Utopia seems like a wonderful idea where everything is perfect and no one suffers. Three stories address this topic and show how even the best ideas have their downside. The Giver tells of a society where everything is the same and no one has to worry about making a wrong decision. Fahrenheit 451 tells of a society that bans book in the interest of preventing unhappiness. The society in Logan's Run is full of pleasure but only for 30 years. In practice though, these utopias present each of the protagonists with a problem where they question how perfect their perfect worlds really is. The Giver, by Lois Lowry, tells of a society where choices are made by the state in order to create sameness. This is done to prevent unhappiness and to ensure that people don't become jealous or sad about differences. For example children at each age receive the same gift (p.15) and have ceremonies to recognize these changes in age. Families are created when a spouse is assigned and the couple applies for children through a birthmother. 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) In the end, Jonas, with the help of The Giver, escapes from the community with an infant new-child at risk of being killed (released) and seeks out a life full of feeling and love. While he does get away, we don't know exactly w... ... middle of paper ... ...Man in Logan's Run told Logan and Jessica about love and families just as The Giver shared memories with Jonas about just the same thing. The utopian communities Logan and Jonas inhabit are both controlled by the state. Logan's world is run completely by machines that manage births and deaths, food supply, and recreation. Jonas's world is managed by an extensive set of rules that spell out exactly what citizens do throughout their lives. For both these protagonists, the community is a safe haven and the concept of "outside" for Logan, and "Elsewhere" for Jonas are worrisome. The state in both of these communities regulate death but have sugar-coated the idea through vague language or ceremonies that promise rebirth. Logan and Jonas begin to see through the deception and rebel against it by opposing the rules and escaping from what seemed to be perfect communities.
What are memories to you? In the book The Giver, by Lois Lowry. There is a boy his name is Jonas. He is the Receiver of Memories. Jonas experiences the memories over the course of the book. Memories help us understand there are consequences to your actions. Although some readers may believe that memories are not important. The memories Jonas had helped him with the journey at the end of the book.
The term The Giver refers to the old man, the former receiver who transfers all his memories to Jonas. The names giver and receiver remind us that memories are meant to be shared, the function of the old man is not holding memories but passing them from one person to another. That is why the title is not memory keepers' .The old man becomes the giver as Jonas becomes the receiver. Jonas also becomes the giver when he transfers his memories to Gabriel. But more interestingly, Jonas becomes the giver when he gives his memories to Gabriel (Booker10).
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
...with running from something. Jonas leaves behinds everything he has every known in hopes that community with better from it.
Through the memories Jonas receives from the Giver, he gains the ability to experience feelings, which causes him to grow out of his selfishness, and into a more compassionate and empathetic person. In fact, before Jonas receives memories, he does not even have the ability to experience true feelings, which causes him to be selfish. However, after he receives memories from the Giver about true feelings and pain, Jonas starts to become more compassionate. Jonas’ compassion also leads him to become more empathetic towards the people that he cares about. Even though feelings and emotions can sometimes bring pain, without them, the world would be a selfish place with people only caring about themselves.
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.
“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.
Jonas said “I gave him memories along the way to let him survive, but he’s cold.” The giver had started to give Jonas and Gabe memories to keep them warm and alive. Jonas felt the memory of him sitting next to a campfire and it was as hot as a hot bathing room in the house of the old. Jonas had remembered about his friends Fiona and Asher and asked the giver. “Where is Fiona and Asher.”
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 becomes the Reciever of Memories shared by only one other…” (Lowry,4). The author uses allusion throught the entire book almost through evryone and everything. The young boy that Jonas’s family was looking over was named Gabriel. In a biblical view his name is one of god’s messengers and in the end of the giver when Jonas takes Gabe with him to find another community unlike theirs they find it together. In a hebrew relation Jonas is another version of Jonah which is the son of truth were in his community he does not like how his father lied and said that the twin was going to released when he had killed the child. He also wants the community to know the truth of the past and not hide things. The Giver is the book is portrayed as God since he is the presnter to all life. Elsewhere is heaven in the novel when the elderly and the yo...
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
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.
Jonas learns that the people don’t think for themselves and have their life planned out
Jonas always tells his dreams. He always was there for chastisement. He always shared his feelings at the evening meal. He also always took his pill every morning. “Now he swallowed the pill his mother handed him.”(Page 38). By the end of the book Jonas is rebellious. He stops taking pills for emotions that he is supposed to take everyday. Jonas stays at the Giver’s house when he sees his father kill a baby. Jonas also tries to escape from the community when Giver creates a plan to escape from the community which Jonas barely follows because of Gabe’s release. “But your role now is to escape.” (Page 162). This means that Jonas has to escape and the Giver must stay to help the community after he is gone.