Differences Between The Giver And Modern Society

“The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without color, pain or past” (Lowry 165). That’s what separates the life in the novel The Giver and the life in our modern society. While our modern society and the society in The Giver have few similarities, they have many distinct differences.

One distinct difference between the novel The Giver and our modern society is that people in the society of The Giver don’t get to choose their spouse or have their own children or even name the children they are given. For example, “The Matching of Spouses and the Naming and Placement of the new children were scrupulously thought through by the Committee of Elders” (Lowry 49). In our modern society, anyone can marry whoever they would like and have and name their children whatever they like. This may be sad difference, but there are many more.

One other distinct, but sad difference between the novel The Giver and our modern society is that people aren’t able to feel or have a love for something or someone in The Giver. For instance, Jonas enjoyed the feeling of love in a memory he was given, however “It wouldn’t work very well. It was a dangerous way to live” (Lowry 126). This shows

that the society in The Giver may have learned from previous mistakes and tried to make love nonexistent to prevent bad things from happening again. In contrast, our modern society seems to thrive off of love. Everyone has a love for someone or something and that right should not be taken from them.

One final distinct difference between the novel The Giver and our modern society is that in the novel The Giver, the citizens are required to work a job they don’t get to choose when they become a Twelve, or twelve years old, until they are sent to the House of the Old when they become an elderly citizen.

All Assignments are determined by “A secret selection, made by the leaders of the community” (Lowry 15). In our modern society, people have the option of working wherever they want when they when they turn sixteen. Also, elderly people aren’t able to go to a retirement home unless they can afford to pay for it. In the end, there are many distinct differences between the novel The Giver and our modern society, however there are a couple of major

similarities.

One major similarity is that both the novel The Giver and our modern society have a school system and jobs. In The Giver, the children attend school until they are old enough to have their own Assignment, or job. Likewise, our modern society has us attend school until we achieve the required intelligence for our job. This is just one of the major similarities

Another major similarity is that both the novel The Giver and our modern society have a form of government. In The Giver, the society is run by Elders, or community leaders. Similarly, our modern society has a government run by leaders and officials. This similarity can help people relate to the society in The Giver.
All in all, the novel The Giver and our modern society have many distinct and noticeable differences and a few similarities. The differences ranging from love and family to jobs and the and similarities ranging from school to government.