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Sameness In The Giver

Decent Essays

The setting of The Giver functions symbolically from the Elders using sameness in an attempt to create a utopian society. The setting itself symbolizes how perfect sameness is unachievable yet the community still strives against uniqueness. In the text it strongly states how sameness is being used in a point of view of one of the major characters lily, she has to wear her ribbons because of her age group which was set a rule by the elders: “‘I don’t like hair ribbons, I’m glad I only have to wear them one more year,’ Lily said irritably, “next year I get my bicycle too,” she added more cheerfully.” The text strictly unfolds how the community is symbolizing similarity to each and every person in the community. Without any person being unique …show more content…

‘I was only asking about release because my father is releasing a new child today. A twin. He has to select one and release the other one.’ ‘I wish they wouldn’t do that,’ he said quietly, almost to himself. ‘They can’t have two identical people around! Think how confusing it would be.’”The text breaks down how uniqueness is a conflict in the community. For two people to be alike in the community it would be unique. Even that the community is trying to use sameness, it’s not in a way that everybody in the community is identical. Lowry clarifies how the community solves having identical people without the community knowing some people had an identical twin. This displays an example of a utopian society due to all the imaginary rules that are made. Compared to the real world some of these rules are awful for a community. An example of the community's rule is instead of releasing the twin, the nurturers kill it by putting an liquid inside the top of the baby's

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