The Giver is a book about a totalitarian government that controls its people by outlawing colors, pets and many things we take for granted today. In the dystopian society of “The Giver”, there are many differences from our modern society, some being the age system, the “family units”, and the economy and employment…
The American writer, Lois Lowry in her novel, The Giver, claims that in creating a utopian society the creator manufactures a dystopia, since the individuality of a person contradicts the creator’s idea of a utopia. She develops her claim by first creating a utopia where the residents lack individuality conforming to the criteria of sameness, then presenting the absence of intense emotions, then convey the reader’s thoughts of the utopia by placing a main character who gains his emotions and individuality, and finally declares that the utopia lacks morality spawning a dystopia. Lowry’s purpose is to criticize conformity in order to state that to enjoy life one must suffer to appreciate life. She establishes a thoughtful tone for the audience…
In The Giver, The Elders who are the leaders and the members of the government decide on an answer; they choose to let go of the individual right such as freedom of speech and freedom to choose that people had fought for in the past in exchange for the development as a nation which leaves the people without any rights as citizens nor a human being and makes their world a dystopia. The search for what is more important between individual or community good still remains as a mystery for people today and will never have a definite answer. However, this lesson would at least benefit everyone from choosing the wrong…
“No one in the community was starving, had ever been starving, would ever be starving.” (Lowry 89). The Community in The Giver is called a utopian society, what is a utopian society? Webster Dictionary says, “an imaginary place in which the government, laws, and social condition are perfect...” Even though they may be “perfect”, utopian societies never really work out, and usually people have to take risks in order to change the society. In the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry, Jonas takes risks by, helping family members, doing what he thinks is right, and helping friends see the truth.…
“All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.” -Albert Einstein. In these texts The Giver By Lois Lowry, Anthem by Ayn Rand and Pleasantville by Gary Ross the societies never seem to move forward. With no opportunity and change the society remains the same. In the Giver, the community had always lived the same with only the Givers knowing a different life. Living a life controlled by the elders of the community. Similar to Pleasantville with the same routine every day and no change within the society. In all three of the societies the citizens are impacted by laws and rules to restrict their lives. These rules exist to try to create this perfect society. In an unjust society…
Just imagine a world where everything was the same all the time. Every day, the weather as plain and ordinary as the clothes you wear. This is the world perceived in The Giver. The Giver is a story of a boy named Jonas living in a dystopian society where everything is the same; the people, the homes, the weather. Though they have eliminated all fear, pain, war, and hatred, they have also eliminated choice. But when Jonas is chosen as Receiver, he must fight to bring choice, passion, joy, and love back to the hearts of his community. This type of society differs from modern society. The culture of current-day varies from the novel’s as well as its structure and values.…
“Giver-in-training”, the Giver was a bystander. The Giver was a bystander because he saw what happened when people were “Released”. The Giver saw through the utopian facade of their government, yet he did not do anything to change the Releases or the functioning of the society. For example, when the Giver saw Rosemary’s Release, or even before that, he could have stopped it. Maybe the Giver could’ve ran away from the society with Rosemary. Yet the Giver did nothing even though he saw a situation happening with knowledge of the past, no emotions, and Releases in the…
The book, ‘The Giver’, by Lois Lowry is a novel depicting a society where standards and rules are everything. Citizens of the community aren’t allowed to pick a single thing on their own: from the clothes they wear, to the assignments (jobs) they will work they rest of their lives. The community has been blindsided for years, and is highly unaware of the the pick-n-choose world they are missing out on. Consider that our current government had announced they were planning on recreating a population just like that. Having a civilization like the one Lois Lowry wrote about become real, would be an alarming concern. The nation that we live in today would no longer be the same. There would be no more deciding for ourselves. Everything would strictly…
In both the Rash and the Giver trying to keep the community safe shows a big part in the society's setting and how the world is structured. With Rash being safe is a big part of their world were U.S has even changed to United Safe States of America (U.S.S.A). With the name came rules that had to be made. One of the many changes that got made was a Child Safety Act. As a result, part of the act stated, “Now every high school runner has to wear a full on set of protective gear. We race on an Adzorbium - it's like running on a sponge”(9). A similar thing in the Giver is that the people are not allowed to choose their job or the person that they get married with when older. Since the government wants the society to have no danger and everyone to…
Its lack of free will for the people fails to meet the expectations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Giver explores the notion of “ignorance is bliss”, yet where the absence of pain is promised, the threat of enslavement and lack of free will hovers menacingly. It is the consequence of peace and stability, a sacrifice made to generate an ideally stable society—a society that turns out to be dystopian. Free will is essential to an individual’s personal, professional, and political life, it is the most fundamental of all human rights. Free will enables people to discover their potential both politically and professionally. As a personal matter, free will enables the freedom of expression, promoting individuality. Individuality would then lead to diversity among people, and diversity is what gives humans strength to strive and excel the way they have. Free will and individualism is what defines mankind—a necessity for…
In The Giver, the people of the Community get rid of sexual desire and romantic feelings using a pill. They call these feelings ‘the Stirrings’, and believe they are bad for the Community as a whole. I disagree with them. I think that we need these feelings in our lives. For one, they make us happy. When someone is close enough to someone that they feel comfortable sleeping with them, they are happy. Some people argue that love and sex can only bring heartbreak and pain. Although that is a valid argument, heartbreak and hurt is something that eventually fades. When it is gone and you let love back in your life, it’s something wonderful. Another argument given is that without the Stirrings, there would be no rape, pedophiles, sexual assault…
Most of the characters in this book show a respect for some of God’s rules although they do it unintentionally. The Giver takes place in a society where there are really no emotions and the people don’t understand death. Because the Giver takes place in this kind of society where everything is the same there are no churches or religion. Because the characters in the book don’t understand death a lot of time they will kill people unintentionally. Such as when Jonas’s father has to release babies what he is really doing is killing them.…
Individuals in today’s society are honored, but in Jonas’s society, if someone is not the same as everyone else then he or she can apply for release (61). Different individuals bring different perspectives. With different perspectives come new ideas and more options on how to solve a problem. The Giver is the only person in Jonas’s society who can tell people his ideas and offer advice, because he has memories. The Giver asks Jonas if he remembers the day a plane flew over the community. Jonas replies that he does remember the plane and he was scared. The Giver then continues, “’So were they. They prepared to shoot it down. But they sought my advice. I told them to wait… I used my wisdom, from the memories. I knew that there had been times in the past- terrible times- when people had destroyed others in haste, in fear, and had brought about their own destruction,’” (141). The Giver is the only one who could have known this. The reason the creators of Jonas’s society eliminate individuality is so the individuals would not have different ideas. The creators figured it would be easier to control one person’s ideas rather than a whole society’s. By doing this though, Jonas’s society cannot develop and become…
Imagine a world without color, pain, or feelings. It sounds terrible. The Giver is a book about a community that people in the community do not have to be worry about anything. In other words, they never experience the joy of life and success. Jonas’ community is a strict community to avoid negative emotions. However (TRANS), there are many things that citizens are not allowed to do by themselves. The purpose of this paragraph is to contrast the Jonas’ community to our community. First of all, in Jonas’ community everyone lives by the community’s rules. It means their food, their family, their decisions are chosen for them because they are under the community’s control. However, in our community people can make their own decisions and choose their favorite food to eat. Second, in Jonas’s community the Elders control the population. It means that kids are not raised in a house. They are raised in a center for a year and will be given to family, but (TRANS) the Elders are the ones to decide who can be assigned to care for children. However, in our community people have their own children and it does not matter how many children they want to have (INF). Another difference is that when they turn twelve, the children are given a job assignment and start training (GER) for their job, and after that, they work more till they become a responsible adult. By way of contrast, in our community people can start working (GER) whenever they want, and they might want to work (INF) less when they get older (COMP). In conclusion, we would realize that our decisions, emotions, and differences might make our life harder (COMP), so it would be great to be happy with the present life. Never make your life as same as (COMP) Jonas’ community because you are never going to feel the life. A world without color, pain, or feelings should be a destination you would never…
In the story The Giver by Lois Lowry, a utopian society emphasizes sameness in all aspects of life. Citizens obey rules that eliminate everything from their feelings to their choice of their devoted spouses whom they must spend their whole life with. These rules were created to eliminate world problems such as poverty, refugees, and world hunger. The World’s most prominent problem today however is world hunger. I believe, the origin of this is overpopulation. A possible ethical solution to this problem is to create a law allowing each family to consists only a maximum of three children.…
