Examples Of Happiness And Horrors Of Giving In The Giver

    The story in The Giver by Lois Lowry takes place in a community that is not normal. People cannot see color, it is an offense for somebody to touch others, and the community assigns people jobs and children. This unnamed community shown through Jonas’ eye, the main character in this novel, is a perfect society. There is no war, crime, and hunger. Most readers might take it for granted that the community in The Giver differs from the real society. However, there are several affinities between the society in present day and that in this fiction: estrangement of elderly people, suffering of surrogate mothers, and wanting of euthanasia.

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 memories are of everything from the past such as warfare, hunger, color, feelings, family, animals, and so on. The receiver is the only person in the community that has access to the memories. The people of the community are brainwashed robots. As the Giver says countless times throughout the book “They know nothing.”(pg 99) Without the memories, the community members cannot learn from their mistakes, and they cannot become better. Also, someone else dictates every choice they make. The memories belong to everyone and should not be hidden. As the Giver says on page 145, “Memories need to be shared.” By leaving the community Jonas gives the memories back to the people. The people will get to experience emotions such as joy and love, and they will also be able to see color and hear the music. By giving the memories back, Jonas is giving them a chance for freedom. Eventually, the community could possibly become like Elsewhere. In life, you cannot ignore history because, without it, you cannot learn from the past and you cannot

Jonas receives memories of color, something that is absent from his community. He realizes how absent his community really is. Jonas hurts inside to tell people in his community what they are missing. The only person that he can really open up to is The Giver. They grew really close, and it became like a grandfather, grandchild relationship.

The Giver shows the ideology of a dystopian theme as it has the citizens being controlled by the authority. Members of the community are being watched by The Community so that they will not perform anything that hurts the population. For example, “”you know that there’s no third-chance”. The rules say that if there is a third transgression, he simply has to be released.” is quote said Jonas’s mother while sharing her experience that day. In this quote The Community is empowered and regulates every community member to be the way they want them to be; perfect. “Attention. A reminder Stirrings must be reported in order for treatment to take place. “”Jonas you HAVE to take your pills!””is another quote in The Giver. In this quote both the Community

The Giver describes a society in search of perfection, which is a recurring theme in literature. Somebody in Jonas’s society decided that eliminating or limiting choices and feeling, among other things, would ultimately create a perfect place in which to live. By eliminating and/or limiting choices and feelings, the creators were able to implement Sameness, which would then provide a conflict-less environment in which to exist.

The setting of The Giver takes place in a fictional community known as the “Sameness”. Life here is supposed to be "perfect" because there is no pain or suffering. They don’t have to take

Jonas has to learn more about death and pain than he already has. Death was something that wasn’t talked about in the community. The community “releases” members when they are old or if there is a set of twins or something wrong with a baby. Release is something celebrated within the community. Jonas had no idea that what release really means is to murder someone. He watches the release of a baby boy who was part of a set of twins born into the community. His father is the one performing this release because his father is a nurturer. This knowledge left Jonas devastated and in shock that his father could do something so terrible. He leaves the Giver’s and tells him that he can no longer continue receiving the memories. He takes a few days and collects himself. Fiona, his childhood friend talks him into to going back. Love is another emotion new to Jonas. He falls in love with Fiona. Falling in love is a big step that usually happens in adulthood. Another thing Jonas does that proves his progression in maturity is he decides to leave the community. When you grow up, you leave your mom and dad’s house which is how I connected this part of Jonas’ life with that of a real life

To start, Ponyboy, Jonas, and Brian all have to overcome hardships in their life. When ponyboy, [the main character in the book] was little, his parents passed away in a car crash. He and his brothers, Dally and Sodapop, had to learn to take care of themselves after this devastation occurred. Ponyboy explains how his parent's death affected him and his brothers:“Since Mom and Dad were killed in an auto wreck, the three of us get to stay together only as long as we behave. So Soda and I stay out of trouble as much as we can, and we’re careful not to get caught when we can’t”

Envision a society of order and perfection: no danger, no pain, and no war. All the communities are closely bonded together and there is no fear for the future. Peace and order surrounds the world, and everyone is blinded by this utopian country, inhibiting the true clear vision needed. Though it seems perfect, many of humanity’s rights must be taken away in order to attain and stabilize this hierarchy. Simplistic aspects in the world like vivid colors, beautiful music, and passionate love have been stripped from the population leaving everyone empty and blind. In The Giver by Louis Lowry, the utopian community is questioned and ultimately has to be destroyed by a true hero, Jonas, who sacrifices in order to give humanity back the human rights. By removing love, colors, and music, the community was able to gain control over pain and conflict; but as seen in Lowry’s book, this perfection has its price and has its consequences on the population causing lack of knowledge of the outside world, the lack of knowledge of the past, and lack of experience of the choices made.

The Giver portrays an issue that is very commonly seen in our society today, which is doing the wrong things for the right reasons. This novel has been awarded by the Association for Library Service to

In today’s society, one can see a divide among people, a world with disorder, and a world dominated by crime. Lois Lowry illustrates in her novel, The Giver, a world unlike any other, a world with no fear and disorder. A perfect society, or so it looks. As the readers go on they come to realize that an ideal society is nothing like it sounds. The readers take for granted our rights to chose what we want to do with our lives; if the audience lived like the people in the novel, our society would have no individual rights. This is a community, created by Lois Lowry, where no one has memories, feelings, or ambitions.

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.

Although The Giver was written and published in the early 1990’s, the book portrays many social, political, and cultural issues that were thriving at the time of its creation. Lowry's novel was written in light of events around the world including abortion and medical assisted suicide. The community in The Giver was set to be a utopian society with no hunger, suffering, or war, but also no color, music, or love. What also comes with this society is little to no privacy, even “private” houses have two-way intercoms which can be used to listen in for breaking the rules. In this way, The Giver is part of the tradition of dystopian novels.