The Giver Rhetorical Analysis

Anyone who’s read the Giver knows that Jonas’s society if different than our own. Better read people, however, understand the book enough to realize that this is because his city is a dystopian society. Causing the banishment of emotions was a colossal mistake for “the community,” as he called it, because the project caused more harm than good. Deluded readers might say that they feel lesser emotions; in truth, they don’t even know the meaning. Even items other than emotion were taken out eventually, and many would be considered pleasures in today’s world. Factoring all these topics together, it’s clear to see that Jonas’s decision to save the community was the right one. Giving people who have never felt real emotions all of them at once seems dangerous, but in the long run entering them back into society was definitely the way to go. Happiness, sadness, pain, laughter, anger...most would say that emotions are the basis of what makes us human, and that they are something we should never be without. Interestingly, the Elders fall into this category of believing that emotions are needed, which is
Clenching her hand in a fist, Lily claimed that she felt angry at school, and Jonas’s mother lists off a string of emotions. December has arrived and Jonas says he feels apprehensive about the Ceremony of Twelve. Each member of the family shares the emotions, but later in the book Jonas realizes that none of these are true emotional responses. Far after the Sharing of the Feelings, Jonas gets a memory of a broken leg and sits in bed thinking the words, “They have never known pain.” Gabriel and members who can receive memories are the only ones who ever feel real sentiment, everybody else only feels whatever is left over. Having said this, it ends up being just another reason why the community will be better off with their