Reflective Essay On The Giver

574 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essays on dystopian literature

“The giver” is written from the point of view of Jonas, an eleven-year-old boy living in a futuristic society that has eliminated all pain, fear, war, and hatred. There is no prejudice, because everyone looks and acts essentially the same and everyone is unmistakably polite. The society has also eliminated any form of choice: at the age of twelve every member of the community is assigned a job based on their abilities and interests. Marriage is also controlled, as citizens had to apply for compatible spouses. When their children are grown, family units disperse and adults live together with Childless Adults until they are too old to function in the society. Then they are finally “released” from the society. In the community, release is death, but it is never described that way; most people think that after release, newchildren and joyful elderly people are welcomed into the vast “area” of Elsewhere that surrounds the communities. Citizens who break rules or fail to adapt to the society’s codes of behavior are also released, though it is of great shame.
Jonas lives with his father, a...

Show More
Related

  • Compare And Contrast Essay On The Giver

    508 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the history of the world, there has been many societies. All these societies had similar structures and ideas, but they all are different by their own special traditions and ways of life. Similarly, both our society and the society in The Giver share similar ideas, but they are different in certain areas. For example, they both celebrate birthdays and have family units, but they have their own way of doing so. Based on the celebration of birthdays and the formation of family units, our society is better than the society in The Giver by Lois Lowry.

    Read More

  • Essay On Conformity In The Giver

    854 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lois Lowry describes a futuristic world with controlled climate, emotions, way of living and eliminates suffering in her book The Giver. The main character, Jonas, shows the reader what his world is like by explaining a very different world from what society knows today. Everything is controlled, and no one makes choices for themselves or knows of bad and hurtful memories. There is no color, and everything is dull. As he becomes the Receiver who has to know all the memories and pass them down to the next Receiver, he realizes his world needs change. He starts to believe that a world of sameness where no one can decide or make choices for themselves is boring. Lois Lowry is warning readers that living in a world of sameness is not something to create as it is boring and dull, but if the world follows conformity and does not value diversity and difference enough, society could become that of Jonas’s.

    Read More

  • Lack Of Technology In Brave New World

    1020 Words  | 3 Pages

    Citizens are engineered to never be alone, which removes responsibility and the need for family bonds, showing that independent thinking is replaced with the ideology of world leaders. Since technology has removed the ability to reproduce for citizens, this removes responsibility, allowing a person to act impulsively and create meaningless relationships which leads to unethical decisions. Likewise, in the Giver family units are preplanned and are limited to two children by the elders of society. When Jonas asks his father if he loved him, the father replies, saying, "I enjoy you. " The society is very structured and strict which shows that the bonds with family are insignificant as they have to speak with restrictions and not allowed to freely express any emotions.

    Read More

  • Comparing In Our World and the World of The Giver

    800 Words  | 2 Pages

    The story in The Giver by Lois Lowry takes place in a community that is not normal. People cannot see color, it is an offense for somebody to touch others, and the community assigns people jobs and children. This unnamed community shown through Jonas’ eye, the main character in this novel, is a perfect society. There is no war, crime, and hunger. Most readers might take it for granted that the community in The Giver differs from the real society. However, there are several affinities between the society in present day and that in this fiction: estrangement of elderly people, suffering of surrogate mothers, and wanting of euthanasia.

    Read More

  • The Giver: Analysis of Jonas

    501 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Giver: Analysis of Jonas On the surface, Jonas is like any other eleven-year-old boy living in his community. He seems more intelligent and perceptive than many of his peers, and he thinks more seriously than they do about life, worrying about his own future as well as his friend Asher’s. He enjoys learning and experiencing new things: he chooses to volunteer at a variety of different centers rather than focusing on one, because he enjoys the freedom of choice that volunteer hours provide. He also enjoys learning about and connecting with other people, and he craves more warmth and human contact than his society permits or encourages. The things that really set him apart from his peers—his unusual eyes, his ability to see things change in a way that he cannot explain—trouble him, but he does not let them bother him too much, since the community’s emphasis on politeness makes it easy for Jonas to conceal or ignore these little differences.

    Read More

  • The Perception of Jonas in Lois Lowry's The Giver

    1252 Words  | 3 Pages

    Set in a community with no climate, emotions, choices, or memories Lois Lowry tells the tale of Jonas in The Giver. Jonas is selected to be the receiver of memory, which means the memories of generations past, before the community was created, will all be transferred to him to hold. As Jonas receives memories his concept of the world around him drastically changes. Jonas starts out as twelve-year-old boy with perceptions different from those around him, he then begins to see the community for what it really is, and he makes a plan to change it.

    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

  • 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.

    Read More

  • Essay on Loss of Freedom in The Giver

    864 Words  | 2 Pages

    Loss of Freedom in The Giver    The Giver, a book written by Lois Lowry, questioned my ideas, thoughts and beliefs.  The novel describes an ideal society, in which everything is supposed to be perfect, with all life’s problems solved.  It is all about being happy with what the people have and not questioning their lifestyles because they did not know the difference between good and bad.  The people are denied of their preferable way of life without their knowledge of how the real world is supposed to be.  In the I can.  However, the citizens of this society are not able to control their life; for example their choice of clothing, choice of loving and having feelings, or choice of family members.          From all existing creatures, we humans differ because we are able to use our brain to make decisions.  In the novel, the people of the given society have authority figures that show them how to live their life.  “Katya, became a Nine and removed her hair ribbons and got her bicycle” (P  The rules start with small things like what age one starts to ride a bike, which age group wears certain types of jackets, the clothing one wears each day, and even what to eat.  In the real world, we humans make similar decisions for ourselves without thinking about it.  People need guidance in their life to the right way of living but not a book of instructions.          Many of us live each day dreaming of our future family and all the happiness we may get from that.  I cannot imagine how it feels not to have freedom to feel and love.  “Jonas, she said with a smile, the feeling you described as wanting?  It was your the opposite sex.  Beginning from early age, children are controlled not to feel or appreciate his/her opposite sex.  The adults are made to take the pills to annihilate their sexual desires.  When the children grow up and become adults, more decisions are made for them.  When one is old enough to get married, the superior power chooses a mate for the person and is wedded.  This is when I question the meaning of marriage. a future together, not a partnership that you deal with like a business. Although many cultures have different say in this sacred ceremony, most have similar ideas.  To many people, love is affection based on admiration or common interests and warm attachment, enthusiasm or devotion.  How can one live happy in life without the experience of such feelings?  These individuals in the novel did not know better, if they knew how good it is to feel love or even know a good taste when it is good, then they would not be happy with the way of life in their community.  “J What if they were allowed to choose their own mate?

    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

  • Essay Questions For The Giver

    628 Words  | 2 Pages

    This book is about a community where everything is stainless. It is a blank world with no color or feelings. At the ceremony of Twelve, everyone is accepting their Life Assignments as they are going to the path of maturity. However, a boy named Jonas is instructed a special job with The Giver to learn about the power of feelings and lies. When he puts his power at his own risk, he gets his family and everyone he loves in danger.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Dystopia In The Giver

    851 Words  | 2 Pages

    The society in The Giver by Lois Lowry is fairly broken and messed up. Everyone inside the community thinks that everything is under control and they like living that way, because they don’t know any other way to live. To them they live in the perfect world, a utopia. To everyone outside of the community it is a dystopia. They are controlled immensely. There are a few reasons why the community is a dystopia, they have no choice or freedom, and they don’t know what color, music, real emotion, and feelings are.

    Read More

  • The Giver, by Lois Lowry: Decisions and Personal Empowerment

    986 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lois Lowry’s The Giver considers something the world takes for granted: personal empowerment. These simple day-to-day decisions create what the world is. Without self-empowerment and right to believe in a personal decision, what is the human race? The world can only imagine, as Lois Lowry does in The Giver. She asks: What if everything in life was decided by others? What if spouses, children, the weather, education, and careers were chosen based upon the subjects’ personality? What if it didn’t matter what the subject thought? Jonas, the Receiver, lives here. He eats, sleeps, and learns in his so-called perfect world until he meets the Giver, an aged man, who transmits memories of hope, pain, color, and love. Jonas then escapes his Community with a newborn child (meant to be killed), hoping to find a life of fulfillment. On the way, he experiences pain, sees color, and feels love. Irony, symbolism, and foreshadowing are three literary devices used to imply the deeper meaning of The Giver.

    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

More about Reflective Essay On The Giver

Open Document