The Archetypal Hero In Lois Lowry's The Giver

This novel is about a community where each person is the same. Everybody in this community go by certain rules and if they do not follow those rules they are punished. Everyone is to act the same in this book. Every person is assigned a job when they become a twelve and they are to work at the job until they go to the house of the old. This book is explained by Lois Lowry the author is explaining a whole different world than ours in this world he describes a person called the giver who is the receiver who hands off the job to Jonas one of the main characters who asks the receiver about all his memories and about what his job will be like. Jones had become the receiver. the giver gives him training and tells him what memories were like, the giver tells him why were like giver tells him why were like.

Jonas’s experience in The Giver molds him into the classic archetypal hero. The journey includes both positive and negative experiences from his call to duty, training, departure, and the return home. Through these experiences, Jonas grows into an archetypal hero.

“’Memories are forever”’ (Lowry). People make new memories every day without even realizing it. Some good some bad, that’s just the way of life, but in The Giver nobody knows what happened before them. People barley remember what their childhood was like, they don’t understand the importance of memory and that memories are forever. Aspects of life, rules, and prosperities between our world and Jonas’ world are very different yet have some similarities. Things that are crucial to the characters in The Giver are not as meaningful to the people in our world.

In the novel “The Giver,” written by Lois Lowry, Jonas is a boy who follows the rules, spends time with friends and family, goes to school, and at the Twelves Ceremony is given the job as the Receiver of Memory. At the end of the novel, Jonas learns information that makes him leave the community to save the people he loves. As Jonas becomes older, he acknowledges that he is different from his family and the people surrounded by him. Once Jonas got his assignment as the Receiver of Memory, his maturity became inconsistent throughout the novel.

Imagine having everything you wished for. You would live in a perfect world. But every world has imperfections and you come across to realizing...a perfect world doesn’t exist. Within time, you come from an illusion to reality. You choose your journey and it starts here. The community is a separate environment from the world and has many rules to live by. The rules can vary to be severe consequences. It includes sameness, no memories, and family unit regulations. The kids end their childhood at the age of 12 by receiving their life assignment. The main character, Jonas is chosen to be the receiver of memory. He is reliable to hold everyone's feelings, hopes, and devotions. In The Giver the author Lois Lowry uses the theme of change to reveal that growing up in “the community” is a non-stressful and organized environment but Jonas finds the real world a whole different place when he receives memories about strong feelings and hardships, intellects the word “love”, and how important it is to be an individual.

Change is inevitable no matter what difference is made. The Giver by author Lois Lowry is the story of a utopian community that has adopted sameness that actually seems more dystopian later on. The Giver’s protagonist is a boy, Jonas, who is chosen and honored to take the assignment of being the Receiver of Memories. Jonas as the new Receiver of Memories is trained by the previous Receiver of Memories who Jonas calls The Giver. This causes many joys and pains for Jonas, but a curiousness to every new memory that is given. The setting is set in a community that has gained the culture to be a strict community that is controlled by The Elders. Before meeting the Giver, Jonas began as an outcast,later as he met his mentor Jonas was brave, and as he became more mature he became determined.

Potter Stewart once said, “Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself.” Often times, people try to censor works of literature because they feel that they contain inappropriate content that should not be shown to the public. Many have attacked Lois Lowry’s novel The Giver for its controversial content. The Giver is centered around Jonas, a boy who lives in a seemingly peaceful community where differences within people have been eradicated and people have no memories. Each member of the community is assigned a position in society to help the community function as a whole. When Jonas turns twelve, he is selected to be the Receiver of Memory. Only he and his predecessor, the Giver, know the truth and memories of the past. Feeling burdened with these memories, Jonas decides to flee the community altogether. Many people believe that this heart-warming novel contains questionable content that should not be shown to the public. Although some argue The Giver contains explicit sexual content,

The Giver, by Lois Lowry is about a young boy named Jonas who is growing up in a utopian society. In The Giver they have no memories of anything that has pain even involved which meant that the community had to get rid of some joyful things also. Jonas, the receiver, and The Giver himself are the only two that know the memories. The author, Lois Lowry, was given the Newbery medal in 1994. In her acceptance speech of the medal she stated things in her life that influenced her book, The Giver. Many of the events in Lois Lowry’s life had really influenced many of the big events in The Giver.

The Giver, by Lois Lowry, is a dystopian narrative about a boy who lives in a “utopia” where there is order and, everything is controlled. He alone must contain memories of the past. Unfortunately, many of these memories are traumatic and disturbing. Jonas can do nothing beyond withstanding the pain. Because that is how it had always been in the community. As often paraphrased by the Giver, who is the one giving Jonas the memories, "And back and back and back.”(62) This quote shows how there is nothing that The Giver or Jonas can do apart from accept tradition.

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

The dystopian novel, The Giver by Lois Lowry is about a boy called Jonas becoming the new Receiver-of-Memories. Throughout the novel, the protagonist, Jonas matures as knowledge is gained, and begins to understand the deepest, and darkest secrets of the community he lives in that is seemly 'perfect'. The author has successfully analysed a variety of social issues present in today's modern world in the novel. Some issues implied are: lack of individuality which allows for easy control, the abandonment of emotions and the importance of memories.

Jonas lives in a world of Sameness. In his community, life has been changed to be a place without color, choice, feelings, love, or inequality - a “perfect” world to all. No one ever complains: this is how the community runs, and has been running for as long as citizens can remember. At age 12, Jonas is assigned his life work as the Receiver of Memory and joins a mysterious old man named the Giver. The Giver uses his knowledge help the community make the right choices in times of crisis. He shares his memories about when life had the things that make life amazing - the color, the love, the feelings, the passion. Jonas is amazed and decides his world desperately is in need of change. The problem is, he doesn’t know how to fix his choreographed world to the place he envisions when Sameness is all anyone has ever known. Therefore, Jonas and the Giver make a plan to release memories to the people of the land and give them the wonders they’ve never known. Jonas runs away with the baby he loves, Gabriel, from the

In, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, Jonas arrives at Elsewhere. Jonas has a sudden surge coursing through his body providing warmth and hope as he gets to safety. In the book, the Giver gives a memory of love to Jonas. This memory makes Jonas want grandparents. When Jonas sees all the lights and laughter, Jonas perceives that this place is waiting in expectation for him and Gabriel. Jonas has hope which gives him enough strength to get to a home and ask for food, warm clothes, shelter, etc. Which is on page 179-180: “Suddenly he was aware with certainty and joy that below, ahead, they were waiting for him; and that they were waiting, too, for the baby.” Secondly, Jonas experiences hope and confidence, giving Jonas the strength to sled down the hill

Lois Lowry’s novel, The Giver, offers a thought provoking, well written story, because it changes the perspective of anyone who dares to read it to. Lowry places her novel, at some point in the future when mankind has gone away with changes and choices in life. She forces readers appreciate, or at least re-think the world they live in today. Her novel presents a fully human created environment where people have successfully blocked out conflict, grief, and individuality. Each person follows the same routine every day. Failure comply with standards, to be different, means death. Jonas, the main character, finds himself trapped in this world.

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.