory pill. In some cases, this could be considered a positive change because no one feels an emotion strong enough to incite war. It also means that there is no jealousy but the negative side is that it means that no one loves each other either. There are no love matches. Each couple is chosen. There is no such thing as family as no one cares enough. The Community has no homelessness because there’s no problem with overpopulation. The Communities solution is sending members to “elsewhere” by releasing them, which means they’re put to death. Even the smallest transgressors get “released” which cuts down on the potential prisoner population. They even release babies who don't sleep through the night. In addition, if a birth mother has twins the one who weighs the least is put to death. There’s no racism because the pills also take care of that and and make it so no one can colors. Jonas ...
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
The apple in The Giver symbolizes change. In Jonas’s visions he “had noticed, following the path of the apple through the air with this eyes, that the piece of fruit had-well, this was the part he couldn't adequately understand - the apple had changed. Just for an instant.” (21-22) This shows Jonas has the power to see beyond, he is experiencing the color red. Change may happen even by accident but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad. Such as in this case where changing continuously allowed Jonas to help others constantly by taking the burden of all the pain in the world because of a mistake in genetic engineering. As you can tell sameness, precision, and indistinguishable people doesn’t mean perfection. Change is necessary to allow everyone a chance to grow, to experience, to grow as a person and in their jobs, to be unique, and different. That way
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.