A Conformist Community on The Giver Essay example

Jonas trusted his community; that was a mistake. He let them do all the thinking; that was a mistake too. However, the biggest mistake that he and his community made was believing that there was such thing as a perfect society. The ceremonies that happen every year up until the age of 12 make sure that everything is the same, from the clothes, to houses to how they talk, no one is different.

Everyone was once thought that the Jonas’ society was the most brilliant place in the universe. No war nor death could be found there. In the most extreme case, in order to protect people there to be having a right choice, the way for them to achieve it was not by education, but to restrict them from choosing. Do you want to be living in such a place without the freedom of choice? I guess no one does. Therefore, I learned that freedom is also an important element to build up a balanced community.

“Color.” It’s all around us, we see it every day of our lives, everything has color, but the people in Jonas’ community didn’t know this. They had no clue what color was or that it even existed. Their society was hue less, hopeless, and everything was the same until the new receiver of memory changed that for everyone. In our world choice is a big part of our everyday lives we make many choices a day, do I want this or that, green or blue, this shirt or that shirt? But in The Giver choices were made for them, what they wear, how they act, what they say, what they eat, and what they do for a living. Imagine all that stuff being chosen for you. Everyone would be dressed the same, act the same,

     This book is about a boy names Jonas. Jonas lives in a futuristic society where there is no pain, fear, war, and hatred. There is also no prejudice, since everyone looks and acts basically the same, there is very little competition. They have also eliminated choice.

Jonas discovers what is really beyond his community, beyond all the rules and policies they have to follow; he decides to leave and give all of his memories to the rest of the community so they would know about what they have not seen or experienced before. Jonas discovers that the community has decided too many things for everyone. He realizes Sameness is not right, that it cannot last any longer. He thinks of all the what-ifs. What if the Elders choose a wrong spouse? What if the Elders choose the wrong job for someone?

To most kids in our society, the changes in Jonas’s world would be difficult to accept because we in America value our freedom to choose and to voice our desires. Did the creator’s of Jonas’s community truly improve society as we know it today?

Lois Lowry's The Giver describes Jonas, as we jump into his world of sameness. But Jonas isn't quite the same as everyone else. With what is called ''the power to see beyond'', Jonas is able to see slight visions of color that no one else can. To them, the world is in black and white, to prevent any jealousy relating to color. When Jonas is selected to be ''the reciever of memory'', he is immediately confused, as he should've gotten assigned to a job like ''teacher of the fives''. It turns out with Jonas' special abillity comes great responsibility. When he meets The Giver, he finds out his new job will be to take the memories of the entire world from The Giver, to provide wisdom to the community when they most need it. Only Jonas, The Giver, and a select group of the community known as ''The Elders'' know what the world was before sameness came about. Sameness might be tough to describe, but the best way it could be put is that it's a eutopia with a multitude of downsides. With this, I hope to describe what the pros and cons of having a world of sameness would be.

If the citizens in the community were to hold their own memories, it would make The Giver and Jonas receive less stress. They would not have to worry about keeping the pain, joy, melancholy, memories that they get to experience each day a secret. The Giver and Jonas would be able to share what they learn and they would be able to teach others as well. “ The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.” (p.193). The Giver and Jonas would not be the only ones who get to see color and feel love and emotions. They would be able to talk to people about what they discovered or what had happened in their memories. The Giver and Jonas would not be alone.

The Giver, by Lois Lowry, is a dystopian narrative about a boy who lives in a “utopia” where there is order and, everything is controlled. He alone must contain memories of the past. Unfortunately, many of these memories are traumatic and disturbing. Jonas can do nothing beyond withstanding the pain. Because that is how it had always been in the community. As often paraphrased by the Giver, who is the one giving Jonas the memories, "And back and back and back.”(62) This quote shows how there is nothing that The Giver or Jonas can do apart from accept tradition.

In Lois Lowry’s The Giver, the Giver and Jonas use the two following quotes to justify their community’s idea of “Sameness”, where everyone is the same but has no choice. The Giver tells Jonas, “Life here is so orderly so predictable—so painless.” In response, Jonas says, “We really have to protect people from wrong choices.” Eventually, both Jonas and the Giver realize that sameness is wrong and that it is better to be equal, to have the same rights, but able to choose to be different.

When anybody makes a decision it effects their futures for the better and the worse for example when you are riding your bike you choose to turn right but you turn the corner too fast and then you go off a small cliff and break your leg. This example shows that even the tiniest decisions affect anybody’s life. That is why in the community everybody’s path is chosen for them so that they can reduce the chances of pain, discomfort, and even make people be violent toward each other. In a conversation in The Giver Jonas and the Giver had a conversation about the past and how the founders “…made that choice, the choice to go to sameness, before my time, before the previous time, back and back and back. We relinquished color when we relinquished sunshine and did away with differences.” (Lowry 95) The founders eliminated choice in this way.

How would it feel if this world didn’t let people have choices, didn’t let people share, or if they didn’t let people celebrate birthdays, holidays, or just celebrate anything? Well that’s what it was like for Jonas in The Giver. Jonas lives in the future in a community where The Giver is the only one who knows everything, but soon all that changed for Jonas. He became the the community 's new Receiver of Memory, and soon Jonas learns the terrible secrets of this “utopian” community. Later on as he learns some more about the community’s secrets he makes a plan to leave the community, and to take Gabe with him so he wouldn’t get released.(which means they die, but the community doesn’t understand that) In this book choices, sharing, and celebrations would have made The Giver community more positive.

Everyone in the community can not have there own personalities because they have to be the same. There is a limit of two kids per family unit. There is nothing private in the community because they have to be the same. Sameness is bad because the receiver has to keep the pain a secret. The receiver is a person that keeps all of the memories. ¨but now you will be able to go farther back¨(Lois lowry 116) The Giver tells Jonas “being the receiver makes family life hard”(Lois Lowry 132). Sameness is bad because they have to take away color. Color is taken away because some people can not see color and then they are not the same. Why did colors disappear’ is what Jonas asked the Giver when he found out that everyone can not see color. (Lois Lowry 120)The government pick spouses and the child which results in no love. “Do you love me” asked Jonas.(Lois Lowry 159)It is clear that sameness is bad because there is no love in the community.

Unlike us where we have the privilege of choosing even though most of the time we choose wrong. “‘What if they were allowed to choose their own mate? And choose wrong’ (98).” This is Jonas after he learned about choices and how bad they could be. I think that he is totally right because in our world people have had multiple wife’s or husbands. They can never choose the wrong job and be jobless for the rest of their lives or choose the wrong husband or wife. If they had kids and they got a divorce the kids are sad for the rest of their lives having to go to a different parents house each week. If someone loses their job and can’t afford a house they could be homeless with kids living on the side of the street with no food or shelter.

In the book The Giver, it tells the story of a perfect world. Everyone there is happy and feels no pain. As the story progresses, the society appears more and more dystopian as the main goal of the society is revealed, which is sameness.() The community is constantly observed and controlled by every aspect in their lives. The committee assigns jobs, housing, husbands, wives, and children. If found breaking any of these laws, people are “released”, an indirect term for murdering. When Jonas is 12 years old, he 's chosen to be the community 's Receiver of Memory. Once he enters into training with an old man called 'The Giver ', he begins to receive memories of the real world that the rest of the community is hidden from. As the giver begins to show Jonas the important memories, he learns not only of love and family, but also of pain, war, and all the unhappy