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With Happiness Comes Pain in Lois Lowry's The Giver Essay

Decent Essays

Imagine living in world where there are no feelings, color, or pain, and everyone is the same besides you. Jonas realized he was living in a world without color, pain, or feelings. Without color, pain, and feeling Jonas wasn’t able to express true happiness, and he therefore left the community. “Lois Lowry’s childhood escapades inspired her books,”(Dellinger). Also Lois loved photography and it resulted in the cover of The Giver, which is a photo of a blind painter. This connects to the book because no one can see in color besides the giver and the receiver, which is Jonas. Lois Lowry uses the literary elements foreshadowing, symbolism, and imagery to express the theme that one cannot have happiness without pain, in the book The Giver.

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Another example of symbolism is the speaker. The speaker represents authority and power. In the book the people of the community always obeyed the speaker. “IMMEDIATELY, the rasping voice through the speakers had said, LEAVE YOUR BICYCLES WHERE THEY ARE. Instantly, obediently, Jonas had dropped his bike on its side on the path behind his family’s dwelling,” (Lowry, 2). The last example is pale eyes, which symbolize difference. In the community difference is not. Jonas is tired of obeying the community rules and will leave the community.

Lastly, imagery influences the theme that one cannot have happiness without pain. The imagery shows what some of the people or thing smell, act, or look like. In the book Jonas says, “I don’t know. They acted like… like… Animals?”(Lowry, 5). This tells us that "they" probably were acting uncivilized and disgusting. A second example is when Jonas sees color. "But something about her changed. Her hair looked different: but not in its shape, not in its length. I can’t quite-. Jonas paused,”(Lowry, 91). The example shows something about her changed by telling what has not changed. Last but not least, is the narrator described where Jonas was. "He was in a confused, noisy, foul smelling place,"(Lowry, 118). Imagery shows how Jonas loathes the community, and Jonas will leave the community to be happy

The theme that one cannot have happiness without pain is expressed with the literary elements foreshadowing, symbolism, and imagery in

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