The Giver Essay
In the book The Giver, Jonas, the main character, lives in a very communistic society. With the elders creating unrealistic rules, and breaking them themselves, taking away color, and there very own rule enforcement lady, that happens to be Jonas's mom, breaking rules too, the givers society is very hypocritical.
First, The elders. Obviously the elders know what the outside world is like, they’ve been in this community the longest after all. They keep secrets from the society which is breaking one of the stronger rules, no lying. To begin there is an elder named Larissa, she broke the rule of lying when talking to Jonas. Jonas was giving her a bath and he decided to ask where former member Roberto went after his release. Larissa did attend the ceremony so she knows exactly where Roberto went, but she chose to lie, to keep society from the truth. “‘Larissa where did Roberto go’ Jonas said ‘I don't know’ Larissa said ‘I don't know why they don't allow children’” (41). Clearly this shows Larissa did know where Roberto went, she was one of the elders and the elders know everything. Also they took away mountains and hid the fact of this occurrence from everyone and took a grasp on the climate.
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Jonas's mother worked in rule enforcement. “He glanced at his mom the adherence for rules” (16). So she knows all the rules, and the punishments that take place when you break the rules. As you can tell she seems like a goody two shoes, always following rules, and snitching if others go down the wrong path. Although that's what appears in your mind, it's not the case. First, she broke the rule of rudeness. “‘I hope i’m a birthmother’ lilly said ‘lilly!, don’t say that’” (27). This displays a very clear picture of jonas's mother's rudeness. But, oh wait, rudeness is forbidden, and it's clear that jonas's mother is being irresponsible, disrespectful, and worst of all a rule
“I knew that there had been times in the past-terrible times-when people had destroyed others in haste, in fear, and had brought about their own destruction” (48). In the old days, when people in Jonas’s community valued individual needs, there were lots of terrible happenings: violence; and then the society ended up with general welfare and safety. It is difficult for us to think of a world without color, freedom, music and love, but in The Giver, the society denounces these things in order to make room for peace and safety. In The Giver, by having a society based on general welfare they gave safety to their people. No violence, no criminal activities, nor homicides.
The Community keeps the memories away from the people, which means that they ignore their past, and cannot gain wisdom or bliss. For example, when the Giver was explaining what memories are to Jonas, he says, “There’s much more… I re-experience them again and again. It is how wisdom comes. And how we shape our future,”(Lowry 78). The Giver describes how wisdom comes in this quote.
At the end of “The Giver” Jonas finds a small village in elsewhere, however, many people are skeptical that this is true.. On page 166 of “The Giver” the author wrote, “Using his final strength, and a special knowledge that was deep inside him, Jonas found the sled that was waiting for him on top of the hill.” Some people believe that he actually found the sled and others believe that he was hallucinating because he was freezing to death in the cold. I believe that Jonas was hallucinating from the cold because it seems more practical. My justifications for this belief are first, his state of being, second, it can be hypothesized from the quote, “His entire concentration now had to be on moving his feet, warming Gabriel and himself, and going forward” which is found on page 165, and finally this theory could be proven by looking at the descriptions of the memories given to him versus what
First of all, I think The Giver is a dystopia because they don't have color. The article states, “The Giver told him that it would be a very long time before he had the colors to keep.” (Document E) This proves that they have no color, I think that by taking away color there would be no happiness or imagination. If jonas’s community had color there would be more happiness and personal opinions about things like, “ what color do you like”.Without color you would be taking away the freedom to have an opinion towards other people, but in jonas’s community they limit their freedom to do lots of things and the people in the community don’t notice it. Another Example is stated in the text it says, “But
Jonas is also very determined, committing to a task fully when he believes in it and willing to risk his own life for the sake of the people he loves. 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.
Evelyn Sanchez (esanchez47@student.cccd.edu) Professor Leighton English 143, Final Essay 21 May 21, 2014 What the heck happened to Jonas? Topic #2. The Giver is actually one of my all-time favorite books, so I’ve looked into why she left the book so inconclusive in the past. The Giver is basically about a boy named Jonas who lives in a perfect society. He lives in a household with his two parents and his little sister Lilly.
The Giver presents a community that appears to be perfect on the surface. Jonas's community is free of warfare, pain, sorrow and other bitterness we suffer in our society. The world seems to be secure and undergoes little conflict. Such a community seems flawless and is the idealistic society that we longed to live in. However, through Jonas's training, the imperfections of the Utopian community are revealed.
For instance, the narrator says when talking about Jonas, “He had been trained since earliest childhood, since his earliest learning of language, never to lie,” (page one hundred eighty-two on the digital version). This is example of conformity is shown by how obedient the citizens in The Giver are to this rule. This blind obedience covers up the possibility to be an individual by eliminating the freedom to say whatever one would like and letting it represent themselves, whether it be negative or positive. Another thing noticed is in chapter one when the narrator mentions the telling of feelings, which is when every family member has to explain how they It is at this time when everyone is behaving the same way that there is no room for differences in behavior (individuality). It is possible for a person to show who they are without telling their feelings, but when they do this, they become like everyone else and lose their uniquity. In conclusion, the ability to express one’s self is removed when rules involving behavior are put in
The short story Harrison Bergeron helps support the idea that all Utopias are going to fail. In Harrison Bergeron characters like him find flaws in their “perfect” community and do something about it. In the Giver, Jonas is the character that rebels against the community because he is able to see past the lies set up by the elders and see the bad parts of it. Another reason it failed was because of the pain from the handicaps. Jonas’s community doesn’t experience any pain,except for Jonas and the Giver, Jonas makes a stand by escaping and leaving the memories of pain for the rest of the community.
In the book, “The Giver” ( made by Lois Lowry), tells of a boy named Jonas, his sister, Lily, his mother, his father and his friends living in a utopian society. Jonas’s mother and Lily usually have arguments wither on agreeing and/or disagreeing with each others thoughts, opinions and/or actions, such as “the birth-mother argument” towards Lily and Lily's mother. Lily thinks that birth-mothers are very interesting towards her actions and opinions while the mother thinks the opposite. The mother thinks that the assignment, birth-mother, has no honor. Lily’s perspective is that she loves the idea of not doing anywork besides birthing and she can be at most lazy, mostly because a 10 year old named Natasha, who does most of her volunteer hours
Throughout the history of the world, there has been many societies. All these societies had similar structures and ideas, but they all are different by their own special traditions and ways of life. Similarly, both our society and the society in The Giver share similar ideas, but they are different in certain areas. For example, they both celebrate birthdays and have family units, but they have their own way of doing so. Based on the celebration of birthdays and the formation of family units, our society is better than the society in The Giver by Lois Lowry.
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.
A dystopian society is what all nations are hopeful to find. In the film, The Giver by Lois Lowry, it seems to be what was achieved. This film brings heaps of critical thought with symbolism and imagery thrown at the audience like there’s no tomorrow. Although the society looks perfect, it is actually quite pessimistic and scornful. Right off the bat, the main character, Jonas captures the audience’s interest with his wit and charm. The audience knows right away that something is different about him. In the film adaptation of The Giver by Lois Lowry directed by Phillip Noyce, the symbolism and imagery including the red apple, color and the triangle proves to be some of the most important elements to the story.
Jonas has always been an inquisitive and curious person, even more so when he obtains the role of Receiver of Memory. One example of this important trait occurs after the Ceremony of Twelve. Jonas was still confused about his role, but he was anxious to learn about the incident involving the previous girl who was supposed to take the position of the