The Giver Research Paper

How many freedoms would you be able to give up for a “perfect” society? In the book “The Giver”, describes a society where people are given an assignment at age 12. The main character, Jonas was appointed the Receiver and follows a wise old man with the name of “The Giver”. Over time he receives the good and bad memories of the past and soon realizes what his communities deepest darkest secrets. So where would I think the line between public safety and personal freedom should be drawn? I feel if that should be up to the individual and that people should be aware of what is the truth and not be hidden by anything. Being hidden by color/diversity/red, having no love as well as no hate, and no personal freedoms? Is that fair?

1.) People are not allowed to go outside after the specified curfew, this can help prevent someone getting injured, kidnapped, and just ensure a higher level of security for the residents in the society.

“’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.

     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.

The book The Giver is a neat book. We all know some of us cry when reading or watching The Giver. The Giver takes place in a little society with so many rules. I mean who goes and killed babies and old people (evil). The Giver utopia or dystopia? In my opinion I think the giver is a dystopia because you will have no choices, you will go through pain and if you become a nurturer you will kill babies.

“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.

Can the society in The Giver be considered an utopia or dystopia? Lois Lowry, the author of The Giver got her idea in 1992 when she went to go visit her father. She then discovered that her father was losing his memory, but her mother wasn’t. This then made Lowry questions if live would be easier if all the painful memories disappeared. Is The Giver's community an Utopia or Dystopia? The Giver’s community is a dystopia because there is limited freedom, people of the community are oblivious to what is happening around them, and the Committee of Elders are abusing their power.

Lord, Elyse. "Overview of The Giver." Novels for Students. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Literature Resource Center. Web. 27 Mar. 2016. Elyse Lord is one of the many critics who describe “The Giver” as terrifying but offering “hope and a constructive view” of the Utopian world in the book. She explains that other critics praise the book with many awards such as the Newberry Medal. Lord goes on to reason that the story is favored by different readers for its complexity, symbolism, metaphors, ambiguous ending, and can be compared similarly to classic science fiction like “Brave New World” and “Fahrenheit 451.” Contradicting this statement, Lord says that ‘librarians’, ‘educators’, and ‘students’ debate “The Giver” to be censored from public schools around the world because of its graphic scenes and ideas of infanticide and euthanasia. This includes the time Jonas witnessed his father murder a baby and throw it down a trash chute in cold blood. This is ironical compared to the language, emotion, and behaviors being censored in Jonas’s ‘Utopian’ society. Lord argues this through Anna Cerbasi of Port Saint Lucie, Florida, who asked the school board to remove a book that was about a family murdering their child for crying at night and called the book inappropriate for the sixth grade. Lord raises the question of who is to “decide which books are appropriate for which children,” and argues that it cannot be answered with not one but the many books integrated in school curricula that compose

The Giver: Utopia or Dystopia? In your opinion do you think The Giver society is a utopian or dystopian society? The author of The Giver is Lois Lowry, her inspiration to write the book was her dad. Lois’s dad had forgotten all the painful memories because he was sick and forgot all the painful memories and that made Lois wonder what a world would be like where people had all the painful memories were taken away.

How would it feel if this world didn’t let people have choices, didn’t let people share, or if they didn’t let people celebrate birthdays, holidays, or just celebrate anything? Well that’s what it was like for Jonas in The Giver. Jonas lives in the future in a community where The Giver is the only one who knows everything, but soon all that changed for Jonas. He became the the community 's new Receiver of Memory, and soon Jonas learns the terrible secrets of this “utopian” community. Later on as he learns some more about the community’s secrets he makes a plan to leave the community, and to take Gabe with him so he wouldn’t get released.(which means they die, but the community doesn’t understand that) In this book choices, sharing, and celebrations would have made The Giver community more positive.

Could our society be any similar or different to “The Giver”? In modern day society the millennials have pushed and worked for change, while the society in “The Giver” is based around the idea of sameness. The dystopian society can be compared and contrasted to our modern day society in many ways. According to the article ‘What Millennials Want From Work and Life”, “ Millennials are pushing for change in the world”.

In the novel, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, the topic of life occurs throughout the story. Jonas lives in a community based on conformity and sameness. Jonas is chosen as the receiver of memory. As he is trained he learns that change is needed in the community. At the end of the book, Jonas tries to go elsewhere to return the memories back to the community. In The Giver, the author uses the characters, plot, and conflict to develop the theme that life can not be taken for granted.

Most of what we cherish in our lives is freedom, would we give up freedom to live in a perfect world? In The Giver, genetics, sameness, and surveillance are some characteristics that make up Utopia. Personally, I would rather have freedom, not be watched or for my body to be genetically modified. Why should we live in Utopia, only to have a tedious life ahead of us when we could have a diverse world full of unique events and experiences.

Imagine a world without love or color. Jonas the protagonist in The Giver he ran away and left comparing his community to our society. In our society we aloud to love whoever we want and we free to love. In jonas society love is a word that is prohibited no longer said for example abandoned no longer mentioned because they don't know what it means.