In the novel, The Giver by Lois Lowry, the author makes it clear through the main character Jonas that freedom and safety need to find an equal balance. Lowry shows the importance of deep emotions and family through Jonas. Jonas becomes the new receiver of memory and learns about the past. He also learned about the way it was when people knew what love was. Jonas’ father releases newborn children because they don’t weight the correct amount of weight or they don’t sleep well through the night. Release is a nice way of saying kill; the people of the community don’t know what kill means. They don’t have the freedom to expand their vocabulary. Lois Lowry makes it clear that safety has a negative side and you need that you need freedom to have a high functioning community.
Love and other deep emotions are not worth giving up for safety. Jonas’ own mother doesn’t love him, she doesn’t know what love means. “Do you love me… So meaningless that it has become almost obsolete” (pg127). Jonas refused to live where your parents don’t know what the meaning of love is. So he left. He took a stand. Jonas found out that his father was going to kill his stepbrother, Gabe and he was furious. His father doesn’t even know what the word kill means. His father honestly thought he was helping Gabe by releasing him, just because he didn’t sleep soundly through the night. If he knew the emotions of love, empathy and hope he might have known that release is a bad thing. But they chose to not have feelings because they were afraid of heartbreaks,
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the feeling of loss, hate and envy. As Alfred, Lord Tennyson said, “Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all”. He states that love is worth the pain that the feel...
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...nts to pick his own spouse. Jonas is tired of sameness and little choices. “What if… he could choose? Instead of sameness”(pg98). He wanted to be free of sameness. Louis Lowry made it clear through Jonas that freedom of choice is a lot more important then sameness.
Having some sameness can create a safe environment in schools. Having school uniforms can help decrease in-school violence, theft rates and gang colors. School uniforms can also eliminate distraction that clothes can cause. According to a study done at a Long Beach middle school overall school crime decreased by 36% when they enforced a mandatory program. If people did not have to wear school uniforms gang rates may go up, theft rate would be higher and it would help the school see who belongs at school and who doesn’t. You need school uniforms to have a safe environment for people to teach and learn.
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What are memories to you? In the book The Giver, by Lois Lowry. There is a boy his name is Jonas. He is the Receiver of Memories. Jonas experiences the memories over the course of the book. Memories help us understand there are consequences to your actions. Although some readers may believe that memories are not important. The memories Jonas had helped him with the journey at the end of the book.
The Giver let Jonas experience love at Christmas, in a memory but that was the only time Jonas ever got to enjoy the feeling. The citizens don’t even understand what the emotions are, because they just feel normal-not happy, excited, anger, or love. Jonas had just been given the memory of love from The Giver and decided to ask his dad about it. “‘Do you love me?’ There was an awkward silence for a moment. Then Father gave a little chuckle. ‘Jonas. You of all people. Precision of language, please!’” (127). Jonas’s dad got almost angry with Jonas because love isn’t supposed to be something that is in their community. Having emotions isn’t normal in The Giver. Love isn’t a natural thing someone has so his dad didn’t really understand what Jonas was talking
After feeling love through his training as the Receiver, he asks his parents about their love for him. The conversation between them says, “ Jonas asks, ‘Do you love me?’... Later, his mom responds, ‘Your father means that you used a very generalized word, so meaningless that it’s become almost obsolete’ ” (Lowry 127). The ignorance that they have grown up knowing, does not allow them to fully be happy by experiencing love.
The first reason why the community in the book The Giver should be given personal rights is because the inhabitants of the community could learn from their mistakes. Without any personal rights they cannot make their own decisions; if they don’t make their own decisions they cannot learn from their mistakes that their decisions had led them to. On page 98 in The Giver Jonas stated that “What if they were allowed to choose their own mate? And chose wrong?” This tells the reader...
Jonas decides to leave and change the lives of his people so that they can experience the truth. “The Giver rubbed Jonas’s hunched shoulders… We’ll make a plan” (155). Their plan involves leaving sameness and heading to Elsewhere, where Jonas knows the memories can be released to the people. He has a connection with Gabe, a special child who has experienced the memories, unlike the rest of the community. Jonas has a strong love for Gabe, and he longs to give him a better life. “We’re almost there, Gabriel” (178). Even with a sprained ankle, Jonas keeps pushing forward because he wants everyone to experience what The Giver has given him. He wants them to have a life where the truth is exposed. His determination allows him to make a change for a greater future in his community. This proves that Jonas has the strength to change his community for the
When he turns twelve, his job for the rest of his life is decided as the Receiver. His job is to receive all the memories the previous Receiver has held on to. While this is beneficial for Jonas as he is able to leave the society and his job of the Receiver behind and gets freedom, the community is left without someone to take the memories from The Giver. This is an example of conformity because a few of the Receivers before Jonas had left the community due to the things they were learning and finding out about the community, which changed the way they viewed the society. They then realized that they do not want to do this for the rest of their life, and for their job to sit around and hold memories as no one else is capable of knowing them is not something they want to do. To conclude, Jonas’s action to run away from the society follows in the footsteps of the others, and if others follow Jonas, there may never be a Receiver for the Jonas’s
... students in various ways, such as to learn how to ‘cooperate’ with their friends and work out the problem.” (Mr. Knight). Uniforms are not just for schools it's also for jobs or teams you play on, so you just have to sit down and think about how school uniforms can change and the rest of your priors for the good or better, uniforms can make your school a safe place, bully and gang violence free zone. Even the statistics show schools that have uniforms have a decrease bullying, gang violence and other crimes. Putnam City Schools should adopt school uniforms next year.
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.”
He feels that the Elders violate his personal space, which makes him not trust them. This matters to Jonas because he feels like the Community does not trust him enough to not watch him, so he believes that they are keeping secrets. As Jonas begins to realize the problem of having no choice he thinks about all of the other opportunities that the Elders take from them such as lack of knowledge and not being able to feel
Jonas misses the way it was before he had memories where there was no pain or feeling, because everything was innocent. But he understands that although there was innocence nobody feels true happiness.Jonas thinks: “But he knew he couldn’t go back to that world of no feelings that he had lived in so long” (Lowry 131). Jonas wishes he could go back when everything was innocent and when he had no burden of pain, but although there was innocence the bad memories were stripped away to avoid the feeling of pain but also leaves everyone emotionless. But he knows it can never be the same again because of all the knowledge he gained from memories. He learns that memoires need to be valued, even the painful ones. Jonas feels that his community can change and things could be different. He thinks they should live in a world with memories. Jonas says: “Things could be different. I don’t know how, but there must be some way for things to be different. There could be colours [...] and everybody would have memories [...] There could be love” (Lowry 128). Jonas wishes that they could all have memories because everyone would be able to experience love. Love is one of the most important things in human life. He knows that there are bad memories, but without them, he wouldn’t be able to enjoy the good ones. Eventually, with his feelings
The giver by Lois Lowry is a factionary book about a young boy (Jonas) who lives in a black and white world where there is very little pain or emotion. He lives in a secure area where they’re not allowed to leave. When he turns 12 he will get a life-long job to help his community. First, the time setting is in the future and is a utopian society. It’s a small community by a river.
In chapter 19, Jonas has now made his plan to escape the community because he had just watched his father release one twin and keep the other. The twins were family but now one is dead. In addition to Jonas wanting love and wanting to search for it he had just witnessed his father, someone he had love for, kill/release a newborn. Jonas didn't have family love or love from anybody so that also influenced him to
To have uniforms mandatory in public schools would have many reasons why it would be beneficial to not only students, but also parents and teachers. A benefit of having school uniforms would be that uniforms would reduce clothing costs and stress for parents by not having to spends hundreds of dollars each year on their children so that they can keep up with the latest fashions and trends. Another perk would be that most of the time uniforms reduce bullying among students by eliminating the bullying surrounding students preferred clothing choices. They could also be less distracted in school from looking at their peers’ clothes. Students who come from poorer families would not stand out or be judged by the students who are more fortunate. With uniforms, teachers would not have to make the tough decisions of what clothing is appropriate for students to wear. School uniforms also reduces fighting and theft in schools where gangs and poverty is common.
Mentioned in Pros and Cons of School Uniforms, “When children wear their own clothes into school, this then becomes a time for them to judge each other, so it prevents competition and teasing” (Pros and Cons of School Uniforms). When you have school uniforms you won’t be wearing different things so you will become more equal. If the students are equal, it then reduces judgement and bullying between the students and makes the school a better place. Another positive statement on how school uniforms are beneficial comes from, Pros and Cons of School Uniforms, “Many educators believe that students who wear school uniforms perform better academically in school, and a study done in 1988 by Notre Dame shows a slight statistical evaluation in student performances among students who wear uniforms” (LoveToKnow). School uniforms will remove the clothing distraction and increase the amount of time given to the academics. Some students take time in the morning to get ready for school, uniforms will allow that time for sleep and studies. According to Procon.org, “Parents can reduce their financial burden when their children are limited to wearing one outfit everyday” (ProConorg Headlines). You won’t feel the pressure to buy clothes that are in style, or expensive and trendy. Uniforms are easier to maintain. They tend to last longer and can be washed easier than other clothes. Wearing school uniforms create a community of higher educated students and equality to