Sameness In The Giver, By Lois Lowry

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

In our world, we can decided what we wear like and how we act. Some of us have long hair, others have short, and a portion of us have none at all. Other physical features may be eye color, hair color, height, or weight. Internal differences may be likes and dislikes; the people in Jonas’ community are just the opposite. They follow a strict set of rules and cannot see or realize any differences. This sameness has been enforced by the Committee of Elders for a while. It is like they live in a one-way mirror; but Jonas can see differences and so can the Giver. They can see color while others just see shades of gray. They can see how the community has changed and how it is being controlled. So this one-way mirror has a secret second side and Jonas can now see through it. This begins to get frusterating to Jonas because he is confused about his

Jonas never lied nor got in trouble by his parents, Jonas' society never lied to nor harmed eachother they all cared for one another. Jonas started out not taking his medicine that lead him to see color, then had a dream and kept it to himself. Jonas' friend Fiona was a really nice and pretty girl and it made Jonas fall in love, but in his society ur not suposed to fall in love, he wasn't like the other people in his society.He the same as everyone else at the begining of the novel but because of his choices it affected the way he felt, he started to feel depressed because of the things he had found out about the comunity.

In “The Giver”, written by Lois Lowry, one of the major theme’s is “sameness”, which effects very deeply the life of citizens in the community based on perfection.Sameness in somewhere just as this community, can either cause disadvantages or advantages at the same time, also including the loss of diversity.

"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:

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 setting of The Giver takes place in a fictional community known as the “Sameness”. Life here is supposed to be "perfect" because there is no pain or suffering. They don’t have to take

In The Giver the authorities aim at achieving “Sameness” which means all people must be equal and the same. Lois Lowry describes a world of “sameness” where the lack of differences allows all members of the community to have predetermined roles and to follow an enforced set of rules. The Elders depict sameness in a way that makes it sound absolutely necessary, and without it, the whole world may fall apart. In the community of The Giver people accept everything as it is because they do not know any difference: “Our people made that choice, the choice to go to Sameness. Before my time, before the previous time … we relinquished sunshine and did away with difference” (Lowry, Giver 95). This sameness is terrifying and further imposes conformity on all people. So the community of The Giver is a uniformed society. People wear the same clothes; eat the same food; their houses are the same; and most of them look the same as well. By the age of ten, they all have the same short hair style: “females lost their braids at Ten, and males, too, relinquished their long childish hair took on the more manly style which exposed their ears” (Lowry, Giver 46). In The Giver the purpose of sameness is to protect people from wrong choices and to achieve safety for them.

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

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.

Imagine living in a world where nothing changed and everyone was the same. In Lois Lowry’s novel, The Giver, the society is all the same. For example the people of the society do not fight and there is no war. Sameness is slowly working its way into our society. It is used as uniforms in some schools, even secluding yourself to a specific friend group because everyone has the same interests could be considered as Sameness. I believe Sameness is a major advantage due to no one suffering, but living where a society is completely the same would not be an interesting life to live. The Giver portrays how sameness in a society could have advantages and disadvantages.

Is sameness good? In the book The Giver by Lois Lowry sameness is throughout the whole community. The report below will include reasons sameness is a good and bad thing. Sameness is bad because of the way it affects people throughout the community.

If you are given a choice to save a loved one would you? Jonas did. Because Jonas knows what release is so he is able to save Gabe from it. Jonas’ father doesn’t know what release means so he can’t make an informed choice. “We really have to protect people from wrong choices” (pg 99). Jonas is protecting his father. People need knowledge to make informed choices. People may not always make the right choice but they can try to fix their mistakes and they can realize that what they did is wrong and not be ignorant. “He had made the wrong one: the choice to leave. And now he was starving”(pg172). Jonas knew that if he didn’t save Gabe he would die so he only cared about Gabe. Jonas made the decision to leave and now he is facing the consequences. Lowry shows that every decision has an outcome.