Sameness And The Community 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

Could you imagine your world in which everything was predetermined for you, and you didn’t have a choice? This is the reality in The Giver by Lois Lowry, the main character Jonas faces these problems and many others as he completes his adventure. Although some may think this to be devastating, this is normal in his society. In the dystopian society conveyed in the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry, there are many similarities and differences to our modern day societies.

“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,

     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.

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.

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?

He accepts the role and begins training with The Giver. As time goes by, and he has received numerous memories, he starts to realise how cruel his society is. (SIP-A) In one of his later memories, we see The Giver pass on the memory of a rainbow. Jonas starts to learn about colors and vibrance. (STEWE-1) Jonas is first given the memory of a rainbow. “Days went by, and weeks. Jonas learned, through the memories, the names of colors; and now he began to see them all, in his ordinary life (though he knew it was ordinary no longer, and would never be again)” (Lowry 97). He felt good about what he was seeing, for a good amount of time at the least. (STEWE-2) But, Jonas starts to change his mind, and wonder why people don’t have color. He realizes that people can make choices without having the government do it for them. “‘If everything's the same, then there aren't any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things! A blue tunic, or a red one?’” (Lowry 97). Yes, Jonas does agree with The Giver after the fact that decisions can be dangerous. But, Jonas still likes the thought of decisions and colors. (SIP-B) The main reason Jonas decided to flee from his society, is the way that they handled releases. His father had been lying about the process for all of Jonas’s life. (STEWE-1) Jonas asks The Giver about release because of the release his father was doing that

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

Conformity, most people do not like it and most people do. There would be a time where you would want to be the same as someone is probably if you and your best friend wear the same exact outfit and you two might say, “Twinsies”. Do you ever wonder what it would be like if everyone dressed the same as you and not just one person? In a dystopian novel, The Giver by Lois Lowry, everyone is forced to live the same way. Everything in the Community is the same. For instance, their clothing, skin tones, the size of their family, house, everything is identical. That is just how their community works. If everyone in the world lived the same like The Giver, society would not have originality and diversity. Just imagine living in that world instead of your world here where everyone is different.

In Lois Lowry’s The Giver, the Giver and Jonas use the two following quotes to justify their community’s idea of “Sameness”, where everyone is the same but has no choice. The Giver tells Jonas, “Life here is so orderly so predictable—so painless.” In response, Jonas says, “We really have to protect people from wrong choices.” Eventually, both Jonas and the Giver realize that sameness is wrong and that it is better to be equal, to have the same rights, but able to choose to be different.

Everyone in the community can not have there own personalities because they have to be the same. There is a limit of two kids per family unit. There is nothing private in the community because they have to be the same. Sameness is bad because the receiver has to keep the pain a secret. The receiver is a person that keeps all of the memories. ¨but now you will be able to go farther back¨(Lois lowry 116) The Giver tells Jonas “being the receiver makes family life hard”(Lois Lowry 132). Sameness is bad because they have to take away color. Color is taken away because some people can not see color and then they are not the same. Why did colors disappear’ is what Jonas asked the Giver when he found out that everyone can not see color. (Lois Lowry 120)The government pick spouses and the child which results in no love. “Do you love me” asked Jonas.(Lois Lowry 159)It is clear that sameness is bad because there is no love in the community.

During his training, Jonas realized that the truth about the world he was living in, through his experience in training. For example on page 121 and 122 it states, “ ‘We shouldn’t have!’ Jonas said fiercely.” He later says, “‘But I want them!’ Jonas said angrily. “It isn’t fair that nothing is color!’” . In the society, everything is black and white. Literally and psychologically. Going back to when Jonas first saw the color red in the apple, it changed him, and he never looked at things the same way again. How would you feel if you could not see any color at all? Jonas, willing to change the ordeals of the society, rebels against this rule, and it proves evidence as to how Jonas was trying to make a difference in the world. In fact, the people might not be able to see color because they are taking the pill, like Jonas didn’t, earlier in the story.

The people appear to be quite content with being led by a selected few. In Jonas’ community, there is no lack of anything or prejudice. Everything is orderly in a bid to prevent problems arising. Jonas however gains knowledge about what the people have given up in order to help uphold the common good principle. The distress of the community becomes more apparent, leading to distrust and dismay. He gains awareness that this whole world as he had come to know is unreal. As his awareness grows, he becomes more defiant and determined not to remain under the hypocrisy of the system that he was

In The Giver, everything that they do in life is chosen for them which doesn’t give them enough room to breath but I still think that some things being chosen for us is a good idea. If society were to choose certain things be done such as our clothes or our spouses we wouldn’t get a chance to choose what we want to do. By allowing all of our decisions be chosen seems to be perfect but it doesn’t allow a person any freedom. We have been taught all our lives to, “reach for the stars” and “follow our hearts,” but we will never get the chance to do that if it is decided for us. We won’t be able to choose our job or fall in love with our soul mate. So many basic things we do in life would be swept out from under our feet without being able to make our own decisions. Life would have no purpose if you don’t get to enjoy they way you live. Having society choose some things we do in our daily life would create a functioning community but when they choose everything you do

Jonas society is a utopian society because everything and everyone is the same. How are people suppose to see the differences in life if they can't see no color. On the other hand if you wanted to pick a color to wear they could not because no one can see color(Lowry 120).we relinquished color when we relinquished sunshine and did away with differences.Jonas replied ¨we shouldn't have!¨he