Allegory In The Giver

Sameness and difference, is one of the themes Lois Lowry portrays in “The Giver”. The theme of sameness and difference plays a key part in Jonas’s life, and contributes to the people in his community, and their past as well.

1.) People are not allowed to go outside after the specified curfew, this can help prevent someone getting injured, kidnapped, and just ensure a higher level of security for the residents in the society.

Jonas was walking out of the auditorium and people were looking at him gruesomely and avoiding him and he was thinking, “ Jonas felt separate, different. He remembered what the Chief Elder had said: that his training would be alone and apart. But his training has not yet begun and already, upon leaving the Auditorium, he felt the apartness.” (62) Therefore, when he got his assignment, he felt separate from all of the other kids who got regular jobs and not the most important job of the whole community and he felt apart from the other kids and even his family. When Jonas had a day off because of a holiday, he went to the park and he saw the kids playing a game of war, and when he confronted Ashur, Ashur said, “ Whatever. You can’t say what we play, even if you are going to be the new Receiver.” Ashur looked warily at him. “ I apologize for not paying you the respect you deserve.” (127) Therefore, Jonas feels separate from his peers, because they don’t know what actually happened and what that game used to be. When he confronted them, they made fun of him for being the Receiver and that he can’t just stop their game just because he is going to be in the highest job in the community. In his directions that he got, because he got the assignment to become the Receiver of Memory, the directions say this, “ Do not discuss your training with any members of the community, including

Starting the story, Jonas receives his assignment at the Ceremony of 12. He was chosen to be the receiver of memory. Jumping forward to his training, an old man named,¨The Giver¨ transmits memories for Jonas to cherish. He was told he will experience joy, happiness, loneliness and most importantly, pain. Beginning his training, Jonas lays on a couch for The Giver to lay his hand on his back to transmit Jonas´s first memory. It was very joyful. As an

In The Giver, Jonas’ world is turned upside down when he is chosen to be the next receiver of his community. The ceremony of twelves is the last ceremony of the day. Jonas waited anxiously for his name to be called; he never hears it. The chief elder has made a mistake. Jonas now has to learn that everything he has been taught was not always the same and it ages him years.

An allegory is a poem or narrative that is made up of symbolic meaning. On the other hand symbolism is a literary device that is used to portray something without directly saying or showing it. Usually fables are considered to be in the allegory category because they combine many symbols together to portray a message to the audience. An allegory tells a story, whereas symbolism does not. Allegory is also most commonly used to portray characters and give them more depth, whereas symbolism is most commonly found being used on different objects or things. Lastly, an allegory is a more restricted literary device because it usually has a specific meaning or

Lord, Elyse. "Overview of The Giver." Novels for Students. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Literature Resource Center. Web. 27 Mar. 2016. Elyse Lord is one of the many critics who describe “The Giver” as terrifying but offering “hope and a constructive view” of the Utopian world in the book. She explains that other critics praise the book with many awards such as the Newberry Medal. Lord goes on to reason that the story is favored by different readers for its complexity, symbolism, metaphors, ambiguous ending, and can be compared similarly to classic science fiction like “Brave New World” and “Fahrenheit 451.” Contradicting this statement, Lord says that ‘librarians’, ‘educators’, and ‘students’ debate “The Giver” to be censored from public schools around the world because of its graphic scenes and ideas of infanticide and euthanasia. This includes the time Jonas witnessed his father murder a baby and throw it down a trash chute in cold blood. This is ironical compared to the language, emotion, and behaviors being censored in Jonas’s ‘Utopian’ society. Lord argues this through Anna Cerbasi of Port Saint Lucie, Florida, who asked the school board to remove a book that was about a family murdering their child for crying at night and called the book inappropriate for the sixth grade. Lord raises the question of who is to “decide which books are appropriate for which children,” and argues that it cannot be answered with not one but the many books integrated in school curricula that compose

The theme conveyed through the Giver is that individuality should be valued. The story takes place in a utopian society where everything is the same. There are no choices, no color, and no love in the Community of Sameness. The novel starts out a month before the Ceremony of Twelve, where the 12 year olds each get assigned a job. Jonas gets the assignment of the Receiver of Memory, and he soon finds out that lying is permitted, and receives several memories of the past without sameness, with pain too. He has the ability to see beyond, and finds out that he and the Giver are the only people in the Community that have the ability to see, as well as hear beyond. Similar to the phenomenon of an apple changing quality and his friend Fiona’s hair doing the same

An allegory is an extended metaphor used in literature and art. It helps in understanding the complex ideas and concepts which are hidden in the sentences. It is basically a lock opener for different situations in an art work.

Our world has love, hate, passion, anger and fear. All our emotions change the way we act and how other people act, negatively or positively. In the book, The Giver, written by Lois Lowery, a perfect world is created where there are no emotions nor color. Could you give up emotions for a perfect society? The Giver makes readers ask the question what the perfect society is, providing symbolism, like a sled, color and an important character, Gabriel.

The author uses conflict to show how life can not be taken for granted. In the novel, Gabriel will be released because he can not sleep. The book states, “It’s bye-bye to you, Gabe, in the morning.”(207). This is important because it shows how Jonas’s father had no compassion or love for Gabriel. He does not even care that Gabriel will be released. This reveals that the community needs change.

Lois Lowry’s novel, The Giver, offers a thought provoking, well written story, because it changes the perspective of anyone who dares to read it to. Lowry places her novel, at some point in the future when mankind has gone away with changes and choices in life. She forces readers appreciate, or at least re-think the world they live in today. Her novel presents a fully human created environment where people have successfully blocked out conflict, grief, and individuality. Each person follows the same routine every day. Failure comply with standards, to be different, means death. Jonas, the main character, finds himself trapped in this world.

In The Giver, Gabriel symbolize love. Jonas reveals this when he takes Gabriel with him to release the memories into the community. “ And he had taken Gabriel, too” (208). This is Jonas experiencing love for Gabriel. He wants Gabe to grow as a person and in a society that will except him. Jonas didn't want Gabriel to grow up in a world where everyone is the same. Jonas knew the world Gabe was to grow up in had he not taken him. A world of perfection in the people in The Giver was to take away pain and violence. Although pain and violence were gone, so is love and happiness. They created a world without emotion.

Imagine a world without love or color. Jonas the protagonist in The Giver he ran away and left comparing his community to our society. In our society we aloud to love whoever we want and we free to love. In jonas society love is a word that is prohibited no longer said for example abandoned no longer mentioned because they don't know what it means.

Allegory: A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.