The Giver Response

The main theme shown in The Giver is the idea that good cannot exist without evil, and evil cannot exist without good, thus making reaching a perfect society impossible. It does not matter how amazing an experience is, unless you have something bad to compare it with you can never taste the true meaning of that moment. The members of Jonas’s community cannot appreciate the joys in their lives because they have never felt sadness. Correspondingly, they also do not feel grief because they have never appreciated the true wonders of life. Throughout the novel, Lois Lowry uses multiple literary devices to conjure these thoughts into the readers mind.

Jonas goes through a lot while receiving the memories from The Giver. He first gets happy memories such as the sled, but then The Giver has to give him painful memories. He first receives the memory of physical pain from sunburn (Lowry 86). The pain is minimal compared to the memory of a broken leg (Lowry 109) and an injured arm during a war. During the war memory, he sees death (Lowry 119, 121). He experiences grief when he receives the memory the shot elephant (Lowry 100). Most haunting of all are the memories of the release of old and the part his father plays in the release of new born (Lowry 150). These trials at first horrify Jonas but he learns to deal with the

“Color.” It’s all around us, we see it every day of our lives, everything has color, but the people in Jonas’ community didn’t know this. They had no clue what color was or that it even existed. Their society was hue less, hopeless, and everything was the same until the new receiver of memory changed that for everyone. In our world choice is a big part of our everyday lives we make many choices a day, do I want this or that, green or blue, this shirt or that shirt? But in The Giver choices were made for them, what they wear, how they act, what they say, what they eat, and what they do for a living. Imagine all that stuff being chosen for you. Everyone would be dressed the same, act the same,

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 by Lois Lowry was an interesting book to say the least. In the beginning you are lead to believe these are normal kids and characters, possibly in the future, but in pretty much the same state of mind as our definition of “human” today. As the book goes on, you are slowly let in on details, like the characters can not see color, and that the parents are not biological parents, and everything is organized and decided for the characters in the book. The author did a great job of slowly bringing us into the world of sameness quite the same way the giver slowly brought Jonas into the world of memories. I believe the subject of the book is the Importance of the Individual. As corny as it sounds, we spend much of our life trying to be just like everyone else. I think Lois Lowry wrote this entire novel just to show how horrible it would be if everyone was the same as everyone else.

Jonas is not able to share the memories with any friends or unit family members and he has to deal with the fact that his friends and his family unit always ask him and he has t lie to them tellings them that they just walk all the time and he learns new

The theme conveyed through the Giver is that individuality should be valued. The story takes place in a utopian society where everything is the same. There are no choices, no color, and no love in the Community of Sameness. The novel starts out a month before the Ceremony of Twelve, where the 12 year olds each get assigned a job. Jonas gets the assignment of the Receiver of Memory, and he soon finds out that lying is permitted, and receives several memories of the past without sameness, with pain too. He has the ability to see beyond, and finds out that he and the Giver are the only people in the Community that have the ability to see, as well as hear beyond. Similar to the phenomenon of an apple changing quality and his friend Fiona’s hair doing the same

Jonas was selected as the next Receiver of Memory. Upon his training, he discovered and felt things that not all people in their society know. He realized a lot of things about the world. He discovered there is something more with the world than what he has known of. And as he felt things, he realized the things that are wrong with their idealistic society.

" And everybody would have the memories. " In this quote, Jonas is explaining to Gabe that things are going to change and that the real world is very different from the utopian society in which Jonas thought he was living in for 12 years. Jonas from the Giver changed and matured in many ways. One notable way that Jonas changed was through the colors he started to see when he got assigned to be The Giver.

In the beginning of the novel,Giver, Jonas demonstrates that “ Being unique is valuable” can be better than sameness. When Jonas first sees color he finds out that being unique is better than being the same. Jonas has the ability to see beyond. In page 24, chapter 3, Jonas noticed a change about an apple, when it was tossed in mid air. Jonas tossed this apple back and forth with his best friend Asher, then again in the air, for an instant only. It changed. There was something unique about thawt apple. Then on page 86, chapter 12, Jonas noticed that his friend, Fiona’s hair has changed. Jonas looked for information. The Giver discovered, that Jonas was starting to see the color, red.

Jonas could make the memories of the community come back to the citizens. "Memories are forever"(Lowery ). Things end, but the memories last forever. Memories are moments that people have had and shared with friends and family. Then these friends and family

The power of his individuality is symbolized. . .” (Telgen and Hile 160-182). Being The Giver is a sign of personal freedoms. Jonas’ will soon have the personal freedom while everyone else will forever learn the routine of non-individuality. “The Giver exhibits the unique quality of combining the theme of responsibility in society within a literary context agreeable to adolescents.

In the beginning of the novel, Jonas is naive about all the events happening in his society until he gets his future job as the receiver. Here, he realizes that there is more to the world and receives all of the memories from the past. Lowry states, “Finally, when he knew that he could bear it no longer and would welcome death himself, he opened his eyes and was once again on the bed. … Jonas didn't want to go back. He didn't want the memories, didn't want the honor, didn't want the wisdom, didn’t want the pain.

In, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, The Giver does something that contrasts to what he would normally do by giving Jonas a bad memory. This helps develop the plot and a theme in the book. Normally, The Giver gives Jonas memories of nice things, but now, he has begun to give him memories of conflict and death. This shows that life was not actually perfect, contrary to what Jonas had believed when he was getting memories of sun and snow.

Pain, sadness, and love are three feelings which are clearly presented throughout The Giver, while also showing many connections to Alfred Lord Tennyson’s quote: "Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” The memory of war teaches Jonas what pain and suffering feel like. Sadness is felt when Jonas learns what “Releasing” actually is. Love helps Jonas to realize what he is missing out on in his “perfect” world. No matter the circumstances, feelings, especially love, are an aspect of life which one should never give