“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.
The Plot
The main protagonist is a young boy named Jonas, living in a utopian community, which, at first glance, seems like an ideal place to live. In this society each birthday celebration has its own distinct rights of passage and privileges. Each age group has distinct expectations of behavior and responsibilities to the community. Infractions of expectations carry extreme shame and might even lead to being “released to elsewhere” from the community. Jonas is a well-behaved young boy who follows the guidelines without thinking about them. We first meet Jonas when he is eleven and apprehensive about his upcoming 12th birthday. This birthday will determine what his life’s work will be within the community. The community is lead by a group of elders and it is the elders who determine what jobs each 12 year old will have. The children have no word or input into their jobs, they must accept whatever is decided for them. In his ceremony of twelve, Jonas is surprised to learn that he has been picked to be Receiver of Memories in training, a unique and prestigious position.
The community he belongs to is a community where everything is based on sameness and avoiding painful situations. This avoidance comes at the cost of freedom, individual differences and extreme environmental controls. There is no color, no weather changes and no hills in this world. To pr...
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...roup project where they create a society and choose what values they think are important for this society. They could present their project in various formats: PowerPoint, video, written story or a poster either way they need to justify the values they chose.
“Once a teacher has identified an opening in the curriculum for exploring a moral value, the next step is to plan an effective lesson or unit around that value. That means selecting good materials (Lickona, 1991, p. 170)”. I feel this book is exactly that, a riveting story that can expose students to great moral values.
Works Cited
Lowry, L. (1993). The giver. New York, NY: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Groups, Inc.
Lickona, T. (1991). Educating for character: How our schools can teach respect and responsibility. New York, NY: Bantam Books.
Their community does not know many things,their education ends at age 12,the receiver of memory only knows the past,and they do not know where they go once someone has been released. In their community at age 12 you are no longer a child,which means your school education stops and you get your job. On page 67 it says,’’What if others-adults-had,upon becoming twelves,received in their instructions the same terrifying sentence.’’ The receiver of memory is the only one who knows the past. On page 73 it says,’’’Simply stated.’he said,’Although it’s not really simple at all,my job is to transmit to you all the memories I have within me. Memories of the past.’’ This states that the Giver has the memories of the past,and is going to give them to Jonas. In Jonas’s community they do not realize that when someone is “released’’ they are killed. The citizens think they go somewhere else. On page 32 it says,’’’Larrissa,’he asked,’What happens when they make the actual release? Where exactly did Roberto go?...’I don’t know. I don’t think anybody does except the committee’’ This shows Jonas and one of the old talking about how they don’t know where they go once someone has been released. In Jonas’s community they have lack of
Some of the key ideas that Hartman discussed about in this article were revolved around the concept of teaching and defining what a good character is. Hartman started off his article by talking about generosity, honesty, courage and respect. Hartman also talked about how business ethics courses can help improve students’ character by helping them think about their values (Hartman 69). Hartman also discussed about how many people are “sincere but they are not courageous” (Hartman 73). Moreover, Hartman’s goal was to help encourage students “to consider their strengths and limitations, their opportunities, and what they can and cannot learn to enjoy” (Hartman 72) and “help students understand the importance of that choice and not make it thoughtlessly” (Hartman 79). Hartman answered if good character is teachable throughout his article. As Hartman stated, “We can begin to teach our students the necessary self-knowledge and self-control by encouraging them to reflect on their assumptions about what will make them happy.” (Hartman 71). Hartman illustrated that an “important function is to provide help for students to understand the language of right and wrong, of virtues and vices” (Hartman 75). Hartman believes that a “good character is therefore a matter not only of doing the right thing but also having the right desires and emotions” (Hartman
In order to become a well rounded individual you must be aware of the moral problems in society and be able to evaluate them. Respectively, this class has allowed me to do so, through readings and videos, providing my own insight on many moral issues. This class has shown me there are many different interpretations to right and wrong, and hard evidence must be agued to be persuasive. Throughout the course of this class we looked into multiple philosophers such as Kant, Aristotle, and Sandel, a professor at Harvard.
The Giver is a great book because it keeps the reader entertained. The Giver is also an easy reading level. It shows how important memories are important. Jonas, the protagonist captures memories and learns a new meaning about life. I would give this book a 9/10 because the use of language is good and the plot is easy to understand. Lois Lowry does a great job of explain the setting and characters. It is interesting to learn about what goes through Jonas’s mind. Overall, this book is a great and the language of the author is fabulous
The Giver By Lois Lowry is a book about a futuristic society that has no color, weather or emotion. Jonas, a twelve year old boy, discovers some truth about the society. Jonas lives in this society with so much conformity and no diversity at all. In the society jobs are assigned, families are assigned and everyone wears the same clothes. Everything is so controlled and the same. After Jonas receives his job as Receiver of Memory, he realizes he needs to do something to help the diversity in the society. Lois Lowry is warning her audience that too much conformity and sameness can lead to a dull society that lacks diversity and independence.
The Giver was about a boy named Jonas who was elected the job of receiver. This book reminds me of another book called The City Of Amber. This book was about a strict town that was so limited on resources they had assigned how much paper each person got. Much like Jonas the main character did not like the lifestyle they were living. Both story’s consisted of strict towns where the people really did not have a say in politics. And they both solved their problem in a similar way/path.
My class and I just read the book called “The Giver” By: Lois Lowry. It was a really good book but at the same time very sad. My thesis is God always had a path for you. I choose that because wherever you go he always has one for you and always will.
In the book The Giver by Lois Lowry people have lost most personal rights that everyone should have. They live in a world without having choices of their and opinions of their own. WIthout any choice the people do not get to face the consequences of making a wrong choice, but they don’t get to have the joy that comes from making the right choice.
Lois Lowry explores many themes throughout The Giver on of the main themes is that without memory there is no pain but there isn’t any memory either.
In “The Giver” Lois Lowry writes and proves the points about how emotion and pain is a important part of life. Lois Lowry writes about a variety of points about how emotion can be a impact on our life in a good way, she then shows that pain is all apart of life. Lois reaches out and shows us about how our life’s can become so different when not having emotion and pain in our life’s.
In Louis Lowry’s novel The Giver, Jonas’ world has been turned upside down. He goes
When developing theses principles you begin to use them as a moral compass of how safe, fair and empathetic you are being. Rick Weissbourd at the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) states that "The moral development of students does not depend primarily on explicit character education efforts but on the maturity and ethical capacities of the adults with whom they interact—especially parents, but also teachers, coaches, and other community
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.
This is the world Jonas lives while being the receiver of memories from the giver of memories.Dystopia and utopia together in one community because of how they are .Sameness is what makes them dystopia and utopia because it is a mindness place with only good memories.They hide the true memories from everybody of evil,bad,and dark things.The community is hidden from fights,wars,pain,sadness,wrecks and whether to
Goodlad, J. I., Sirotnik, K. A., & Soder, R. (1990). The moral dimensions of teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass