Essay for the Giver: Relationships in the Story.
“There’s nothing we can do. It has always been this way.” Imagine a world where everything was the same. No difference, no outliers, nothing out of the ordinary. In the so-called utopian society of The Giver, the community which the main character, Jonas, lives in is exactly like this. The society which is portrayed in the story is an illusion of what a utopia is. Through the relationships that we are able to see in the story, such as interactions with the opposite sex, Jonas’s relationship with the Giver, and relationships between family members, we can clearly see that the idea of a utopia has clearly been misunderstood by the society and its leaders.
In the society of The Giver, interaction between members of the opposite sex is clearly restricted. When Jonas goes to the House of the Old, he helps the elderly by bathing them. Even though this is an example of just a young boy helping the society, a rule in place exists, which says that it is “against the rules for children or adults to look at another’s nakedness; but the rule did not apply to new children or the Old.” (Lowry 30) Clearly, the idea of a utopian society cannot be upheld by intimacy, or just look at another person’s naked body. Also, when Jonas told his intimate dream with Fiona at the House of the Old, and wanting to bathe her, his parents immediately gave him pills so that he would never experience the wanting ever again. Even though this shows that the interaction between opposite genders is immensely restricted, it shows that there also is not much freedom inside The Giver’s society. It shows that they all have to think the same way, and not experience any wanting inside. Another way that the society restricts relationships with the opposite sex is when you realize that there can be no intimacy whatsoever. In the society of The Giver, each person is assigned a job, and they stick to that job their entire life. People are not given any freedom to choose which job they would like. One of
In the society of The Giver, interaction between members of the opposite sex is clearly restricted. When Jonas goes to the House of the Old, he helps the elderly by bathing them. Even though this is an example of just a young boy helping the society, a rule in place exists, which says that it is “against the rules for children or adults to look at another’s nakedness; but the rule did not apply to new children or the Old.” (Lowry 30) Clearly, the idea of a utopian society cannot be upheld by intimacy, or just look at another person’s naked body. Also, when Jonas told his intimate dream with Fiona at the House of the Old, and wanting to bathe her, his parents immediately gave him pills so that he would never experience the wanting ever again. Even though this shows that the interaction between opposite genders is immensely restricted, it shows that there also is not much freedom inside The Giver’s society. It shows that they all have to think the same way, and not experience any wanting inside. Another way that the society restricts relationships with the opposite sex is when you realize that there can be no intimacy whatsoever. In the society of The Giver, each person is assigned a job, and they stick to that job their entire life. People are not given any freedom to choose which job they would like. One of