Society's Actions 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

With Jonas’s job as being The Giver, truth is a very important aspect. Being The Giver, he learns about the real, and whole truth. The Giver is the one who keeps all of the memories of truth. Without it there would be no reason to have a Giver. Another way that the truth works in the role Jonas was given would be that if Jonas leaves the community, all of the memories that he had received would be then distributed to the people of the community. When The Giver and Jonas come up with the idea that everyone not knowing the truth is wrong, they send Jonas away so that everyone receives the memories. There are many ways in which the truth works in the role that Jonas receives, such as when the Chief Elders ask The Giver for advice when they are in times of trouble. Here is a great example of what I mean, “And when I am called to The Committee of Elders, I appear before them, to give them counsel and advice”(Lowry 130) The truth is used in many other ways in Jonas’s job as well, and these are only a

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?

Jonas began to feel like her wanted to go home. Jonas can't go back to his community, "But he knew he couldn't go back to the world of no feelings for that he had lived in so long" (Lowry 131). Jonas wants to leave the community and never come back to it again because no matter how much he tries to give them memories he can't change them. Jonas decides that it is ok for him to leave his community. “ If he stayed, he would have starved in other ways. He would have lived a life hanged for feelings, for color, for love” (Lowry 174). Jonas made the right decision of leaving his community because he would have been starving for answer on why they never changed the community but he feels happier that he rejected his society and left. (SIP-B) Jonas doesn't want to be a part of his community anymore. Jonas doesn't want to go back to his dwelling to see his family, "I won't! I won't go home! You can't make me!' Jonas sobbed and shouted and pounded the bed with his fist" (Lowry 153). Jonas doesn't want to go back to his dwelling to see his family again because his father lied to him about the ceremony of release for babies. Jonas wanted his childhood back, he didn't want to be the receiver anymore, "Jonas did not want to go back. He didn't want the memories, didn't want the honor, didn't want the wisdom, didn't want the pain. He wanted his childhood again, his scraped knees and ball games" (Lowry 121). That Jonas doesn't want to be the receiver of memory anymore he wants to get his childhood back so he doesn’t have to know about the memories of past communities. Jonas is rejecting his society because he finds out the true meaning of his community and why they took out what they

In today’s society there are many authors who write dystopian novels. They write these novels to give knowledge and to tell how our world is very different from dystopian life. Lois Lowry shows readers how people can suffer in dystopian society. In The Giver, Jonas’ community appears to be a utopia, but in reality it is a dystopia because everyone is under the illusion that there is freedom, dehumanization, and their strict regulations.

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:

Jonas has to learn more about death and pain than he already has. Death was something that wasn’t talked about in the community. The community “releases” members when they are old or if there is a set of twins or something wrong with a baby. Release is something celebrated within the community. Jonas had no idea that what release really means is to murder someone. He watches the release of a baby boy who was part of a set of twins born into the community. His father is the one performing this release because his father is a nurturer. This knowledge left Jonas devastated and in shock that his father could do something so terrible. He leaves the Giver’s and tells him that he can no longer continue receiving the memories. He takes a few days and collects himself. Fiona, his childhood friend talks him into to going back. Love is another emotion new to Jonas. He falls in love with Fiona. Falling in love is a big step that usually happens in adulthood. Another thing Jonas does that proves his progression in maturity is he decides to leave the community. When you grow up, you leave your mom and dad’s house which is how I connected this part of Jonas’ life with that of a real life

Despite the fact that he could be killed if he was caught. Jonas also wanted to release the memories into the community to make it a better place. Jonas looked to The Giver for advice, and The Giver was almost like a father to him. Jonas normally followed the rules of the community for what was right and what was wrong except when he ran away. Jonas learned that the rules of the community were harsh, once he had his knowledge he got from The Giver, he kind of made his own rules. The Giver shows lots of moral courage because he helped Jonas run away despite the potential consequences of getting released. Also the Giver took the risk of giving Jonas the memories when the previous receiver ran away because the memories were too much and then those memories were lost. The Giver has all the knowledge from the previous generations so he uses that to decide what is right and

Not only has Jonas changed but he has also changed his community, in a good way. Jonas went from being a rule follower, obedient, careful and as the book goes on Jonas breaks the rules, feels, reckless and becomes an hero. We can all learn from this story though. Change is not a bad thing, change can affect our lives in good and bad ways. It depends on what change you choose for yourself. Jonas felt strongly about his decision to leave the community and even though the days were tough Jonas persevered and fought for every last breath he

I think the author teaches anyone a good lesson on determination. I think the theme is determination is the key to success. The first reason is that a decent chunk of the book is about Jonas trying to save his community. One piece of supporting evidence is when he was determined to leave the community and return all the memories. In order to get memories back, he was determined to go and wasn’t giving up.

The statement, “Why can’t everyone see them? Why did colours disappear?” (p.124) tells us that his interrogations led him to sheer curiosity to the extent where he witnesses a clearer insight into his so-called ‘ideal’ society. Another statement by The Giver, “… memories need to be shared… you needed me then and now they will…” (p.194-196) foretells Jonas escaping his disingenuous world. This goes to show that Jonas has been led to believe countless lies and has contemplated on his whereabouts throughout which then reveals the initiative that he along with the Giver must flee to Elsewhere.

In the beginning of the novel, Jonas is naive about all the events happening in his society until he gets his future job as the receiver. Here, he realizes that there is more to the world and receives all of the memories from the past. Lowry states, “Finally, when he knew that he could bear it no longer and would welcome death himself, he opened his eyes and was once again on the bed. … Jonas didn't want to go back. He didn't want the memories, didn't want the honor, didn't want the wisdom, didn’t want the pain.

To me this shows that no matter how painful, scarring, and threatening these memories may be you still have to experience and enjoy them, or at least learn something from them. I believe that when you neglect people of their memories and authentic emotions they aren’t really living. They are just existing, and that’s not fair to them. You could argue that it’s better for Jonas to carry and endure all memories because then he would be the only one suffering. I disagree with this argument because once Jonas starts receiving memories he realizes that he doesn’t want to live in a place where everybody is exactly the same and being different is considered shameful.

Jonas wants people to know what's really right and not like most people. Jonas is the Protagonist in the book "The Giver". In a community where no feelings and/or memories are felt. He's mostly twelve in the book. He has been selected to be the new "Receiver of Memory", which is a big honor and only he can have them.

Jonas saw people dying and shooting at each other in hate and saw all of the explosions that caused fires and everything was hectic. Jonas did not like that memory at all because he had never heard of or experienced such a tragedy and hardship before because of the Community. The Community kept every type of feeling there was away from everyone, the good and the bad. Although some people may think that it is good to take away all of the bad memories, I don’t think so because if taking away all of the bad memories means taking away the good memories too then I’ll take bad memories along with the good ones because the good memories are things that no one should ever want to forget because they are key moments too when they were happy, the best moments of their