The Giver, By Lois Lowry

One theme for The Giver is the importance of human connection. The author, Lois Lowry, portrays this theme by depicting a society without human connection. Jonas learns through the memories The Giver transmits about love and immediately longs to experience it in his everyday life. Jonas first started creating bonds with The Giver. They are the only ones who truly understand each other. The Giver has said that he felt love for Jonas. This is why he sent Jonas Elsewhere because he could not bear to see Jonas go through what he had. Jonas also feels this way towards Gabriel. Ever since Gabriel started to stay at his family’s lives, he started to create a bond between them. He felt the same way for Gabriel as The Giver had when he took Gabriel

Jonas receives memories of color, something that is absent from his community. He realizes how absent his community really is. Jonas hurts inside to tell people in his community what they are missing. The only person that he can really open up to is The Giver. They grew really close, and it became like a grandfather, grandchild relationship.

The Giver teaches us that love is essential to life. Jonas and the Giver demonstrate again and again how important it is, even though it’s forbidden. The Giver demonstrates love when he declares, “‘I love you Jonas’ he said. ‘But I have another place to go. When my work here is done, I want to be with my daughter’”(202). The Giver is saying goodbye to Jonas, he is practically telling Jonas he is going to finish the things he needs to, then The Giver is going to ask to be released. He says he loves Jonas and you can tell Jonas loves him too. He loves his family even though they don’t know how to love or what love is. He also loves Gabe, Jonas saves him from being ‘released’. Jonas feels accepted, loved, and at home when the giver tells him he

Everyone is burden with pain. No one can escape emotional, physical or mental misery because it is part of what makes us human. Without pain we would live in a world of sameness. Although there is no way we can escape this reality, what if there existed a utopian society in which everyone could live peacefully without the burden of pain? Would everyone be better off or would living in ignorance be a burden for someone else? Lois Lowry gives us a glimpse into what life would be like in a world where conflict does not exist and shows us what this type of world would do to our humanity. In The Giver, she introduces us to Jonas, an eleven-year-old boy who starts off as an oblivious member of his

Jonas lives in a perfect society where everyone is equal and there is no war, pain, or fear. Sounds great right? But not for long. When Jonas reaches the age of 12 he recieves his assignment or career, just like everybody else. But Jonas's assignment is different. Jonas is selected to be the reciever of memories. He will recieve the memories of what life used to be from the giver. He starts out with happy memories, but soon learns about war and pain. But it is hard for the giver too, to give memories to sombody else, when he knows the pain and suffering they bring. And he is still hurt by the memories he hasn't given yet. After awhile Jonas and the giver realize that life isn't the way it's supposed to be in the society, so they plan for Jonas to escape. When he does he brings along gabriel, an infant that his family has been taking care of, and that jonas has grown to love. And together they discover the wonders and fears of the real

“‘I couldn’t quite get the word for the whole feeling of it, the feeling that was so strong in the room.’ ‘Love,’ The Giver told him” (Page 125). This shows words of the wiser because The Giver explains that love is what completes the feeling of family, and how great it feels. In the life that they are living, Jonas’ parents can’t say if they love him. They are unable to understand what that word means because they are in such a black and white world, where everything is the same. This next example shows us how Jonas wants to let other people

Elvis Presley once said, “Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain 't goin ' away.” Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave relates to this quote by focusing on the truths of reality that humans do not comprehend. We think that we understand what we are seeing in our world, but we really just perceive shadows of the true forms of the things that make up the world. We are ignorant about the true nature of reality. The novel, The Giver, by Lois Lowry also involves these concepts. The main character, Jonas, lives in a community of conformity and conflict. When he begins to spend time and train with The Giver, an old man who is the only keeper of the community 's memories, Jonas discovers the unsafe truths of his community 's secret past. Once Jonas discovers the reality about his community, it constantly pesters him until he makes an important decision. Jonas realizes that he must escape from his world in order to make a long needed change for his community. As the prisoner from The Allegory of the Cave seeks knowledge outside of the cave, Jonas from The Giver discovers dark and deadly truths of his community’s secret past that will change his life forever.

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.

Jonas has a very good relationship with the Giver and loves him very much. Jonas has a very good relationship with the Giver because he does not lie to him and they can share their feelings with one another. When Jonas learns that he can share feelings with the Giver he learns that other people can not do what he can. The citizens in the community do not know what feelings are and how to love someone as Jonas and the Giver do. So this related to the Giver and Jonas to have such a depth relationship because they can talk to each other and not lie, they can trust each other. Also they know how to be truthful to each other and love each

Jonas asks if they were going to share feelings but The Giver

One way the setting of the book The Giver by Lois Lowry creates conflict for the community is the rule that only the receiver is allowed to hold memories from the past. The giver tells Jonas that he gets asked for advice very rarely by the chief elder and if he had more of a say in most of the decisions for the community, he could use his knowledge to bring changes. The giver explains why the memories must be held onto, “ ‘Why do you and I have to hold these memories?’ ‘It gives us wisdom.’ the giver replied”( pg 139-140). This shows that wisdom is only possessed by Jonas and the giver because only they share memories. The lack of wisdom in the other citizens causes them to make decisions that may not be beneficial.

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

“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared. (Lowry, Goodreads). In other words it’s saying the pain Jonas is feeling is mental and emotional but not physical. The giver is making Jonas feel these memories and they're coming back to his head. And by sharing memories it lets you get help or makes you feel good because people can help you. My Thesis is comparing and contrasting modern day to the Giver.

The Giver shows us that love is an essential part to this world. The Giver shows Jonas the memory of pain and suffering and reacted in a way that made him upset, expressing love to Jonas as well as regret. Jonas was “no longer enjoying the freedom but instead, terrified…”(137). The Giver knows what Jonas is experiencing and regrets it although it is what he is told to do. The Giver took a liking to Jonas but couldn’t bare to watch him in pain. Jonas sacrificed his own comfort so the Giver could be relieved of these memories for himself. These same memories were given to the Giver because it was his job. The Giver of each generation feels love toward the new Receiver because the Giver knows what pain is like. Love is essential in this moment, especially for Jonas, because he needs a person to help him to start a new, more utopian society. People show love by sacrificing themselves for

Jonas also contains the ability to “See-Beyond” which means he can see colors which is one of the reasons why he was chosen to be the new Receiver of Memories. He lives with his family unit and in that unit is his mom and dad (Unknown names) and his little sister Lily (A Seven).The Giver is a very aged man but is very wise. He suffers immensely from his job because of all the painful memories. He used to have a daughter named Rosemary who was the previous receiver but then committed suicide because the memories were to painful. The Giver also contains the ability to “Hear-Beyond” which means instead of seeing colors for the first time he could hear music for the first time. Jonas’ best friend is a male named Asher who is the same age as Jonas and is very inaccurate with his language. During the Ceremony of the Twelves Asher is assigned Assistant Recreational Director. Jonas’ little sister Lily is a Seven and has a very young eye towards everything and (like every little girl) just doesn’t have a care in the world, like for example near the beginning of the book Lily is preparing to go to school and girls at her age are supposed to wear ribbons in their hair but Lily’s is always dangling. We can see an example of Lily acting very young also near the beginning of the book when it is time for “Feelings” Lily says she is angry because another group of kids from another community didn’t follow their playground rules, everyone resolves this problem easily because it is very childish and simple. Fiona is a friend of Jonas that is in the same age group as him. Jonas soon starts to feel feelings for Fiona and that is when he needs to start to take the “Pill” because he is going through