Emotions In The Giver

The Giver is about a utopian society--where the world is black and white, and people are “structured”. There were rules in this society, always have proper manners, share your feelings with your family everyday, and never lie, etc. People who disobey these rules would be “released to elsewhere”, meaning, a sentence to death through a drug procedure, which they do not understand. The antagonist of the book is the “Chief Elder”, she believes that emotions is a means to an end in society, while the protagonist, Jonas, works his way to prove to the Chief Elder that emotions is necessary for humanity, even if it meant breaking the rules. The issue in The Giver presents is very commonly seen in our society today, which is doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. Jonas, who is about to graduate and enter the adult world is given a specific job by the Chief Elder, “The Receiver”, which he would inherit all memories from the last receiver, and learn the secrets and truth of the society. Once Jonas learned one of the basic emotions, joy, he immediately wanted to show his friends what he learned about sledding. His
He was so eager to go back to the receiver to learn more about emotions and the pleasure of life. Then he starts to realize the bigger picture: why couldn’t he share this with others? More importantly, why couldn’t he restore the memories back to the people in the society. The Chief Elder had all eyes on Jonas, monitoring his every move, and figured out what he is planning to do. She couldn’t have him accomplish his plan because this would cause disruption in society. With joy, it comes with anger, which people may start to get aggressive. With having fun and playing games would result in chaos and may lead to greater consequences. The Chief Elder knew she had to do whatever she could to stop Jonas from restoring back the memories, but she did not succeed at the