The Giver: Dystopian Society

“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

Imagine a world with no feelings, no color, no choice; a world where individuality and freedom are exchanged for security and sameness. This type of world is a reality for Jonas, the protagonist in Lois Lowry’s The Giver. After being assigned the next Receiver of Memories in the community, where he has the capacity to see beyond. As he begins his works, he gains wisdom and through that wisdom, learned that protecting the community from the memories, their lives lacked understanding and feelings. Jonas goes on an archetypal hero’s journey and chooses to risk everything to restore memories and wisdom to everyone in the community. Throughout this novel, Jonas is represented as a hero considering he demonstrates integrity despite living in a

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.

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.

The story is about a boy named Jonas. Jonas lives in a community where everything is perfect, everything is the same and no one is allowed to brake the rules imposed by the Elders. The Elders are in charge of creating all the rules and basically ruled everyone’s lives.

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 Giver is a story about a city that is cut off from all memories from the past and is strictly controlled by the government or the so-called “Elders”. There is only one person in the community called the “Receiver of Memory” who has the role of holding all the memories of the past and giving advice to the government when they need it. When Jonas gets chosen for the Receiver of Memory position, he realizes that there is and was much more to this world than the people in the community know about. Jonas soon starts to see colors(which only the person who had the memories could see) and comes to the conclusion that the other people need to know about and have the memories. He goes to the Giver(the person who gives Jonas the memories) and asked him for a way he could return all the memories to the citizens. The Giver said he was proud of the courage that Jonas had; that he was proud he had the courage to rebel against the government to get what he thinks is right. The Giver gives Jonas more memories of courage so that he will be able to survive through the harsh conditions outside the city. Jonas goes to the outside of the city and is faced by many harsh conditions and also troops from the government. But he doesn’t give up. He has the courage to get what he wants. In the end, Jonas makes it to the Boundary of Memory and releases all the memories to every citizen in the city. Therefore, courage can be

Jonas, the main character of The Giver, becomes different by being an intellectual (pg. 127). He knows more than most and therefore feels

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

There are many symbols in the Giver like the sled and the color of red, Gabriel, an important character. Gabriel, a newchild, Jonas's father brings home to nurture. The newchildren represent hope for the society, but Gabriel is a symbol of family, as well as a symbol of hope, for Jonas. He notices that Gabriel has the same light-colored eyes as Jonas’s. Jonas is the only one who can calm Gabriel. Jonas takes care of Gabriel and begins to love Gabriel like a family, but it is not allowed in this society. “Father? Mother?” One day, Jonas asks, “Do you love me?” (Lowery

The author uses conflict to show how life can not be taken for granted. In the novel, Gabriel will be released because he can not sleep. The book states, “It’s bye-bye to you, Gabe, in the morning.”(207). This is important because it shows how Jonas’s father had no compassion or love for Gabriel. He does not even care that Gabriel will be released. This reveals that the community needs change.

However, the issues discussed in this book does not fail the audience in the ever changing minds of the people in our society. The author, Lois Lowry presents word-pictures of scenes and events by giving specific details that appeal to the five senses, or to the reader’s imagination. Because the background of the story is meant to be innocent, Lois Lowry must use concise words to clarify her intent for the audience. Thus, a more detailed description helps readers to understand what is being described in the book. Characters in The Giver do not have many emotions and do not experience certain events that people would normally go through in life, such as love, grief, and death.

The Giver is in many ways Jonas’s coming-of-age story. Jonas reaches maturity only when he is given memory, and through memory, experience. In this way, Jonas becomes more mature at twelve than the "adults" of his community. But The Giver also teaches Jonas the wisdom to recognize his own shortcomings. Jonas truly becomes an adult at the

Although The Giver was written and published in the early 1990’s, the book portrays many social, political, and cultural issues that were thriving at the time of its creation. Lowry's novel was written in light of events around the world including abortion and medical assisted suicide. The community in The Giver was set to be a utopian society with no hunger, suffering, or war, but also no color, music, or love. What also comes with this society is little to no privacy, even “private” houses have two-way intercoms which can be used to listen in for breaking the rules. In this way, The Giver is part of the tradition of dystopian novels.

The Giver is a dystopian film directed by Phillip Noyce it was released in 2014 and was based on the 1993 novel by Lois Lowry. The story is set in the seemingly utopian society although the protagonist Jonas begins to be aware to the dystopian aspects around him. When Jonas is selected as the Receiver of Memory the illusion of a perfect society is overshadowed by the dystopian reality. He learns that he is living a life without the fulfilment of emotions. Like all dystopian stories the film reflects current concerns, and The Giver presents messages about the importance of the natural world and the consequences we would face without it. Also the lack of personal freedom and a person’s right to make choices for themselves.