Independence In The Giver

620 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Negative impact of freedom

Is it really worth giving up something you really love? It is not worth giving up the things people love. Many people need the things they love to live a happy and fulfilled life. Being able to make choices not only leads to bliss, but also helps people learn and makes them self-sufficient. If you do not allow a person the right to make their own choices, the community suffers, a person’s independence is taken, and one cannot express themselves.
Giving up things that people love to do sets up a community to suffer. If no one is happy and everyone is denied choice, people in that community will become very bitter. In the Giver, people cannot explore different areas, cultures or groups of people. They are told to keep to themselves and are not allowed to touch others. Not being able to hug your friends or touch others creates a disconnect. For a community to grow, its members have to know that they …show more content…

In the Giver, the community chooses a person’s job for life. That individual does not get to pick what they want to make of their future. Jonas is told, “If you don’t fit, in you can apply for elsewhere and be released…” The community is trying to scare Jonas by telling him if he does not do what he is told that he will be released or kicked out of the community. Being exiled from the only place one has ever lived would be scary and very upsetting. By dictating, the community is taking away Jonas’ independence. In our society, teenagers after graduating high school are allowed a choice of whether to go to college or to quit and not attend school. Also, we can pick a job that we want to do. For instance, if a person likes a certain topic, one can explore that. If one likes animals, one could become a vet or a trainer. If one is really into science, that person could become a doctor or a science teacher. If people do not try new things, they cannot explore what they are good

Show More
Related

  • The Giver Society Quotes

    340 Words  | 1 Pages

    “How could someone not fit in? The community was so meticulously ordered, the choices so carefully made.” (Lowry, 48) In Lowry’s novel, The Giver, eliminating choices and feelings caused their society to be worse than our society today because you don’t have any choices and you don’t get to experience the feeling of joy and happiness.

    Read More

  • Dystopia In The Giver, By Lowis Lowry

    736 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this community of The Giver, the advantages get outweighed by the disadvantages. The citizens get harsh punishments for the smallest issues, no one in the community (except Jonas after a while and The Giver) gets to experience real emotions that are actually what they feel-not what they think they feel, and they kill/release innocent newchildren that don’t weigh enough or aren’t maturing fast enough. When you weigh the pros and cons of being in the community, you can see that people would be much better off living out of it, rather than being a part of the

    Read More

  • The Utopian Society In The Giver By Lois Lowry

    1508 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Critics and censors all agree that Jonas's situation in The Giver is horrifying. Through a series of shocking events, he discovers that...his people literally have limited vision and can not make decisions without the Giver's help” (Lord, Elyse). Being able to see different colors, Jonas thinks it would be nice if everyone could choose, which color shirt to wear in the morning. Jonas saw the importance of decision making when realizing it is essential to happiness. He notices, his people does not have the option of choice. They cannot see the red apple, the green grass, or the blue sky. There is only this sameness of black and white. Each year Jonas’s people follows the same concepts and routines, without any questions being asked. The option of choice was taken away from them hoping to build a utopian society. Jonas understands that having a choice helps to think for ourselves. Without it, in some ways life can be meaningless. In some ways the community as well as the chief elders, sees the Giver/receiver as a God. Reason being, the citizens, are only comfortable with things that are familiar to them. When not knowing how to deal with a situation, they come to the giver for advisement. He is familiar with all things known and unknown. Knowing this, they believe only he can truly give the right

    Read More

  • Decisions In The Giver

    502 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same” -the fray. In the novel “The Giver” by Lois Lowry, there is a part in the book where Jonas, the protagonist, has to decide whether to bring Gabriel, a small child raised in the same family unit as Jonas, on his long journey towards “elsewhere”. Jonas has to make the decision to bring Gabriel along on his dangerous journey or to leave Gabriel at the community where Jonas knows that they will kill him. Jonas made the right choice to bring Gabriel. Jonas knew if he left Gabe there at the community they would kill him. Gabe would be given a better chance to live rather than to be left dead at the community. Gabe’s presence could provide Jonas the motivation to keep going towards “elsewhere”.

    Read More

  • The Ability Of Free Will In The Giver By Lois Lowry

    1177 Words  | 3 Pages

    Having the Ability of free will can shape the way we think. When Jonas learns the truth about being released means he chooses to escape the community with Gabriel . In the book when Jonas sees the video of his own father, killing Gabriel’s twin via lethal injection, and throws it down a garbage shoot. When the community elders decide to kill the old for living out his or her lives or babies who are not up to standard is their way of population control. For example in our world capital punishment is a debatable subject and to control the prison population. Weather to kill someone for committing a crime or letting them rot in prison for the rest of their life. Sometimes we do need to take

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On The Giver

    543 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Giver is actually one of my all-time favorite books, so I’ve looked into why she left the book so inconclusive in the past. The Giver is basically about a boy named Jonas who lives in a perfect society. He lives in a household with his two parents and his little sister Lilly. When he becomes a 12, he goes through a huge ceremony and all the elders assign them their jobs. In this community, there is no lying, stealing, racism, pain, sunlight or color. Jonas was chosen to be The Receiver, and he didn’t know what to do because this job was such a big deal. Jonas then goes through training with the current Receiver, who is now The Giver. Training consists of The Giver passing down the memories from when the community was not what it is today. Memories that are passed down are things that are normal to us. Memories of sun, snow, pain, and sorrow.

    Read More

  • Theme of Utopia in The Giver

    808 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Giver presents a community that appears to be perfect on the surface. Jonas's community is free of warfare, pain, sorrow and other bitterness we suffer in our society. The world seems to be secure and undergoes little conflict. Such a community seems flawless and is the idealistic society that we longed to live in. However , through Jonas's training, the imperfections of the Utopian community are revealed. The community allows little individual freedom and choice. In allowing only one person, the Receiver, to bear the memories of the world, the community frees itself from suffering and conflict. As a result, it gives up the ability to experience true feelings, passion, individual privacy, freedom and knowledge. To maintain the community's order, strict rules are applied to the inhabitants. "Releases" ( a less offensive term for kills) are performed to the citizens who jeopardize the stability and peace of the community. The inhabitants' careers and spouses are chosen by the Elders (or government).

    Read More

  • The Giver, by Lois Lowry

    2270 Words  | 5 Pages

    Lowry writes The Giver in the dystopian genre to convey a worst-case scenario as to how modern society functions. A dystopia is an “illusion of a perfect society” under some form of control which makes criticism about a “societal norm” (Wright). Characteristics of a dystopian include restricted freedoms, society is under constant surveillance, and the citizens live in a dehumanized state and conform to uniform expectations (Wright). In The Giver, the community functions as a dystopian because everyone in the community conforms to the same rules and expectations. One would think that a community living with set rules and expectations would be better off, but in reality, it only limits what life has to offer. Instead, the community in the novel is a dystopian disguised as a utopian, and this is proven to the audience by the protagonist, Jonas. Jonas is just a norma...

    Read More

  • Examples Of Conformity In The Giver

    787 Words  | 2 Pages

    society, everyone wears the same clothes, follows the same rules, and has a predetermined life. A community just like that lives inside of Lois Lowry’s The Giver and this lack of individuality shows throughout the whole book. This theme is demonstrated through the control of individual appearance, behavior, and ideas.

    Read More

  • Importance Of Unity In The Giver

    691 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Giver, the members of the community must give up choice in order to obtain perfect harmony with each other. I believe that, in a well ordered universe, all communities should be living in peace. Peace is almost essential to happiness. Although I feel that unity is important, I would argue that this trade is extreme.

    Read More

  • The Giver Should Not Be Banned Essay

    1010 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is one of the few brave books that exposes the horrors of humanity and serves as a cautionary tale for us all. Even in a “paradise” like Jonas' community, people still try to control others in order to keep the world pure, innocent, and shaped in their image, while they are ignorant of the past, of history, and their abilities to harm others even when they have good intentions. The Giver is a vital piece of literature for society today; its lessons of the horrors that can occur in society and the beauty that humanity offers are invaluable to us all. Freedom and choice are vital to a successful and fulfilled society. A world without freedom and choice “is a frightening world. Let’s work hard to keep it from truly happening.”

    Read More

  • The Giver Changes

    724 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jonas changes the community for two reasons. One reason is to help himself and the other reason is to help the community. Jonas helps change the community by making an escape plan so he could leave the community. As a result of escaping the community Jonas would release the memories he was given throughout his lessons to the community. Giving the memories to the community would mean he would be giving them feelings and memories of differences, war, etc., which they don’t have. By leaving the community Jonas helps himself because he escapes the community so he could experience more feelings and live in a society that has differences, no climate control, and color. In conclusion this is how Jonas plans to change the

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Individuality In The Giver

    746 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jonas’ community chooses Sameness rather than valuing individual expression. Although the possibility of individual choice sometimes involves risk, it also exposes Jonas to a wide range of joyful experiences from which his community has been shut away. Sameness may not be the best thing in the community because Jonas expresses how much he feels like Sameness is not right and wants there to be more individuality. Giver leads him to understand both the advantages and the disadvantages of personal choice, and in the end, he considers the risks worth the benefits. “Memories are forever.”

    Read More

  • Similarities Between The Giver And The Truman Show

    729 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin with, in The Truman Show, Truman wanted to go somewhere else. He wanted to go to Fiji. Truman kept on telling himself that he was going to go. He wanted to get out of his place and find somewhere new. Truman kept trying and trying to get a flight or take a bus but because his society was watching him they made sure that there was no way to leave. Than in The Giver, Jonas wanted to go elsewhere. He wanted to experience different things. Jonas wanted to see what else was in the world for him. He did not want to be cooped up in his utopian society forever. The people in Jonas’s society did not know what the difference was between their society and elsewhere. Everyone just grew up knowing what they still know. They both want to leave their utopian societies. They both want

    Read More

  • The Giver Book Report

    565 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jonas always tells his dreams. He always was there for chastisement. He always shared his feelings at the evening meal. He also always took his pill every morning. “Now he swallowed the pill his mother handed him.”(Page 38). By the end of the book Jonas is rebellious. He stops taking pills for emotions that he is supposed to take everyday. Jonas stays at the Giver’s house when he sees his father kill a baby. Jonas also tries to escape from the community when Giver creates a plan to escape from the community which Jonas barely follows because of Gabe’s release. “But your role now is to escape.” (Page 162). This means that Jonas has to escape and the Giver must stay to help the community after he is gone.

    Read More

More about Independence In The Giver

Open Document