The Giver Symbolism

The Giver teaches Jonas about color. “ Dumbfounded, he stared at it. This time it was not a fleeting impression. This time the sled had--and continued to have, as he blinked, and stared at it again--that same mysterious quality that the apple had so

The first object that I am using is a book. I chose a book, because the giver has a wall of books in his dwelling. It is also symbolic because the citizens own three books. The books are a dictionary, a thick community volume which contains descriptions of every office, factory, building, and committee, and then lastly the Book of Rules. The books can be used to find the definition of a word, to locate community buildings, or if you forget a rule, you can find that in the rule book. I also thought that a book could symbolize the wall of books the giver has in his dwelling.

In this novel, foreshadowing is a crucial literary element that Lois Lowry uses to give the reader hints about what is going to happen later on in the book. Foreshadowing gives the reader an idea of the main character's personality, introduces the conflicts that are yet to happen, and discreetly proposes the main theme: the importance of being an individual. Lois Lowry even chose to begin her book with foreshadowing by saying, "It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to feel frightened." (Lowry 6). For example, at the beginning of the book, Lowry introduces the one thing that makes Jonas physically different than the rest of the population in the community: his eyes. Jonas has pale looking eyes, just like the Giver. This is a way of telling the reader that he is special, and will have significant role in changing the community. Another example of this element in the book is the “seeing beyond” that Jonas starts to experience. This example foreshadows the internal changes that are going occur to Jonas later on in the story. “The apple had changed. Just for an instant. It had changed…” (Lowry, 51). Through these examples, foreshadowing easily gives the reader a better understanding of how important it is to have a unique personality.

The novel The Giver by Lois Lowry illustrates a dystopian society hi lighting the limitations of individuality and suppression of cultural memory in order to prevent any potential destruction that warrants deviation from the totalitarian state of mind with the society depends on. The dependence on the elaborately regulate system however causes the burden of beneficial and detrimental knowledge to the rest on one person's shoulders. Through sociological analysis I will analyze the effects of this reliance on the Giver’s ability to retain such crucial information on a singular causes the detrimental affect triggered not by the inability of the Giver but rather by the society’s unwillingness to change. It can be observed that dystopian societies are ambivalent in nature, situated in utopian text; however, in Lowry's novel the world is engineered where the utopia goes wrong due to its extinction of the aesthetic and personal choices. In “The Utopian the Function of memory in Lois Lowry’s the giver, the author analyzes the ambiguity between the dystopian aspect and the utopian aspect of the society created in the novel (Hanson).

He describes, “back in the time of the memories, everything had a shape and size, the way things still do, but they also had a quality called color.” (Lowery 94) Jonas cannot understand why he is beginning to see the color of red, although the Giver says there are a lot of colors. The Giver tells Jonas, “When you mentioned Fiona’s hair, it was the clue that told me you were probably beginning to see the red.” (Lowery 94) “Jonas looked at her. She was so lovely. For a fleeting instant he thought he would like nothing better than to ride peacefully along the river path, laughing and talking with his gentle female friend.” (Lowery 135) Jonas secretly likes Fiona. Jonas’s special emotion that he didn’t understand makes Jonas see red that represents love. So, the color of red symbolizes love. Now that he sees colors, he can experience all kinds of emotions.

But, as the story unfolds, we soon realize that it’s real intent is to monitor and control the population. As we move through the tale, we soon come to realize that the perfect world that Jonas lives in is just a mirage—the reality is far more sinister than we could have imagined. When Jonas is made Receiver of the community (a very important position that requires him to hold all the memories that have ever existed), he soon learns that he has living in a world within a world. The first clue is when he realizes “”But now that I can see colors... I was just thinking: what if we could hold up things that were red, or bright yellow, and he could choose?

Not many can see colors, this refers to a flaw in genetic engineering. Which subjects to the community controlling the way their citizens are, perfect. Perfect results to making everyone the same, which conjures up the idea of sameness. Jonas soon realizes that sameness isn’t perfection, it has its flaws. Change allows these flaws to make everyone different.

He had never before felt anything as meaningful as the memory.” (127). This shows that Jonas’ parents can not process they feeling of love. Lastly, none of the citizens, other than the Receivers, can see colors. This makes it so no one can point out the differences of other and makes everyone look the same.

In the novel, The Giver, Lois Lowry also presented that Jonas’ ability to see color conjointly contributed to the theme in the novel, which was the importance of color, by proving that since Jonas can see color he can see the attractiveness in life. For example, in the novel, it indicates, “There would be a glimpse of green ----- the landscaped lawn around the Central Plaza; a bush on the river bank. The bright trucked in from the agricultural fields beyond the community boundary ------ seen in an instant, flash of brilliant color, but gone again, returning to their flat and hue less shade.” This explains what beauty Jonas sees in most of his daily life, and to him he would prefer those colors that he sees for a brief moment than the

The people in Jonas's community do not see color. Later on in the book, the Giver asked Jonas why he was angry that his people couldn't see color. Jonas replied that he wanted to see color so he could make choices of his own, instead of everything being chosen for him. I can see where Jonas was coming from, and if I had been in his position, I would also be angry. This quote made me feel sorry

In the book, ¨The Giver¨, Jonas lives in a utopian society where there are no realistic characteristics of the everyday life. In his utopian society, there is no warfare, choices, differentiation, memories, or color. Yet, before being given his important assignment of ¨Receiver of Memory¨, Jonas sees an apple change color when tossing it back and forth with Asher. Flashing forward to after he is given his assignment, the Giver explains to Jonas the concept of color, along with the memory of it. This separates Jonas from the rest of his perfect society because he is the only one that can visualize color in his everyday life.

The giver is a fictional novel authorised by Louis Lowry dedicated to informing readers about the devastating impact of extreme conformity on a community. As we progress throughout the book we start to realise and learn all these new things about the giver's community, such as creating and trying to maintain a perfect community, that comes beyond our abilities, while the givers society is having a huge impact on the individuality and individual choices on the members of the community. We learn that the inhabitants of the society had a hard time handling all the different memories, in a sudden event. All hints and evidence to these statements above are hidden and presented throughout the book.

“ This tells the reader that when people are not perfect they are released like this newborn baby doesn’t sleep soundly and just released even though we don't know what a release is yet so it hints at the theme. Towards the middle of the book as Jonas begins to realize that things are not exactly as they seem “ It isn’t fair that nothing has color. . . we could hold up thing that was bright red, or bright yellow, and he could choose. . . what if he makes the wrong choice?.

In The Giver, Gabriel symbolize love. Jonas reveals this when he takes Gabriel with him to release the memories into the community. “ And he had taken Gabriel, too” (208). This is Jonas experiencing love for Gabriel. He wants Gabe to grow as a person and in a society that will except him. Jonas didn't want Gabriel to grow up in a world where everyone is the same. Jonas knew the world Gabe was to grow up in had he not taken him. A world of perfection in the people in The Giver was to take away pain and violence. Although pain and violence were gone, so is love and happiness. They created a world without emotion.

In The Giver, Gabriel symbolizes hope. For example, Gabriel appears in the novel when Jonas brings him along to Elsewhere. Lowry writes, “He hugged Gabriel and rubbed him briskly, warming him, to keep him alive...But somewhere ahead, through the blinding storm, he knew there was warmth and light” (224). Jonas is currently trying to climb a hill to reach a sled that will bring him downhill. However, it says that Jonas knew that there was “warmth and light” ahead, and this becomes true. The fact that there is warmth and light means that there is life ahead, and wherever there is life, we can infer that there is a shelter. If Jonas can get Gabriel to the house safely, then we still have hope for their future. Gabriel is also a baby, which means that he is untainted by the rigid rules of the community, which then, in turn, means that he can have a separate future, a path that the citizens of the community cannot walk because of the rules’ influence. Lily is an example of this. She cannot symbolize hope, since she already follows the rules. She was raised in the community’s way, the method where feelings are stolen, memories are taken away, and rules transform humans to robots. Gabriel can walk a different road, one with emotion, warmth, and the absence of rules. His path is the ideal future, the future we cannot give up on. The Giver teaches us that we cannot give up on hope. Jonas tried to keep Gabriel, the only hope of the community, alive, very much like what we should do.