Literary Analysis Essay On The Giver

"Our people made that choice, the choice to go to Sameness. Before my time, before the previous time, back and back and back. We relinquished color when we relinquished sunshine and did away with difference. We gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others." (Lowry 95). The Giver, written by Lois Lowry, is a dystopian society, a place where everything is unpleasant and bad. Jonas, the protagonist of the fictional story, is named the Receiver of Memory, who has the responsibility of taking the memories for the Community. The Community strives for perfection, yet the Receiver of Memory carries all of the pain for them. The Community is a dystopian society by the reasons of the lack of freedom, oblivious to the outside world, and

One reason is that everyone has strict rules to follow, and when they break them, they must apologize. “‘I apologize to my classmates,’ Asher concluded” (Lowry 5). Asher was late to class, so he is trained to apologize to his classmates and his classmates are required to say “‘We accept your apology, Asher’” (Lowry 5). A second reason would be adults are not permitted to choose their children, they are assigned to a family unit. “...each new child was given a name and handed by the Nurturers to its new family unit” (Lowry 55). Family units could not pick their child or that child's name. To conclude, The Community shows their lack of freedom through these examples.

The people of The Community are oblivious to the outside world. One example is when Jonas’s friends are playing the game of war without knowing the knowledge behind it. “‘What’s wrong Jonas? It was only a game,’ Fiona said” (Lowry 168). Jonas stops his friends from playing the game of war because he knows what it means. Another example is when Jonas mentions the word love to his parents. “‘Your father means that you used a very generalized word, so meaningless that it’s become almost obsolete,’ his mother explained carefully” (Lowry 160). His parents have no understanding of what the emotion love is. In conclusion, the community is innocent to worlds outside of their own, not knowing any information about other’s lives and keeping them in a

One reference is when the Giver is telling Jonas about how the scientist are trying to master sameness. “‘I suppose the genetic scientist are still hard at work trying to work the kinks out. Hair like Fiona’s must drive them crazy’” (Lowry 119-120). Fiona’s natural red hair goes against The Community’s ideal sameness. Another reference as to why there is no individuality, is how it is considered rude to point out things that are different about individuals. “No one mentioned such things; it was not a rule, but was considered rude to call attention to things that were unsettling or different about individuals” (Lowry 25-26). The Community strives for sameness and when someone has a difference, they do not point it out because it makes the leaders feel as if they have not accomplished their goal.in conclusion, individuality is not portrayed in the right context in The