“ ‘But I want them!’ Jonas said angrily. ‘It isn’t fair that nothing has color!’ ‘Not fair?’The Giver looked at Jonas curiously. ‘Explain what you mean.’ ‘Well … ‘ Jonas had to stop and think it through. ‘If everything’s the same, then there aren’t any choices!’ ” The Giver by Lois Lowry was inspired because of her elderly dad losing his memory of anything painful that happened in the past, Lowry got the idea to write a book where all the painful memories were taken from everyone in the community along with color and emotions. Not only were the memories, emotions and color were taken away, but so was their right to make their own decisions. Jonas, however, the receiver of memory is starting to see colors and is given memories, then he makes …show more content…
It can be seen as a dystopia because one document talks about release while the other Jonas is watching a release and I don’t think that it is fair how they take the lives of young children and the take the lives of elderly people, but I think the worse part is that the committee of elders hides death from the community. “ ‘You should have seen the look on his face when they let him go.’ Jonas slowed the strokes of his hand on her back thoughtfully. ‘Larissa,’ he asked, ‘what happens when they make the actual release? Where exactly did Roberto go?’ She lifted her bare wet shoulders in a small shrug. ‘I don't know’ ” This quote shows how elderly people are “released” or in other words killed because the committee of elders think that they have lived long enough and that it is time for the next generation. Another quote that is about “release” is “Now he cleans him up and makes him comfy, Jonas said to himself, aware that The Giver didn’t want to talk during the little ceremony. As he continued to watch, the new child, no longer crying, moved his arms and legs in a jerking motion. Then he went limp. His head fell to the side, his eyes half open. Then he was still … Jonas stared at the screen, waiting for something to happen. But nothing did. The little twin lay motionless.” In this scene, Jonas’s dad releases a twin because the committee of elders thinks that they should all be different. As you can …show more content…
However, Document E proves that Jonas’s community is a dystopia. This persuaded me because people don’t get to make their own decisions. “ ‘Yes, I know about Gabriel.’ ‘Well, he’s right at the age where he’s learning so much. He grabs toys when we hold them in front of him — my father says he’s learning small-muscle control. And he’s really cute.’ The Giver nodded ‘But now that I can see colors, at least sometimes, I was just thinking: what if we could hold up things that were bright red, or bright yellow, and he could choose? Instead of the Sameness.’ ‘He might make wrong choices.’ “Oh,’ Jonas was silent for a minute. ‘Oh, I see what you mean. It wouldn’t matter for a new child's toy. But later it does matter, doesn’t it? We don’t dare to let people make choices of their own.’ ‘Not safe?’ The Giver suggested. ‘Definitely not safe,’ Jonas said with certainty. ‘What if they were allowed to choose their own mate? And chose wrong?’ ‘Or what if,’ he went on, almost laughing at the absurdity, ‘they chose their own jobs?’ ‘Frightening, isn’t it?’The Giver said.” In this scene, Jonas argues with the giver and tells him that he doesn’t want to live in a world without color and a world where you don’t get to make any decisions on your own and that is what
The society is trying to be utopian but the more we read the more we realize it's flaws. Things like freedom of choice and expression, love, happiness, music, and art are all things we associate with a utopian society that the novel is deprived of. These things where all removed for the sake of living, but the novel leaves us scratching our heads wondering if it is worth living a life that doesn't give us anything worth living for. Although I wouldn't go so far as to call it a dystopian society because they have got some things right. For instance ethnicity and religion play no role in society as they shouldn't. And they do live in total peace. A hidden message of the novel might be that you can't have sunshine without a little rain. In this case they have gone with the safe choice of having only
“Color.” It’s all around us, we see it every day of our lives, everything has color, but the people in Jonas’ community didn’t know this. They had no clue what color was or that it even existed. Their society was hue less, hopeless, and everything was the same until the new receiver of memory changed that for everyone. In our world choice is a big part of our everyday lives we make many choices a day, do I want this or that, green or blue, this shirt or that shirt? But in The Giver choices were made for them, what they wear, how they act, what they say, what they eat, and what they do for a living. Imagine all that stuff being chosen for you. Everyone would be dressed the same, act the same,
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 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.
Ponder this thought…. A world where jobs are assigned to people, there are no colors, there is no weather, and rules after rules after rules. It would be impossible to live in a place like this. I would not want to live in the society from The Giver. The Giver society is a tough place to live, therefore I would not want to. In this society, people don’t have the freedom of choice, they don’t have normal, everyday objects, and there is extremely strict rules. Overall, this society is not the place for me.
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
At the Ceremony of Twelves, the children get their job; they are given a specific job that fits their actions and by where they had spent most of their volunteer hours. Everything is chosen for you, you can’t make a choice that’s important by yourself, and someone else is to choose for you. The Release of the Old and the Release of some of the unfortunate infants may seem very benign but it isn’t. Other folk believe Release to Elsewhere would nice but what they think is wrong. The workers actually use a syringe and inject fluids into the innocent elder, infant, or voluntary victim to kill them. Jonas’ father had to Release the innocent twin brother because he was identical but was smaller than his sibling. Jonas believes that the people that Release others have no feelings; that they have no regard that they are killing an innocent life just because they were born that way or that they were getting too old.
Throughout our lives, as humans, we have to make many decisions about things such as, the clothes we wear, the people we will mary, and even the jobs we will work at. However, these decisions can either be very good for us, or they can come back to haunt us later in life. It is dangerous for us as humans, to make our own decisions, and it would be safer if society made these tough decisions for us. In the story, “The Giver,” by Lois Lowry, Jonas comes to the conclusion that letting people choose the things such as their clothes, their spouse, and their job would be very dangerous. If society chose things for people, then life would be a lot safer for everyone. Also, many bad things that can harm people can be better by society choosing things for people. It would be more dangerous for us to get through our lives if society didn’t make decisions for us. It is dangerous for us as humans, to make our own decisions, and it would be safer if society made these tough decisions for us.
In the futuristic novel, The Giver by Louis Lowry, many of our choices are taken away, leaving us with “Sameness” in which everyone and everything has no color and no choice, everyone is created to be “perfect.” Jonas a young boy is chosen as “The Receiver” in which he learns about leadership and commitment. He also has to make a number of choices to be considered a good leader. In the following paragraphs we will be exploring the things mentioned and comparing and contrasting how the right and wrong choice is determined in our society and in the novel The Giver.
What would happen if you lived in a world with no emotion, no emotion, and no choice? This is exactly the case in The Giver. When a boy, Jonas, who lives in a futuristic community starts to receive memories from the Giver he realizes there are so many beautiful yet terrible things inside and outside of the community. He dosen’t know another way to save the community from sameness except to release his memories to the community, good and bad. Three things that could have been done to the community to avoid this is adding the arts, emotions, and weather.
Albert Einstein, who is a renown scientist once said, “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” Curiosity is the key to success because it has the ability to create and expand knowledge. In Lois Lowry’s novel The Giver, Jonas’s most powerful character trait is his curiosity about life. One shows curiosity by questioning the world, experiencing new things, and examining unknown objects.
There are too many rules and it would get annoying eventually. “Attention. This is a reminder to females under nine that hair ribbons are to be neatly tied at all times.” (Lowry 22) Tiny things like this could get someone in big trouble if it’s repetitive. “I apologize for inconveniencing my learning community.” (Lowry 5)Since he interrupted the class, he had to say a saying of their appreciation. “Attention. This is a reminder to male elevens that objects are not to be removed from the recreation area and that snacks are to be eaten, not hoarded.” (Lowry 23) The big speaker thing had pointed him out after he took an apple.
You could argue that this book is a dystopia because they aren’t free and can’t make their own choice but the problem is a lot of the time we choose wrong and it affects our whole life. For example, what happens if someone choose to not go to college and end up working at a fast food restaurant for half of their life. Then they can’t support their family if they were even lucky enough to have one without a descent job and they could end up going to college when their 40 or 50 trying to get a descent job. Be honest though no one wants to do that. In Jonas’s community people watch over other people and assign what they think is the right job for them for the rest of their lives and not have to worry about putting food on the table
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 addition, there are three reasons why I believe Jonas’s society is a dystopia. One of those reasons is, in Jonas’s community, they have a thing called sameness. I know this because in the text the author depicts, “ We did away