The Giver Assignment

Conflict is a struggle between two opposing forces. In literature, there are three types of conflict: internal, external, and interpersonal. Throughout the novel, The Giver by Lois Lowry, all three types of conflict are shown. The Giver tells the story of Jonas, a twelve-year-old boy who is selected to become Receiver or Memories. Once Jonas has knowledge of the past, he realizes that the government controls every aspect of his and his family’s lives. With the help of an elder, he attempts to escape the restrictive life he had been forced to live. Readers are left rooting for Jonas despite his struggles, as he is a strong character to which many young people relate. Three examples of conflict in

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

Imagine a world where your job was chosen for you. You never got paid, but you were still happy. This is what happens in Lois Lowry’s book “The Giver.” In Jonas’ society the Elders assign a job to the children after the Ceremony of the Twelve’s. If our society operated like Jonas’ then it would be horrible and if I were observed and got an assignment right now it would be at the House of the Old.

     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.

Jonas starts out with a very low understanding of what it means to be mature. He has no knowledge of pain, love, or any other emotion. He proves this by acting like a normal child. He plays with his friends after volunteer hours. He attends school on a regular basis. Jonas is a stickler for the rules. He has been told that it is wrong to not follow rules and that there

“Our problem right now is that we’re so specialized that if the lights go out, there are a huge number of people who are not going to know what to do. But within every dystopia there’s a little dystopia.” (Margaret Atwood) In 1992, Lois Lowry had was inspired by her father’s memory loss to write a novel. In The Giver, 12-year old Jonas is chosen to be the Receiver of Memory but throughout his training, he struggles understanding whether the community he lives in is a utopia or dystopia.

Everybody has their own opinions on whether or not Jonas’s community is a utopia or a dystopia. The author got the inspiration for this story when her father was losing his memory. She then meant to write about a utopian community. Is Jonas’s community utopia or dystopia? Jonas’s community is a dystopia because they have release, no freedom of choice, and no freedom to leave.

In the “The Critical Overview of The Giver”, the author and analyzes the skill with which Lowry slowly reveals the unpleasant societal to norms upon which the initially appealing community is based on (Critical). She then associates another authors position Campbell by showing how she depicts the society taking advantage of the space allowed for an extended review to delineate what she sees as the exceptional advance in narrative skill shown in the

28 Mar. 2016. Ilene Cooper’s “Another Look at: Lois Lowry’s Giver quartet” criticizes the ambiguous ending of Lois Lowry’s “The Giver” by comparing it to Lowry’s ‘Giver quartet.’ Cooper describes the ending of the book as unsatisfying because it increases the tension and then leaves the reader without an ending that leaves the reader wanting closure. Cooper differentiates between her and Lowry in that she was a pessimist who thought Jonas and Gabriel in “The Giver” died while Lowry was an optimist who ““thought the boys were still alive.” ” Cooper identifies that the ambiguous ending allows “children to think about and discuss their own hopes, dreams, and fears, juxtaposed against the story of a boy who must grapple with the security of sameness versus the knowledge that with happiness comes the possibility of pain.”

Through our society we are all raised up to be independent and unique individuals such as being ourselves and expressing who each of us are to the world. However, in the book The Giver by Lois Lowry, everyone is raised to count on one another and everyone must look and act the same. Our society differs from Jonas’s in many ways, such as the family units, birthdays, and the way we each learn about our past.

“ The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without colour, pain, or past.” - Lois Lowry, The Giver.

The Giver Essay In Lois Lowry’s The Giver Jonas’s community they tried to create a utopia where no one feels emotion or pain so everyone’s the same and no one’s left out. After Jonas becomes the receiver, he starts to feel those emotions and physical pain that no one experiences. The Giver shows him death in a war and after that Jonas understands how serious death is and is mentally scarred by it.

Lowry, herself even says “she didn't think of “The Giver” as futuristic or dystopian or science fiction or fantasy, it was just a story about a kid making sense of a complicated world” (Ulaby). In his own way, Jonas served as his own protagonist as his mind attacks him with questions and uncertainty. Community elders also pose as a sort of enemy, keeping people away from the truth. Moreover, Lowry also included other characters to contrast Jonas. Firstly, his friends, Asher and Fiona show up as foils. When Jonas learns the reality of release and war, he looks at his friend in horror. Even the Giver reinstates “Fiona is already being trained in the fine art of release” (153). Giver tries to comfort Jonas by saying “listen to me Jonas they can’t help it. they know nothing... it’s the life that was created form them, it’s the same life that you would have, if you had not been chosen as my successor” (153). This shows how Jonas remains set apart because he was selected as the successor. Rosemary, the previous “Receiver of Memory” shows up as another foil. Although Jonas never met her, everyone, even the elders, compare him to Rosemary. They hope they did the make the same mistake again and watch him closely. All of Lowry’s characters are created to support Jonas’ role in the

In chapter 18 Jonas asks the Giver “ Do you ever think about the release ?’’ which got him even more curious about the true meaning. When Jonas becomes aware of what release actually means he gets into conflict with what his father does. His disturbed reaction to when his father its “releasing’’ a twin, which was very dramatic, “ he killed it! My father killed it!’’ Later in chapter 18, the Givers explain to Jonas about Rosemary and how she became an individual because of the emotions she was receiving, but the community didn’t allow anyone to have feelings. Because of the impact of the emotions she has received, she wanted to be released, which lead her to not conforming her society. What this tells us is that communities are made up of authoritarian rules that have impacts on

Throughout the entire story, Lowry includes her simplistic and straightforward writing style to that portrays Jonas’s everyday life. Her straightforward style adds suspense throughout the classical novel. Lowry’s writing style makes the story seem almost journalistic. The author includes scenes of the Giver transmitting memories to Jonas that contrasts to Jonas’s environment. Although, the author fails to effectively describe the effect on the society.