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The Giver, By Lois Lowry

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The Giver, By Lois Lowry
Fictional worlds are constructed by writers to sometimes narrate important realities about being human. Lois Lowry’s “The Giver” is a curious mixture of utopian and dystopian world that explores the cost of fictionalised harmony. The Giver takes place in an unknown time “after the ruin” from which is emerged a society strictly controlled. The ideas of rules and control, sameness and memory is depicted in the opening chapters.

Whilst we live in a world where rules exist and we understand their role, the world of Jonas revolves around rules. Rules are important in the community to maintain stability and productivity. The Book of Rules contains everything citizens need to fit in. They are used to take away freedom, choice and individuality. The citizens of the community are overly controlled yet they aren't even aware that they’ve lost their freedom. Jonas is used to having rules for everything including the sharing of feelings with family each night and dreams each morning. There are rules about how many people can be in each family unit, “Two children, one male, one female to each family unit. It was written very clearly in the rules.” Even feelings of attraction, desire, and affection referred to …show more content…
The reality of Jonas being ‘selected’ not ‘assigned’ reflects the power memory has in the lives of people. By controlling ‘memory’ the Elders can continue to suppress the citizens of the community. Without memory, there is no pain. At some point in the past the community decided to eliminate all pain from their lives. Not only did this allow them to forget all of the pain that had been suffered throughout human history, it also prevented members of the society from wanting to engage in activities and relationships that could result in conflict and suffering. The Elders seek advice from the Receiver who holds all the memories so that they won’t make the past
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