Giver Is Not A Life At All

The Giver: A Life with No Freedom Is Not a Life at All Living a life without color, weather, true emotions, or virtually any other aspect that makes life vibrant is a truly depressing way to imagine life. Imagine the concepts of love and happiness being eliminated from life. Weather is no longer something that exists, and being able to choose your spouse and choose how many children you want is not even a right that is known to have existed at some point. This sort of life hardly sounds ideal; however, in Lois Lowry’s novel The Giver, society over time evolved to eliminate all these aspects of life, and they did so to improve their lives. Over time, it was decided that the downsides of various types of weather outweighed being able to
For instance, Jonas’ mother, who works in the justice department, described her feelings when a member of the community, who had broken the rules before, was brought back on additional charges of breaking the rules. She stated that “to see him brought before [me] a second time caused [me] overwhelming feelings of frustration and anger. And even guilt, that [I] hadn't made a difference in his life” (Lowry 8). The system is designed so well that, without knowing, the community members are keeping each other in line and are keeping each other from living a full life. Jonas’ mother personally feels responsible for the community member’s behavior, as if it was her fault that she hadn’t punished him enough. Clearly the community has, as Don Latham stated in his paper analyzing The Giver, “sacrificed free will, diversity, and individualism in the name of security and sameness” (Latham). No amount of security is worth sacrificing free will, diversity, and individualism. These sacrifices have deprived the community of its right to experience life and live free