The Giver: Contemporary Essay
Mother and Father
Pleasantville
March 19,2013
Your Daughter
The Real World
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Dearest Mother and Father,
I know you are probably very concerned upon learning I have left the community. However, I have written to you to explain why I did so. As you both know, I have been training along the Giver to become the new Receiver of Memory. Over time, I have received many memories, and experienced pain like no other, you are unable to grasp the concept of some things I have learned, but I will try my best to explain them to you so you can understand why I have chosen to leave. I have been taught and experienced color, and how our community leaders had destroyed it in the time much before us. They have taken away what makes us different and diverse, emerging the community into a world of black and white and sameness. While I was in training, I came across a book called The Giver by Lois Lowry. It tells of a society where the leaders control everything and everyone. It sounded a lot like our community, there is release, sameness, job assignments, food deliverers, and so much more. At first, when I started reading, I thought it was a book written about our community. I have learned a lot of secrets about our neighborhood, most of which encouraged me to leave, proving our community is a false utopia. Therefore, I have chosen to leave because of the truth of release, and lack of diversity. Our false utopian society is embedded into complete sameness. In the book The Giver, Jonas starts to experience the color red, and the Giver explains why. “’Our people made that choice, the choice to go to sameness.[…]We relinquished color when we relinquished sunshine and did away with the difference. We gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others’”(Lowry 95). The community leaders have taken away all color, turning their world black and white. This proves their community, and our community is a false utopia. Controlled by
Pleasantville
March 19,2013
Your Daughter
The Real World
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Dearest Mother and Father,
I know you are probably very concerned upon learning I have left the community. However, I have written to you to explain why I did so. As you both know, I have been training along the Giver to become the new Receiver of Memory. Over time, I have received many memories, and experienced pain like no other, you are unable to grasp the concept of some things I have learned, but I will try my best to explain them to you so you can understand why I have chosen to leave. I have been taught and experienced color, and how our community leaders had destroyed it in the time much before us. They have taken away what makes us different and diverse, emerging the community into a world of black and white and sameness. While I was in training, I came across a book called The Giver by Lois Lowry. It tells of a society where the leaders control everything and everyone. It sounded a lot like our community, there is release, sameness, job assignments, food deliverers, and so much more. At first, when I started reading, I thought it was a book written about our community. I have learned a lot of secrets about our neighborhood, most of which encouraged me to leave, proving our community is a false utopia. Therefore, I have chosen to leave because of the truth of release, and lack of diversity. Our false utopian society is embedded into complete sameness. In the book The Giver, Jonas starts to experience the color red, and the Giver explains why. “’Our people made that choice, the choice to go to sameness.[…]We relinquished color when we relinquished sunshine and did away with the difference. We gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others’”(Lowry 95). The community leaders have taken away all color, turning their world black and white. This proves their community, and our community is a false utopia. Controlled by