Examples Of Humanity In The Giver

In the community everyone wears the same clothes and has the same house so nothing ever looks different from the others. It is all even and fair and beautiful. Or so Jonas thought. Until Jonas received the memories of flowers in a meadow or of a boat on the sea he didn't really know what beauty is because he hasn't ever known what ugliness is. All of the people that Jonas has ever known have been kind and peaceful, always apologizing when a mistake is made.

“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

Jonas is the protagonist of the novel and a third-person narrator tells the entire story from Jonas perception of things. He is intelligent, curious, caring, and his thought process is very mature for being 11-13 years old. A good quote portraying both his matureness and his intellect is “If everything's the same, then there aren't any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things”(97). This is also one of the first signs that he is displeased with the community. Another quote showing his courage and curiosity is "It hurt a lot," Jonas said, "but I'm glad you gave it to me. It was interesting. And now I understand better. What it meant, that there would be

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

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.

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?

Jonas accepting his society because he's unaware of emotions of the other people in his community. Jonas follows the rule of having the share your feelings everyday. Not telling

"It was your first Stirrings...you're ready for the pills.'....he swallowed the pill...the feelings had disappeared. The Stirrings were gone." (37-39) This quote shows that there are no feelings in this society. The Elders make the citizens take pills to subdue their feelings. "Love. It was a word and concept new to him." (125) When Jonas is given the memory of love, he interpreted the feeling and repeated the word to himself because he didn’t know the meaning. This is yet another fact that proves the community is unable to progress and move forward if the members do not have feelings. Without feelings, you cannot have empathy. Having empathy is important because it helps us understand what the other person is feeling. People wouldn’t experience the ability to trust, to have human compassion, to have meaningful relationships and there would be a certain loss of

Jonas is just another member of his community. He spends his life following the rules that his community has imposed him. In all his life, he has blindly followed the rules and has never questioned them. For that reason, it comes to a shock when he receives new instructions that go against everything he has been taught:

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

One reason why Jonas hates this community is because of the rules. If you make one small mistake, you can get in serious trouble, also known as being released (killed). “ When an unidentified aircraft had overflown the community twice….Needless to say, he will be released.” (pg. 13) This suggests that the rules in the society can have a major impact on someone if they make just a slight error. The fact that the person did not follow the directions well enough and got killed is appalling. These unpleasant and ridiculous rules support a dystopian novel because they show how unpleasant living in this community can be.

In the story, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, a twelve-year-old child named Jonas fights for his community’s right to be free of the Elders’ control. Within this utopian that masks a dystopian type world, his community and he are restricted of their right to feel emotions, perceive color, and to recall memories to lead safe, same lives, (which is called Sameness by them). Their ignorance of the knowledge that's known by the Giver and the Elders is ultimately the driving force for Jonas to start a single-person rebellion to give himself and others freedom of the Elders’ rules.

I want to wake up in the morning and decide things! A blue tunic, or a red one?” He looked down at himself, at the colorless fabric of his clothing. “But it’s all the same, always.” This document could be used as evidence that Jonas’s community is a dystopia by not letting others choose their own things, such as their clothing.

In Jonas society, nobody knows any information about anything. The elders, who are in the Giver’s community, believe that no community members except for them and the Receiver of memory should know all the information. Even in the beginning of the training, Jonas thought that he had to protect people from wrong choices. But, the Giver agreed that it was safer. Jonas was getting mad about how the memories couldn't be shared with everyone, so he decided to run away on his bike with Gabe. They decided to make a plan to leave. The Receiver and Gabe left the community together. Life is full of color, even though life was remained in this society, it was not colorful. All the bad days and good days were very valuable to

Throughout the book jonas becomes more and more angry and against the rules of the community. “I want to wake up in the morning and decide things!” jonas was furious because the other people of the community were not given any power. The people couldn't even see color and were blinded by