The Giver is a novel written by Lois Lowry, and is one of society’s most known novels that depicts a story of a futuristic community involving a very altered view of life. Throughout the novel, the main character Jonas encounters a variety of different life experiences than that of his fellow community members. At the young age of twelve Jonas is given the official assignment of the “Receiver of Memory” (Lowry 64). With this duty, Jonas begins to gain knowledge of the past. This includes memories of both good and bad experiences that were lived throughout the community. As the novel continues Jonas begins interacting with a new child from the nurturing center named Gabriel. Gabriel seems to be a very different child and begins developing …show more content…
But it is also the world where choice has been taken away and reality distorted. And that is the most dangerous world of all.” (The Giver’s Dystopia). Lois Lowry expressing her view of the world in “The Giver” supports the theme of the idea of individuals being similar throughout the society. Everyone has their specific tasks and duties in their world. That can make the world dangerous just as Lowry claims and that is why Jonas decides to be uncommon and fade away from the conforming society that is formed around …show more content…
After given this information and another viewpoint of life he realizes that life is not everything that society believes it to be. This is where the idea of individuality beings to come into play. Jonas is given this different view on life that allows him to be different, think different, and interact with the world differently all while the others interacting within this community show no signs of emotion. Often times in today’s society people get caught up in the idea that there is a set way to live, and this novel is showing that this is not the case through this theme. Lois Lowry is attempting to show the reader that it is okay to be different than those surrounding you. Each and every individual is different no matter what society is attempting to depict to be ideal or
Lois Lowry’s novel, The Giver, offers a thought provoking, well written story, because it changes the perspective of anyone who dares to read it to. Lowry places her novel, at some point in the future when mankind has gone away with changes and choices in life. She forces readers appreciate, or at least re-think the world they live in today. Her novel presents a fully human created environment where people have successfully blocked out conflict, grief, and individuality. Each person follows the same routine every day. Failure comply with standards, to be different, means death. Jonas, the main character, finds himself trapped in this world.
After, Jonas realizes that only some people see colour, it hits him that the Community has done this on purpose. If the utopian society is only used to one personality, then how will they interact with others? Diversity teaches a lot of different qualities such as politeness, kindness, respect, and much more. The point Louis Lowry is trying to make is, that the utopian society is not utopian. It is flawed in so many different ways.
Jonas is feeling things that no one in his community has ever felt before. He is beginning to understand that others are missing out on important emotions. He knows that The Giver has already given away most of the memories, and in order to stop the process, he must make a sacrifice in order for his community to be aware of what they are missing. This proves that he is conscious of the fact that his community is not perfect, and the act of staging an accident is a noble, selfless thing to do; something that his perfect peers would not understand. When talking about the harms of banning books and by quoting Lois Lowry, Jennifer Kendall states, “The world portrayed in The Giver is a world where choice has been taken away. It is a frightening world” (Kendall). Kendall makes the point that the Utopian society is not something that people strive for. As a middle-schooled child, it is easy to see that life is not perfect. I feel as if Lowry does a great job in showing the reader that Jonas does understand that his community is not perfect, and he goes to great links to stop the perfection. While there may seem to
Jonas’s community is a dystopia because the citizens have no choices. For instance, in The Giver it states that seven year old girls have to wear hair ribbons in their hair. Because of this they are not allowed to go anywhere without the hair ribbons in their hair. Another example is that the children need to do all of their voluntary hours. In the text it states that they have to do the voluntary hours in order to receive the ceremony of Twelves. Meaning that if they didn’t do enough hours of voluntary work then they could not
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.
Lois Lowry’s The Giver is a novel that showed how Jonas was saving everyone's lives by not quitting after painful memories that he receives from the
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
In today’s society there are many authors who write dystopian novels. They write these novels to give knowledge and to tell how our world is very different from dystopian life. Lois Lowry shows readers how people can suffer in dystopian society. In The Giver, Jonas’ community appears to be a utopia, but in reality it is a dystopia because everyone is under the illusion that there is freedom, dehumanization, and their strict regulations.
The Giver The Giver is an award winning book by Lois Lowry about a boy named Jonas and his struggles within his community and within himself. In the giver there are many form of conflict. These conflicts include character versus self, character versus nature, and character vs society.an opinion most important and mainly focused on conflict of the book being on Character versus himself, with those two positions being filled by Jonas and his belief the community. Jonas main conflict is with his community and how he now sees it now that he knows the truth. After being chosen as the receiver of memory jonas now has access to th e world before it was wash clean of emotion of and color and basically anything that causes any feeling.
Individuality is not known in jonas’ world until he receives a memory and unfolds the real definition of
Jonas’ community appears to be a utopia, but, in reality, it is a dystopia. The people seem perfectly content to live in an isolated wreck—in a government run by a select few—in which a group of Elders enforces the rules. In Jonas’ community, there is no poverty, starvation, unemployment, lack of housing, or discrimination; everything is perfectly planned to eliminate any problems. However, as the book progresses and Jonas gains insight into what the people have willingly given up—their freedoms and individualities—for the so-called common good of the community, it becomes more and more obvious that the community is a horrible place in which to live. You as a reader can relate to the disbelief and horror that Jonas feels when he realizes
The Giver Imagine a world without freedom, love, or color. Jonas, the protagonist in, The Giver experiences this everyday. Comparing Jonas’s society to modern day society you can tell that they have very little in common. Their society is trying to create sameness to keep from making bad choices, but is that worth the risk, trying to make a dystopian society into a utopian society?
In the story The Giver, Jonas world is a dystopia. The world is a dystopia because of many reasons including a citizen cannot have any choices, the citizens are assigned a job and are assigned a spouse. This includes that the citizens are ruled and this shows a dystopia world.
In The Giver, the setting is dystopia. It is dystopia because people have been reduced to the point where they have no emotions and are incapable of their own thoughts. The fact they are unable to think for themselves leaves them defenceless against the government trying to control them. In the book the society is made to seem as a utopia, due to the fact there seems to be no pain, sadness, or death. However, the truth is the only reason we believe there is no pain or sadness is because they have been cut out of society with things like happiness and love. Death however is still there, the only reason we believe it isn’t is because it’s been given another name ‘release’. In a scene where Jonas is with the Giver, they watch a video. In the video
The book The Giver gives the reader the feeling of a dystopia. A dystopia is an imperfect world.The world is fiction and was a utopia that did not work so well. These following facts explain why. They have strict rules, they believe in sameness, and they are given a spouse and children.