Choices In The NovelThe Giver, By Lois Lowry

“Life here is so orderly, so predictable-so painless. It's what they've chosen” (Lowry 103). Imagine a world with no control over who you marry, what your job is, what you wear, or what you get to eat for every meal. This is what it’s like in The Giver by Lois Lowry. The people live in a community that is severely more controlled than ours. We have the freedom to have a pet, have as many kids as you want, and say what you want. The people in The Giver do not have those freedoms. The people in the community don’t even know what love is. In our world love is each individual’s choice, but not in The Giver. In other words, they don’t get to experience the precious parts of life, such has having a wedding and giving birth to your child. No society is perfect, but citizens of every community have an

In the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry, the receivers are the only people who have feelings and memories. The elders are the people who choose what the best is for their people in the community and sometimes they go to the receiver for help on making the right decisions. The people from the community do not see color, or have freedom on making a decision for them. There is no love, feelings, and grandparents. Jonas is assigned to be the next receiver of the community; He was trained by the giver, who transfers memories of the pain and pleasures of life, who also shows him the truth and reality that is hidden to the community. Jonas’s community does not represent the ideal of society because there are no choices or distinctions between men

The result is, as praised by Jonas’ family unit, that the decisions the Elders make are never incorrect or unsuitable. They seem omniscient, and this strengthens their claim to power, their right to make decisions for the whole community as they are excellent at it. As has been shown above, the novel contains various forms of oppression. In order for “people” to express their individuality and humanity, freedom of choice is essential. Dehumanization is observed in The Giver’s society, and life within the communities becomes deformed, manipulated, and far from being a utopia. Infact, due to all the dehumanization, fear, surveillance and inequality shown in this society, it now strongly resembles dystopian one.

Imagine waking up one day, and all your choices are stripped away from you. You can no longer choice blue or red, up or down, one or two. Everything has been picked out for you whether you like it or not. The community in the Giver is a utopian society. All members have a clear-cut set of rules they must follow. The rules were made to get rid of pain and fix society’s problems. On the occasion of when the truth is revealed Jonas, a unique boy, questions society, and its motives. Personal choice is one of the most important things, even in the event that it may cause pain or suffering. Individuals within the community should have a right to pick their spouse, have their own children, and pick their careers.

When considering the similarities between Lois Lowry’s novel, The Giver, and the real world; one must consider all aspects of our domain, and history. A few similarities stand out as being predominantly controlling. The Giver, possesses several resemblances to Nazi Germany. The novel also portrays an appalling method for dealing with newborns that are less desirable. The novel also reflects on the way those who are too old are sent on a vacation to elsewhere. The novel leads one to assume that the handicapped would be met with equal cruelty. The story primarily sets forth ideas that are relevant of the era; when politically correctness would have been obstructing to an individual’s uniqueness. There reaches a point where conformity and perfection is controlling of an individual’s free will, and Lowry tries hard to portray the issues found in a world where everyone is the same; in which she indisputably succeeded.

Lois Lowry’s The Giver is set in a futuristic, dichotomous society, one that is both utopian and dystopian. In response to the overwhelming destruction and chaos in the world, the Elders have attempted to create and maintain a peaceful and orderly utopia, but this security comes at a price. The citizens of the community have sacrificed their individuality and freedom. Although most adult members have some knowledge of the hypocrisies involved, they choose to perpetuate the deception, allowing the community, as a whole, to continue on blissful ignorance. When young Jonas is confronted with all the truths of the present and all the memories of the past, he must choose for himself

"It wasn't a practical thing, so it became obsolete when we went to the Sameness.” (84) The Giver, by Lois Lowry, is from the perspective of a twelve year old boy named Jonas growing up in a Utopia. At the Ceremony of Twelve, where every person that turns twelve receives their life-long “job”, Jonas finds out he has been selected to be the Receiver of Memory, the most honored of elders. The current Receiver of memory, who Jonas calls the Giver, transfers memories of color and feelings like pain and joy to him. As he receives each memory, he learns of a life outside of the utopia. This book proves that being perfect and the same as everyone else is not as great as it sounds. The Utopian society of sameness in

In the story, the wise old man is the Giver. The Giver’s mind is filled with good and bad memories. He is in charge of holding the memories from the community to avoid pain or suffering. He is the only one that is allowed to break certain rules. His power cannot be “given” to anyone except for a special person selected by the Elders. Jonas is that special person, he is the “receiver of memory”. So, the giver’s mission is to “give” Jonas the power of receiving all the memories. Also, he must share all his knowledge with Jonas so he can become the new “giver” in the community.

The citizens in the community have been trained to follow procedure. During the evening sharing of feelings, Father talks about a newchild named Gabriel. He says, “... ‘he isn’t growing as fast as he should, and he doesn’t sleep soundly… the committee’s beginning to talk about releasing him’”(9). The community uses the term ‘release’ as a euphemism for death. This shows that the community feels no guilt about killing their citizens due to their differences. The people in charge of the community do not want their citizens to be individuals, so when a difference is recognized, the problem is eliminated

Individuality is one of the key components of reaching the utopian standard. However, in The Giver, the community rejects the idea of individuality and instead focuses on developing Sameness, therefore initiating a form of control by allowing them to not express their own personality to shine, and alternately forcing them to contort into these soft putty-shaped beings with zero individuality at all. Conversations between Jonas and The Giver that occur throughout the novel informs the audience that the community lacks a sense of uniqueness and results in an absence of options to choose from.

Throughout the novel The Giver, by Lois Lowry Jonas goes through some challenges. When Jonas got selected to be the Receiver of Memory his whole life had changed because there wasn’t many things he could do now. “Do not discuss your training with any other member of the community including parents and Elders.”(68) This shows that when the Elders selected Jonas to be the Receiver

President Ronald Reagan once said that,”Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in our bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and passed down for them to do the same.” President Reagan would have been miserable living in the world as it is portrayed in “The Giver” by Lois Lowry. In the book there has been a utopian community built for people so that they have no freedom and no individual thoughts. Everyone is exactly the same. Everyone takes a daily pill which eliminates any memories, pain or stress. The protagonist named Jonas is chosen to receive all the worlds memories and figures out that everyone he loves has no feelings or independence. He decides to risk everything

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.

The giver is a fictional novel authorised by Louis Lowry dedicated to informing readers about the devastating impact of extreme conformity on a community. As we progress throughout the book we start to realise and learn all these new things about the giver's community, such as creating and trying to maintain a perfect community, that comes beyond our abilities, while the givers society is having a huge impact on the individuality and individual choices on the members of the community. We learn that the inhabitants of the society had a hard time handling all the different memories, in a sudden event. All hints and evidence to these statements above are hidden and presented throughout the book.

This quote demonstrates that people in the community are not given choice because past mistakes have reciprocated the “government’s” adjudication to give people the freedom of choice. While reading the Giver, I postulated that the government have not acquired the knowledge to know that all people make mistakes.