Community And Jonas's In The Novel 'The Giver'

Jonas’ community appears to be a utopia, but, in reality, it is a dystopia. The people seem perfectly content to live in an isolated wreck—in a government run by a select few—in which a group of Elders enforces the rules. In Jonas’ community, there is no poverty, starvation, unemployment, lack of housing, or discrimination; everything is perfectly planned to eliminate any problems. However, as the book progresses and Jonas gains insight into what the people have willingly given up—their freedoms and individualities—for the so-called common good of the community, it becomes more and more obvious that the community is a horrible place in which to live. You as a reader can relate to the disbelief and horror that Jonas feels when he realizes

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?

In my opinion, Jonas left the community because of the memories and the reality presented to him by The Giver. After realizing the truth, he wanted to alter the perspectives of the citizens in the community by releasing his memories, he believed that the way people lived without any knowledge of the world surrounding them was wrong, and wished to live a more meaningful life when he left.

The relevant theme shared by both text were sameness and equality. The both community were under the control of Chief or elder. In The Giver the reason Lois Lowry uses the word “sameness rather than “equality” because equality implies that people have certain basic human rights, which in the community in The Giver they didn’t. For example, they didn’t have the freedom to make choices as to who they marry or what job they do. However, since all their experiences throughout their early lives were controlled, they were all besides Jonas and The Giver. “So there will be a whole part of your life which you won’t be able to share with your family. It’s hard Jonas. It was for me.” said by the Giver because he had to sacrifice his life to become the Giver and he knew how hard it felt. In Harrison Bergeron, the government enforces their idea of equality by physically and mentally handicapping citizens. The beautiful must wear hideous masks or disfigure themselves, the graceful and strong must wear weight around their necks at all hours of the day and the intelligent must listen to earsplitting noises that impede their ability to think. “Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” In both texts the protagonist try to solve a problem but they had created another problem by sharing it to the other members in the community. Also because they went against the rules and regulation the community were disrupted.

Community life in The Giver is very organized. The society made the choice to go to Sameness where everything is the same for everyone. The community doesn’t suffer pain, hunger and other things. There are no conflicts between the community. The society also chose to go to Sameness to prevent from making the wrong choices. People can’t make their own decisions as almost everything is made by the Committee of Elders. The feelings of the society are controlled. There are many rules the community has to follow to maintain the society as they want to. Many of these things are that way because of the choice the people made. In The Giver, privacy, family life, and selecting jobs are important features of their community life.

In the novel, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, Jonas lives a differently portrayed lifestyle than those of us today. One thing that our worlds have in common is government and being ruled by government. We both have families and friends that we live and care about. Both of our Communities have bikes and fly on planes. The two different worlds have less in common than they have different from another.

Jonas has a very good relationship with the Giver and loves him very much. Jonas has a very good relationship with the Giver because he does not lie to him and they can share their feelings with one another. When Jonas learns that he can share feelings with the Giver he learns that other people can not do what he can. The citizens in the community do not know what feelings are and how to love someone as Jonas and the Giver do. So this related to the Giver and Jonas to have such a depth relationship because they can talk to each other and not lie, they can trust each other. Also they know how to be truthful to each other and love each

In Jonas’ Community in The Giver, each age group has its own ceremony every December in which new traditions or routines are given and old ones are taken. For example, at the end of chapter two, Mother tells Lily that when Lily becomes an eight, her comfort object will be taken away. The comfort object is later described as what we might call a stuffed animal, or a plush. Near the beginning of chapter two, Father tells about when he was younger, and reveals that kids get a bicycle when they become a nine. I think that this characteristic of the community is good and bad.

Jonas uses a positive and a negative aftermath for his choices. On page (95,) it states, “Our people made that choice to go to sameness.” This

Would you like to live in a community where everything is the same? In The Giver, Jonas lives in Sameness. In Sameness, they have no memories of what it is like outside of Sameness except for the Giver and the Receiver. From the memories, they believe there is an Elsewhere. All of these things are in Jonas’ community.

Our world is a dystopian society, with war and poverty. But that isn’t true for Jonas’ community in The Giver by Lois Lowry. Jonas’ community is one with a stable food supply, safety and without discrimination. All of those things come at a cost. Individuality, color, and emotions are all taken away to simplify and to make all the citizens the same.

How are our real community and Jonas's community similar and different? Both Jonas and up have school and jobs. Some of the things that we have that they don’t are freedoms and reality. Some things that they have that we don’t have that they do are that they have leaders that can tell them exactly what to do whenever they want, they also have complete equality. To know oneself is to disbelieve utopia. -Michael Novak

In the book The Giver Jonas and the community have little choices they can make. In America we have lots of choices like how long your hair is, what you are going to wear to school and what color we want to wear. In Jonas’ community they cant even do that. Jonas left the community because he yearned for the freedom of choice. “If every things the same, then there aren’t any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things”(PG97). Jonas wants to be able to pick his own tunic and job, but in the giver community he cant. He wants to pick his own spouse. Jonas is tired of sameness

In this fashion, choices are eliminated, yet no one knows of a better life, and that’s the underlying problem. It’s only through the character of Jonas that we can see a member of this society try to change the community for the better. The character of Jonas in The Giver is very unique, because unlike typical heroes or main characters, he is a twelve year old boy who is assigned the job of Receiver of Memory. From there he meets with the titular character, The Giver, who transfers him memories of the past, both good and bad (Lowry 100). As he gathers these memories, he begins to understand concepts of death and love, and yearns to share these concepts and express feelings, although his community does not allow it, for he is given a list of rules to follow (Lowry 86). Another instance of sameness is the generalization of language, known in this book as “precision of language” (Lowry 160). This form of controlling language takes out words such as “love,” for the sake of it being “a very generalized word so meaningless that it’s become almost obsolete” (Lowry 160). Without having the freedom to choose what to say, the ability to express yourself becomes lost by conforming to this generalized

The Giver is narrated through Jonas' eyes, the community that he lives in seems to be a utopia, meaning a perfect place. There is no evidence of disease, hunger, poverty, war, or lasting pain exists in the community. Jonas' family is just like every other family in the community; which includes a mother and father and two children one boy and one girl. Jonas' mother has an important job with the Department of Justice, and his father has a job as a Nurturer, a job where he taking care of newborns. Jonas has one younger sister, Lily. His family seems ideal. Each morning, they discuss their dreams that they had the previous night; during the dinner they share feelings about the events of the day, just like any “regular” family. Comforting and supporting each other. As we learn more about Jonas' family, we also learn about the community as a whole. Families (which in the book they are called family units), must apply for children, spouses do not get to choose one another but, instead, are matched, and grandparents do not exist.