Why The Giver Should Be Banned

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

Not only does Jonas live in a community with dehumanization, he lives in a civilization that has strict regulations. An example of this is on page 84, “climate control snow made growing food difficult, limited the agricultural periods. And unpredictable weather made transportation almost impossible at times. It wasn't a practical thing, so it became obsolete when we went to sameness.” Climate control is a type of sameness, the concept of sameness is an important goal, Jonas enjoys this memory and asks the Giver why he doesn't use his power to bring back the hills and the snow. In fact the memory he is sharing is from generations back, so climate control has been around for a long time. Furthermore Lois Lowry states on page 22, “Three years,” Mother told her firmly. “Three births and that's all. After that they are Laborers for the rest of their adult lives, until the day that they enter the House of the Old.” The elders have controlled the society by removing family connections and loyalty. In addition the author claims in paragraph 2, “There was never any comfortable way to mention or discuss

According to the American Library Association (ALA), young adult novels are challenged with the best intentions. In most cases a parent will read a book that their child might be reading in class to find out if the book is hazardous to their child’s well-being. If the novel seems problematic, the parent then challenges the book. Even though the purpose of challenging a novel is to keep children from reading about issues that may not be seen as appropriate for their age group, censoring children from difficult subject matter is not always the solution. There is always controversy when difficult issues arise in adolescent geared novels. Even though there are many concerns with Lois Lowry’s The Giver,

The Giver, by Lois Lowry is about a young boy named Jonas who is growing up in a utopian society. In The Giver they have no memories of anything that has pain even involved which meant that the community had to get rid of some joyful things also. Jonas, the receiver, and The Giver himself are the only two that know the memories. The author, Lois Lowry, was given the Newbery medal in 1994. In her acceptance speech of the medal she stated things in her life that influenced her book, The Giver. Many of the events in Lois Lowry’s life had really influenced many of the big events in The Giver.

Mary Radmacher once said, “courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, I will try again tomorrow. ”In The Giver jonas gets selected to be the Receiver Of Memory. So the community don’t have to feel the pain, just jonas.

Although The Giver is negative in the sense that it portrays infanticide, euthanasia, and suicide in a positive light, it helps children to mature. However, many schools across the country believe The Giver should be banned for that same reason. That is the wrong way to look at things because then children are being shielded from the world. If the young don’t learn from books similar to The Giver, then when reality slaps them, they would not be able to comprehend such cruelty. The Giver is so scarily passive compared to various other books and events out in the world.

Two parents from Concord California took action when they found out there child was reading The Giver. In 2008, the two parents went to the school board demanding the novel should be taken off reading list and out of libraries for containing material about pill-popping, lethal injections, and intentional suicide. The parents were ultimately successful in proving that Lowry’s novel was not suited for the students of Mt. Diablo school district, as well as students around the world. One quote from the novel supporting that this novel was right to be challanged is, “... his father began very carefully to direct the needle into the top of the newchild’s forehead”... ”He killed it!

The Giver (by Lois Lowry) has an extraordinary amount of controversy on specific regions and sector of this Sci-Fi novel;; such as whether the “community” can be classified as a utopia. We all classify a utopia as a perfect area that is completely free of any government or social negativity. In the “community”, their people are genetically enhanced and drugged to conduct an equal lifestyle and race as everyone else; they are all chosen their path where they will live their life, and they cannot alter it in anyway. To prevent war or any other negative conflicts they had to drug the people to make them unable to know/remember anything or anyone in the past and unable to feel a certain way about anything or anyone. They eventually realized that

Jonas is assigned the job of receiver of memories and when he finds out more about the community, he decides to escape In the book the giver they release people that are not sick some are really healthy so they promote euthanasia as shown through the killing of healthy children, healthy old people and people who have committed infractions. In the book The Giver, the newchildren are born from a birth mother, but later will be assigned to another family, but if they’re underweight or aren’t healthy they all have time to get to the standards if they don't get up to standards after a certain amount of time it they will

Many resources such as books are being taken off the shelves of libraries because they contain blasphemy, sex, violence, race, satanism, witchcraft, or political bias. The Giver is a book that has been banned time and again for being not suitable for kids and violent. Even though there have been countless attempts to ban The Giver, it stills remains in the seventh-grade reading list of many schools.

In the story, Jonas is reacting to his father killing the child. He is angry and sad at his father. The book says, “He killed it! My father killed it!”(188). This is important because this shows how the community needs change because they kill innocent children. Jonas reacting showed that emotions help people care about others.

One of the first situations in which euthanasia is used is when a pilot-in-training gets lost and accidentally flies over the community. “Needless to say they will be released”(3). After reading more readers will quickly realize that people who break the rules are frowned upon. Anyone who breaks a rule is referred to as a transgressor and the community leaders are using euthanasia as a control factor when they euthanize transgressors after three mistakes. Another example of euthanasia is when Jonas’s mother, who works as a lawyer (in the department of justice), is asked to make a call whether or not a transgressor should be released. “ ‘You know that there’s no third chance. The rules say that if there’s a third transgression, he simply has to be released.” (20) Jonas’s mother obviously does not know that being released is actually, forcing euthanasia on people. Euthanasia is not a good way to conduct a community, because the cons outweigh the

Murder of infants and the killing of the suffering old. These are two topics that the book, The Giver, touches on. Murder of infants, or infanticide, occurs in the book. The old are also killed, touching on the controversial topic of euthanasia. In the novel, Jonas observes his own father kill a newborn child.

In chapter 18 Jonas asks the Giver “ Do you ever think about the release ?’’ which got him even more curious about the true meaning. When Jonas becomes aware of what release actually means he gets into conflict with what his father does. His disturbed reaction to when his father its “releasing’’ a twin, which was very dramatic, “ he killed it! My father killed it!’’ Later in chapter 18, the Givers explain to Jonas about Rosemary and how she became an individual because of the emotions she was receiving, but the community didn’t allow anyone to have feelings. Because of the impact of the emotions she has received, she wanted to be released, which lead her to not conforming her society. What this tells us is that communities are made up of authoritarian rules that have impacts on

The novel, The Giver, was a captivating piece of writing that had everyone hunched over in their desks with the book covering their faces. The main character, Jonas, was just a typical boy in a community filled with Sameness. When Jonas reached age 12, he got chosen to become the new Receiver, a job that required him to be given joyful, dismal, and painful memories of the past. A man named the Giver transmitted many of these memories into his mind. Once Jonas realized that the world was a better place when everyone could make their own choices and control their own feelings, he decided to make a run for it. He had taken a toddler named Gabriel with him on the escape because he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving him for dead. After many dreadful days they had finally reached a hill that seemed significant in a sort of way. While sliding down it they could hear voices of people singing