Social Roles In The Giver

The Giver is a movie about a supposedly ideal society where the role of each person is identified and given by the so-called group of elders. The memories of the past were erased or so forgotten, including the past of the people in that community, and those memories were only held by one person, the Receiver of Memories. There is a boy named as Jonas, who was chosen by the elders to be the next Receiver of Memories. And he will make drastic ways to free the people in the community and free the memories. This movie left to ask the question: “can we survive in a society where a social role is not important?”. Social role is a part of society where people are expecting us to fulfill. And frequently, our roles are more connected and determined

Women are expected to be submissive and obedient to men. They are also expected to be the light of the home, which defines them as someone who will take care of the family, clean the house, nurture the garden, and such. Also, women are expected to be prim and proper. As stated in the Bible, “Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him." (Genesis 2:18) The verse gave us the ingrained and an enduring view of women as someone who exists and lives because of men. In addition, “In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands, so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. Your adornment must not be merely external-braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; (1 Peter

For Jean Paul Sartre, as it was imposed, there will be sanction if the duties are not fulfilled. The people in the society do what they do to fulfill their roles because of fear of punishment. One will be punished if that person does not do what is expected of that person. Going back to the movie, The Giver, Jonas was expected by the community, especially the elders, to fulfill his duty as the Receiver of Memories. But when Jonas started to show that he is not doing what is expected of him, the elders are starting to outcast him and announced to the community that Jonas has become a dangerous person and is a threat to the community. Jonas is being punished for not fulfilling his role as the Receiver of Memories. With the mentioned instances and illustrations above, it would be safe to assume and conclude that the society does not necessitate social roles as roles in themselves but it was imposed on us. However, can we indeed survive without social