The Giver presents us with a world where war, poverty, crime, suffering, and bigotry have been completely eliminated. In this utopian Community, people strive to maintain “Sameness” where everyone and everything is equal and same. But the reader quickly perceives something is wrong with this supposedly perfect society. Memories of basic human emotions such love, hate, and empathy have been completely suppressed in the populace; and defining cultural features including art, music, literature, and even color, have also been completely erased. Both the best and the worst aspects of humanity are instead stored within the mind of the titular character, the Giver. As the Giver explains to the protagonist Jonas in the novel: Our people made that …show more content…
For example, take the celebrated ideal of “equality.” When Jefferson famously wrote in the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,” he certainly did not mean to say that all men are clones. Rather, this statement is consistent with the classical liberal notion that all men are equal before the law, and that every person ought to be treated as a unique individual, and not prejudged by the collective statistics of any particular group that he or she may belong to due to accident of birth. Although Jefferson was arguably the most egalitarian of all the Founders, he recognized “a natural aristocracy among men.... ground[ed in] virtue and talents” that can foster a merit-based society. Other Founders, such as Hamilton, took an even more “constrained” view of human nature that saw man as deeply flawed. Typically, they were deeply suspicious of attempts to completely remake society in accordance with lofty-sounding ideals—for example, those that animated the French …show more content…
If we knew how freedom would be used, the case for it would largely disappear. We shall never get the benefits of freedom, never obtain those unforeseeable new developments for which it provides the opportunity, if it is not also granted where the uses made of it by some do not seem desirable. It is therefore no argument against individual freedom that it is frequently abused. Freedom necessarily means that many things will be done which we do not like. Our faith in freedom does not rest on the foreseeable results in particular circumstances but on the belief that it will, on balance, release more forces for the good than for the
“How could someone not fit in? The community was so meticulously ordered, the choices so carefully made.” (Lowry, 48) In Lowry’s novel, The Giver, eliminating choices and feelings caused their society to be worse than our society today because you don’t have any choices and you don’t get to experience the feeling of joy and happiness.
The book “The Giver” by Lois Lowry perceives a utopian society, which eliminates all forms of conflict. What was intended to be a utopia became a dystopia, Individuals are living in a shadowed society, where nothing is as it seems. People are accustomed to having pain taken away from them their entire lives. This becomes a dystopia because they will never know what pain is.
No world can be perfect, for the only way to have an ideal world is not to have a world at all. The reader soon discovers this in Lois Lowry’s publication The Giver. In this book, a boy named Jonas is taken through a journey in which he shapes his destiny through decisions he makes and trials he face in a supposed ideal world. One, by reading the book, uncovers the fact that this supposedly perfect world, because of its’ hold on an individuals emotion, the elders recanting people’s unalienable rights to privacy, the government employing an unrestrained grip of control, and the community’s over obsessive view on order, is actually an example of perfection taking a bad turn.
If you cannot remember the pain in life, you will not feel the pleasure in living. If you do not feel the loss of losing someone close to you, you never felt the love. If you do not know what is wrong, you will not know what is right. Yet, the people who live in Jonas’s community, presented by the book The Giver, by Lois Lowry, have lived peacefully without all the pain, suffering, loss, and wrongdoings. Everything was just…perfect. But soon Jonas realizes the truth: You really cannot live a good life without pain; the pain makes the other things in life worth living for. Once the truth is uncovered by Jonas, he figures out even more secrets that ruin the image he has of the perfect community he lives in. Basically, he does not see it as this perfect place he grew up in, anymore. This ‘utopian’ community is definitely not utopian because no one here can precisely express themselves, the people have adapted to ‘sameness’, and they perform inhuman tasks, which all add up to a less-than-perfect society.
In The Giver the leaders in the community are afraid to give people too many choices. They never get go beyond their small community they have never experienced real life or the real world. They have never experienced snow, rain, or sunshine ever. They have never experienced color all they see is black and white. The don’t know what conflict is like because it never happens. I know that my life isn’t perfect and yes, sometimes I have conflict with people, but it makes you a stronger and better person. They are closed off from the world and they will never know what real life is really like.
In The Giver by Lois Lowry, the utopian society where Jonas lives is superior to Elsewhere. Jonas’ utopian society is perfect because it is efficient. There is peace, honesty, and everyone is fed in Jonas’ community. Elsewhere is a world based on feelings and choice. Feelings can hurt people, and people can make wrong choices; but feelings can make people ecstatic, and people can make positive choices. Jonas’ utopian society is a better place to live.
"How could someone not fit in? The community was so meticulously ordered, the choices so carefully made." And it was. The community in The Giver was so the same that almost nothing happened. Imagine a life like that. There was no discrimination because there was nothing to discriminate about, a place where everyone would have shelter and an equal amount of food, and a place where everyone has the right to a proper education. Well, that is why I think The Giver’s community is a utopian society. Utopian is the perfect word for a place like that. It is heavenly, fair, and perfect in so many ways. I am here to tell you why in my opinion it is a utopian society rather than a dystopian society with the three reasons from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights listed above. Now let me begin to tell you why.
The society shown in "The Giver" has many comparisons with the real world. The novel compared to the real world is that they both have many differences and similarities. One example of an similaritie between the real world and thier world is that they are both controlled by governments. Moral of the story is that the real world and thier world have many differences and
The Giver is a book that is about a community of sameness. Everyone there used to be different: different color eyes, different color shirts. Then they realized that differences caused problems: people would fight over skin color and where you're from. In The Giver they made everyone the same. If you insult others, you are punished. If you are late or do wrong, you have to apologize. If you are apologized to, you have to accept the apology. For example, on page 75, the chief elder apologized to Jonas and Jonas accepted her apology, “Jonas looked up "I have caused you anxiety," she said. "I apologize to my community." Her voice flowed over the assembled crowd. "We accept your apology," they all uttered together. Jonas," she said, looking down at him, “I apologize to you in particular. I caused you anguish." "I accept your apology," Jonas replied shakily.”(75) The people in The Giver have made a community of sameness.
The Giver a novel written by Lois Lowery, is a pessimistic novel. It’s pessimistic because everybody is forced to feel the exact same things and they don’t know it. The people are forced to talk in a certain way and everything is the same for them, and they call that sameness. No one can see colors nobody knows the truth about the world about war or how pain feels like, they don’t know what it’s like to be starving or cold and they have no say in anything, everything was chosen for them.
The Giver's main goal and focus is to train Jonas with memories of the past that his community has faced. While the memories are being given to Jonas, this can change a persons perspective on what the community that
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.
The Giver takes place in the future in a place that the people call community, the community is isolated from the rest of the world. It is protected by a boundary called the boundary of memory, and everyone is exactly the same, no one is better or worse than anyone else, they are all equal. In the communities the people have no memories of the past, for us it is the present day. The communities are not exactly controlled but they have to follow certain ruler, rules that were made by Chief Elder. None of the citizen know what feelings are, like for example they do not know what love is. The Giver is revolved around a character named Jonas, played by Brenton Thwaites, who is helped by an old man, the old man is called “The Giver”. He helps him gain little memories of the past, which is present day for us. After a while Jonas starts to feel emotions and pain, he also gains the mentality of how the world that they live in is somewhat corrupt. However, that is
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.
The award winning novel The Giver by Lois Lowry shows young readers that a utopian society differs from the real world. In the book the utopians are unaware of the true meaning of choices, individual vs society, and memory which limits their ways of thinking. Without an idea of what any of these themes are, they are oblivious of how much they are being controlled. These themes play an important role in more than just Jonas’s life, without it, the book wouldn't be the same considering all the themes, for example choices.