Individuality In The Giver

How would you feel if you were forced into an occupation where you lived through pains of the world everyday? Obviously, it would be painful and a punishment. Unfortunately, in the book, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, the main character, Jonas, goes through this exact thing. Everything from feeling alone, enduring the painful memories, and seeing everything differently, is what he goes through everyday.

Lois Lowry’s The Giver presents a flawless futuristic community. The ‘elders’ of the community make all the decisions for the people, including personal decisions, and negatively affects the community. The community lacks individuality, and everyone is the same, resulting in no personal memories, emotions, or feelings. Freedom is removed from the people, barring them from making personal choices.

Hook: Imagine living in a perfect society and hearing all of the jobs that the people would get, but if someone got the Receiver of Memory, they would receive a lot of the pain from the memories. Jonas’s assignment as the next Receiver of Memory is a punishment. The job as a Receiver of Memory caused a lot of pain. Jonas feels separate and different from his fellow peers when he became the Receiver of Memory. When The Giver became a little older, age showed a lot more when The Giver became the Receiver of Memory than if he had a regular job.

     This book is about a boy names Jonas. Jonas lives in a futuristic society where there is no pain, fear, war, and hatred. There is also no prejudice, since everyone looks and acts basically the same, there is very little competition. They have also eliminated choice.

In an utopian society there is no diversity, people look the same but they can’t make them act the same. That’s why diversity is important because it helps differ one person from a state of sameness. The battle between sameness and diversity is the main plot of The Giver. The main plot is very important, it portrays a sign of hope to the society.

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

“Perfection is shallow, unreal, and fatally uninteresting” (Anne Lamott). The loss of freedom when striving for perfection results in a monotonous and routine way of life. In their search for perfection, the society of The Giver loses their privacy, their sense of love, and their individualism because of an oppressive ruling system. All dystopian societies have one common issue: constant surveillance. This is the most significant issue found in The Giver’s society because it immediately eliminates any chance of privacy.

Diversity and change rely and thrive on each other, one without the other would not survive. Jonas is the only person in his society that can see the change,”They changed… Briefly, he felt a small sliver of sureness for the first time.” Page 64. In this quote, Jonas finds what comforts him, change. Jonas doesn’t yet know what change means to him, but he finds that diversity is something only he has encountered, and it is what keeps him thriving to make a difference. The way Jonas describes his love of Gabe is displayed when Jonas helps Gabe feel changes through the memories he gives to him. This action is important because Gabriel is the future and can make a change greater than ever imagined.

The difference represents a person’s pride. A community is like a circus; each act is different, to prove different purposes. Similarly, people each have distinct personalities, like how ringmasters and clowns have different forms of comedy. The individualism is what brings the circus tent alive and enjoyable. Individuality is more meaningful than conformity because it paints a picture to better understand a person.

In the novel by Lois Lowry ‘The Giver,’ the title role is a 12- year- old boy named Jonas, as the lead the character in the novel he is put to various tests that define him. Jonas is seen being a noble character when he takes on memories from The Giver, they cause him pain intellectually and physically giving him a heroic appeal. Jonas’s challenges are similar to another heroic character deemed The Giver, who has carried excruciating memories for multiple years. This gives The Giver a brave aspect because he carries these memories so his communities “perfect “ world would not fall apart. In ‘The Giver’ Jonas puts himself on the line to benefit his community, this generous act would be considered the essence of a hero by many.

Through the element of characterization, Jonas’ selflessness is exemplified in the novel, The Giver, written by Lois Lowry. The story takes place in a dystopian society that is stripped away from all emotion, color, music, and love. To restore his crippling society, Jonas, the main character, sets out on a journey into the beyond of his district, but, on his way, is stopped by a young child, named Gabriel, who is to be killed the next morning because of his inadequate development. To prevent this trauma from occurring, Jonas takes the boy with him as he continues on with his quest. To begin, Jonas suffers from hypothermia and starvation, due to the extreme conditions of his pursuit.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that. ”(Dr. Martin Luther King Jr)In the book “The Giver” a character named Jonas Is faced with a difficult decision. Jonas must decide to either stay in his community or to run away.

You are born in a black and white world, and you don't know where you came from or even what it was like before birth. Jonas is a 12 year old boy that lives in a large utopian community with his 7 year old sister and his parents, its creators see it as a perfect world because it eliminates fear, pain, hunger, and illness. In The Giver, written by Lois Lowry, the theme of growing up is explored through the symbols of december, bicycle, and ribbons. The first reason why the theme is growing up is December.

I wander through the house aimlessly trying to find where I had left the box that my Dad had told me to get. I trek up and down the stairs and throughout the barren house and the box I misplaced is nowhere to be found. But as I wander throughout the barren house looking for this box, I stumble into the narrow kitchen and memories start to slowly creep into my mind, it overwhelms me and a tear begins to roll down my plump ten-year-old face.

I took of my tunic once more. I lay down on the cold, hard bed. The gentle touch of The Giver's hand came down at me. This time his hands were not hot nor cold. I then start to see the bright light of the sun come down at me, but a tree lays right in front of the rays of heat blocking the brightness of the light. I start to hear a faint buzz, getting louder as I walk closer to the tree. Out comes a yellow and black striped little flying bug. I finally dig deep enough and suddenly think of a word, bee. I get closer to the bee. It comes right up to me seeking something. It just lays there on my shaking arm as it gets close to my elbow. All of the sudden it flies up in the air, coming down back at my arm like a bullet. A sharp pain goes up and