How would it feel knowing you're different from everybody in your community? “The Giver” by Lois Lowry, shows the struggles of a boy named Jonas, who has been given the assignment of Receiver of Memory, which means he holds the memories of all the members in his community. He doesn't know how to handle being different. In his community, everyone and everything is the same which is a problem because without experiencing knowledge and wisdom a community cannot grow.
Some people have more knowledge of the community just like the Giver and Jonas. For example “He leaned back, resting his head against the back of the upholstered chair. It’s the memories of the whole world.” This is knowledge because the Giver can see everything from the past of his community and this gives him the ability to know more about anyone and everything. For example, “Using his final strength and a special knowledge that was deep inside him, Jonas found the sled that was waiting…” Then Jonas had to use the knowledge of his memories to help Gabe and himself survive. Also.“ For the first time, he heard something he knew to be music.” Jonas had never heard anything
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“No doors in the community were ever locked, ever. None that Jonas knew of anyway.” In their community not much was different. Most everything was the same there. “The entire community had performed the ceremony of loss together.” Which shows that in their community whenever they lose someone they perform a special ritual to let others know that they cared for them. For example, “Jonas and Lily, both nodded sympathetically as well. The release of new children had always been sad. Because they had not had a chance to enjoy life in the community…” In the community they have to do things like releasing new children and that’s very depressing. Even though learning about your community and the things around are important, having experience is one of the best learning
Jonas, the protagonist, is assigned the job of holding memories for the community. This is so that not everyone has to experience sad or painful memories. The Giver's job is to transmit these memories to Jonas and, in doing so, reveals the wonders of love, and family, and pain, and sorrow to this young boy. Jonas begins to resent the rules of sameness and wants to share these joys with his community. After receiving his first memory, Jonas says, "I wish we had those things, still." (p. 84)
Without memories, nobody can make the right decision, which will lead to a bad choice. Without memories, one cannot shape his or her future. In addition, when Jonas describes the pain he feel when experiencing a sunburn when, “‘It hurts a lot,’ Jonas said, ‘but I’m glad you gave it to me. It was interesting,”(Lowry 86). This quote show that Jonas does not understand
“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.
Jonas decides to leave and change the lives of his people so that they can experience the truth. “The Giver rubbed Jonas’s hunched shoulders… We’ll make a plan” (155). Their plan involves leaving sameness and heading to Elsewhere, where Jonas knows the memories can be released to the people. He has a connection with Gabe, a special child who has experienced the memories, unlike the rest of the community. Jonas has a strong love for Gabe, and he longs to give him a better life. “We’re almost there, Gabriel” (178). Even with a sprained ankle, Jonas keeps pushing forward because he wants everyone to experience what The Giver has given him. He wants them to have a life where the truth is exposed. His determination allows him to make a change for a greater future in his community. This proves that Jonas has the strength to change his community for the
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. When he turns twelve, his job for the rest of his life is decided as the Receiver. His job is to receive all the memories the previous Receiver has held on to. While this is beneficial for Jonas as he is able to leave the society and his job of the Receiver behind and get freedom, the community is left without someone to take the memories from The Giver.
Although as a result of his training Jonas possesses more wisdom than almost anyone else in his community, he is still very young and knows little about life in the community itself.
Jonas is the protagonist in The Giver. He changes from being a typical twelve-year-old boy to being a boy with the knowledge and wisdom of generations past. He has emotions that he has no idea how to handle. At first he wants to share his changes with his family by transmitting memories to them, but he soon realizes this will not work. After he feels pain and love, Jonas decides that the whole community needs to understand these memories. Therefore Jonas leaves the community and his memories behind for them to deal with. He hopes to change the society so that they may feel love and happiness, and also see color. Jonas knows that memories are hard to deal with but without memories there is no pain and with no pain, there is no true happiness.
Dystopian literature brings warning to the modern world and allows the audience to experience a new perception of life. The 1993 novel, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, fits into the dystopian genre because it makes judgment about modern society. She inscribed her novel “For all the children to whom we entrust the future”, which serves as a hope for a better future (Franklin). She targets the younger generation because they are the future. In Lowry’s novel, The Giver, Lowry’s perspective on modern society is that it tends to stay within its comfort zone, which creates limitations in life. The dystopian characteristics of the novel, importance of memory, the history surrounding the novel, and Lowry’s personal background all convey the notion that modern society should freedom bestowed it and to fully appreciate life in itself; society tends to take life’s freedoms for granted.
In the novel, The Giver by Lois Lowry, the author makes it clear through the main character Jonas that freedom and safety need to find an equal balance. Lowry shows the importance of deep emotions and family through Jonas. Jonas becomes the new receiver of memory and learns about the past. He also learned about the way it was when people knew what love was. Jonas’ father releases newborn children because they don’t weight the correct amount of weight or they don’t sleep well through the night. Release is a nice way of saying kill; the people of the community don’t know what kill means. They don’t have the freedom to expand their vocabulary. Lois Lowry makes it clear that safety has a negative side and you need that you need freedom to have a high functioning community.
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.
You know everything about the past and the present from your life, but the citizens of Jonas’ community don’t. Everything is hidden from them, except for Jonas and The Giver, who have all
Jonas’ community chooses Sameness rather than valuing individual expression. Although the possibility of individual choice sometimes involves risk, it also exposes Jonas to a wide range of joyful experiences from which his community has been shut away. Sameness may not be the best thing in the community because Jonas expresses how much he feels like Sameness is not right and wants there to be more individuality. Giver leads him to understand both the advantages and the disadvantages of personal choice, and in the end, he considers the risks worth the benefits. “Memories are forever.”
Jonas hates how his society decides to keep memories a secret from everyone. Jonas says: “The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared” (Lowry 154). Jonas feels that memories, whether it be good or bad, should be shared with everyone. Furthermore, memories allow the community to gain wisdom from remembering experiences of the past. As for The Giver, The Giver disagrees with how the community runs things. He believes that memories should be experienced by everyone as well, because life is meaningless without memories. The Giver says: “There are so many things I could tell them; things I wish they would change. But they don’t want change. Life here is so orderly, so predictable–so painless. It’s what they’ve chosen [...] It’s just that… without memories, it’s all meaningless. They gave that burden to me” (Lowry 103). The Giver is burdened with the responsibility to not share memories even though that is what he feels the community deserves. In addition, he believes the community lives a very monotonous life where nothing ever changes. Everything is meaningless without memories because the community does not know what it is like to be human without feelings. Overall, Jonas and The Giver’s outlooks on their “utopian” society change as they realize that without
But the Giver argues and asks “Do you know what is means to love someone? Possibility of love? With it comes hope, faith and a beautiful feeling. “ But the commander says that people are weak, selfish and when people have the freedom to choose, they choose wrong. Giver believes that in this community “people are living the life of shadows, of faint, distant whispers of what once made us real.” People are living in the shadow, because their right to choose is taken away. The movie does not show what happens after Jonas crosses the boundary of memory, but we can hope that after everyone got memories back they found the real
Jonas plans to change the community by escaping and releasing all of the memories to the community. Jonas thinks for himself he will accomplish escaping and giving himself a chance to go to elsewhere. Jonas hopes to accomplish change throughout the community by releasing the memories if he left so everyone could gain wisdom. In the book Giver says this a way to change the community. Jonas wanted to go to elsewhere and see snow as like he did in the memory. Giver also said the memories had to be shared so leaving would share the memories with the rest of the