Conformity In The Giver

“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

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.

We all know what it feels like, to go to a new school and the excitement that follows. Then you go in the building and suddenly the mood changes, everyone is staring at you. The excitement is only distant memories and it makes you uncomfortable and you might even hate the school on first sight. If conformity is put into place, then everyone will be happier and safer. I think conformity helps our society by creating a more harmonized, safer, and a more balanced community.

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.

“’Memories are forever”’ (Lowry). People make new memories every day without even realizing it. Some good some bad, that’s just the way of life, but in The Giver nobody knows what happened before them. People barley remember what their childhood was like, they don’t understand the importance of memory and that memories are forever. Aspects of life, rules, and prosperities between our world and Jonas’ world are very different yet have some similarities. Things that are crucial to the characters in The Giver are not as meaningful to the people in our world.

What would it feel like living in a world which everyone is same and the life is monotone?In “The Giver”,written by Lois Lowry,there’s a community based on perfection and the citizens who have strict and ethic rules to prevent their community from becoming unethical and unequal.Lowry conveyed her ideas both with in advantages and disadvantages,and the diversity which citizens in the community have lost.

Even though The Giver employs theoretical perspectives of behaviorism and existentialism, the application of these theories have strengths and weaknesses. Based on my personal reflection, it appears as though the film did a good job overall in demonstrating the theories through the use of the setting, plot, and characters. One strength of this movie in terms of behaviorism is the way it employs concepts of operant conditioning. From the first lines spoken in the film to the end of the film where the humanity of the community is restored, there are clear applications of rewards and punishment. Besides how well the film employs operant conditioning, the emphasis on how social learning can influence

In the novel, The Giver, Lois Lowry introduces the topic of conformity. The story takes place in a community based around sameness and uniformity. The main character, Jonas, is being trained for Receiver of Memory, and The Giver is transmitting memories to him. During this process, Jonas realizes how corrupt this community is, and, he comes up with a plan to improve his society. At the end of the story, Jonas travels to Elsewhere in an attempt to restore the town’s memories. In The Giver, Lois Lowry uses characters, dialogue, and actions to develop the theme that conformity is dangerous.

The novel, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, is an everlasting story that shows the importance of individuality. This novel is about a young boy named Jonas who was elected as the Receiver of Memories, a person who is given the memories from the world that existed before their current society, Sameness. In this society there is no individualism. People can not choose who to marry, or what they want to do for a living. Over time Jonas becomes more and more wise, and realizes that the supposedly perfect community actually has some very dark and negative aspects. The author, Lois Lowry is a 76-year-old writer who focuses her writing on helping struggling teenagers become individuals. Lowry had a very tragic childhood. After both of her parents were

Lea Vilna-Santos Mrs. English, 7th September 1st, 2015 The Giver, by: Lois Lowry Entry Log 7, Chapters 13-14, Questions 2 and 4: In chapters 12-13, Jonas’s father talks about a Birthmother that will be giving birth to twin boys the next month and it’s his turn to decide which one of the twins to release and Jonas continues to receive memories that might turn out to be more of a burden than he thought. The government made it that way because it would be an inconvenience to have someone who looks exactly like you. It’s weird for me to talk or read about someone saying that a person is an inconvenience. That’s a little harsh, especially for a baby.

In The Giver the authorities aim at achieving “Sameness” which means all people must be equal and the same. Lois Lowry describes a world of “sameness” where the lack of differences allows all members of the community to have predetermined roles and to follow an enforced set of rules. The Elders depict sameness in a way that makes it sound absolutely necessary, and without it, the whole world may fall apart. In the community of The Giver people accept everything as it is because they do not know any difference: “Our people made that choice, the choice to go to Sameness. Before my time, before the previous time … we relinquished sunshine and did away with difference” (Lowry, Giver 95). This sameness is terrifying and further imposes conformity on all people. So the community of The Giver is a uniformed society. People wear the same clothes; eat the same food; their houses are the same; and most of them look the same as well. By the age of ten, they all have the same short hair style: “females lost their braids at Ten, and males, too, relinquished their long childish hair took on the more manly style which exposed their ears” (Lowry, Giver 46). In The Giver the purpose of sameness is to protect people from wrong choices and to achieve safety for them.

"All knowledge hurts." — Cassandra Clare (City of Bones, The Mortal Instruments, #1) Knowledge may hurt, if the truth is discovered, but the knowledge and truth can give wisdom among other traits, but in the novel, The Giver wisdom gives honor. Knowledge can also change the way one may feel towards something. The Giver, by Lois Lowry, is a novel which portrays the notion that knowledge can change someone's opinion. Knowledge may change your likes, dislikes, and fears.

There are three words that are used for a tool for social control in The Giver. These three words are used in their community that promote or conceal the words we have that now in the community. Those three words are assignment, comfort object, and newchild. An assignment is given to you, and you can’t go without an assignment in Jonas’s community. A comfort object is given to all newchildren in their community, but taken away when they become older, and a newchild is what we call as a newborn. These three words are different than what we would call them, but their meanings are similar.

Conformity unites a society and makes it a safer place to live while individualism weakens it. In The Giver, we see a society where everyone is the same, we see a very safe society. One where there is no fear and no violence. This is an almost perfect world with everyone living to a ripe old age and everyone getting the job that is perfect for them. This is a conformed society. In our world we frequently see mass shootings, murders, wars and robberies on the news, the world we live in is nowhere near perfect and so much can be done to make it better. Sentimentality and love weaken us. If only everyone had the same thoughts about everything. Conformity is definitely the way to go when it comes to society.

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.