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When does Jonas discover emotions and feelings in the giver
Comparing different aspects of jonas community with our world in the novel the giver
What does jonas sacrifice to be the giver
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In a dream world how would you make your community look perfect? That’s exactly what the leaders of the Jonas’s community were trying to do. In Jonas’s world everything looked perfect, until he took a closer look. Could his community leaders be hiding something they didn’t know about? In The Giver, written by Lois Lowry, the theme of a perfect Utopian society is explored through the symbols of starvation, stirrings, and climate control. To the society, starvation was prevented by equal distribution of food. The Giver reflected on the past history (111), “The population had gotten so big that hunger was everywhere.” Food scarcity states why the community was so strict and tight on population, they did not want to experience the past history themselves. Not one person besides the Giver and Jonas realized what the community was doing when they released members. Finally, to the ordinary members “release” meant to let go, but Jonas and the Giver knew it meant death by a lethal injection. It was one of his most painful memories. Jonas decided that he would try not to go back on it. It was important in Jonas’s community to prevent stirring by taking pills each morning for the rest of your life until you were at the House of Old. “A reminder that stirring must be Reported in order for treatment …show more content…
to take place” (37). Text suggests, the members take a huge responsibility to reduce the number of dreams one has. Elders despise dreams because they bring back memories of when the community wasn’t the same. As a result, the Elders monitor each Family unit very carefully. At once, sameness might have sounded like a great idea to a community, but could it have turned out to be a bad idea?
“Climate Control. Snow made growing food difficult, limited the agricultural periods. And unpredictable weather made transportation almost impossible at times. It wasn’t a practical thing, it became obsolete when we went to Sameness” (83-84). The words of the Giver point out that sameness would help the community to produce more food. Choosing sameness had many cons, people are killing babies to keep others comfortable and Jonas starts to become so distressed he makes plans to leave. Sameness was a mistake from the beginning, for the way people
live. All in all, Jonas’s community was the perfect Utopian society, but quickly it went from Utopian to Dystopian. Community Elders could prevent starvation by equal distribution of food. Also, the society could limit the dreams that happened at night from the members. Next, the Elders made an insurmountable mistake by turning the community into Sameness. Finally, if it wouldn’t have been for Jonas and the Giver, the community would have been out of order and unsustainable to live in for those to come.
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.
Utopia seems like a wonderful idea where everything is perfect and no one suffers. Three stories address this topic and show how even the best ideas have their downside. The Giver tells of a society where everything is the same and no one has to worry about making a wrong decision. Fahrenheit 451 tells of a society that bans book in the interest of preventing unhappiness. The society in Logan's Run is full of pleasure but only for 30 years. In practice though, these utopias present each of the protagonists with a problem where they question how perfect their perfect worlds really is.
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
Living in a perfect world is like living in an anthill. An ant does not think on it’s own, make it’s own decisions, and doesn't really have any own identity, just like the utopians. It is not worth living in a perfect world. The utopian society we are introduced to in the book, The Giver, has many different characteristics that make the perfect life unbearable. Examples of these things are The Receiver, the community, and the chief elders.
“I knew that there had been times in the past-terrible times-when people had destroyed others in haste, in fear, and had brought about their own destruction” (48). In the old days, when people in Jonas’s community valued individual needs, there were lots of terrible happenings: violence; and then the society ended up with general welfare and safety. It is difficult for us to think of a world without color, freedom, music and love, but in The Giver, the society denounces these things in order to make room for peace and safety. In The Giver, by having a society based on general welfare they gave safety to their people. No violence, no criminal activities, nor homicides.
What determines a society to be either a utopia or a dystopia? Would it be everyone following the rules? In the book The Giver, by Lois Lowry, a new “Utopian” culture blossoms from the previously failed society. The Giver’s nation starts out with the intention of creating a utopian society; however, the strict limitations turn it into a dystopia where there are receivers, like Jonas, that hold the good and bad memories from the past culture. Jonas will experience great pain and great joy through his job as the Receiver instead of the whole community sharing the burden. The Giver’s world is a dystopia because of the following three reasons: they kill people that disobey the rules, they do not get to pick their own jobs, and, above all, they beat children if they do not use precise language.
That the givers world is indeed a utopia, but just imagine living their life. You could say that that you would never get hurt. That you would never have to face any hard decisions, but everything would be put out before you. You would never know what color is. You would only know enough to get you through your life without questioning it. That is why their world is indeed a dystopia.
“The Giver” a novel by Lois Lowry (1993), is an, engaging science fiction tale that provides the reader with examples of thought provoking ethical and moral quandaries. It is a novel geared to the young teenage reader but also kept me riveted. Assigning this novel as a class assignment would provide many opportunities for teachers and students to discuss values and morals.
Jonas hates how his society decides to keep memories a secret from everyone. Jonas says: “The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared” (Lowry 154). Jonas feels that memories, whether it be good or bad, should be shared with everyone. Furthermore, memories allow the community to gain wisdom from remembering experiences of the past. As for The Giver, The Giver disagrees with how the community runs things. He believes that memories should be experienced by everyone as well, because life is meaningless without memories. The Giver says: “There are so many things I could tell them; things I wish they would change. But they don’t want change. Life here is so orderly, so predictable–so painless. It’s what they’ve chosen [...] It’s just that… without memories, it’s all meaningless. They gave that burden to me” (Lowry 103). The Giver is burdened with the responsibility to not share memories even though that is what he feels the community deserves. In addition, he believes the community lives a very monotonous life where nothing ever changes. Everything is meaningless without memories because the community does not know what it is like to be human without feelings. Overall, Jonas and The Giver’s outlooks on their “utopian” society change as they realize that without
The Giver Essay Have you ever wondered why the world we live in isn’t a Utopia? The community in the Giver was destined to fail because of the lack of truth toward the citizens. Some evidence for this statement comes from the short story Harrison Bergeron, where characters like him find flaws in their community. Another story to back up the statement is from Monsters Are Due On Maple Street, evidence from here shows that people think of differences as a bad thing. The last article that provided evidence was an article on Genetic Engineering, which shows that there is always a con to a pro.
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.
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.”
A limited population is a key factor in utopias, but in reality, it would only lead to the society failing to be self-sufficient. In Lois Lowry’s, The Giver, Jonas’s community exists in a cycle-like fashion where each child and each single member of society follow the same exact path in life. Likewise, there is no new jobs or occupations. Each child the
Louis Lowry’s The Giver uses a dystopian society as a metaphor to show how one lives without pain and lacks knowledge of other places in order to give the reader a warring that society will never be perfect. “The Giver offers experiences that enhance readers levels of inquiry and reflection.” (Friedman & Cataldo pp102-112) At First glance the novel's setting seems to be a utopia, where all possible steps are taken to eliminate pain and anguish. Often the difference between a Utopia and a Dystopia is the author’s point of view. The difference between dystopia society and a utopian society is that a “dystopia is a world that should be perfect but ends up being horrible. Imagine dystopia as a world where the government gives everything to everyone for free. You would think it would be perfect, but imagine if that government oppressed everyone. Essentially a Dystopia is a utopia that has been corrupted.” (Levitas p1) A dystopian society is “Any society considered to be a undesirable, for any number of reasons. The term was coined as a converse to a Utopia, and is most used to refer to a fictional (often near-future) society where social trends are taken to a nightmarish extreme. Dystopias are frequently frequently written as warnings, or satires, showing current trends extrapolated to a nightmarish conclusion. A dystopia is all too closely connected to current day society.” As defined in The Giver (Telgan pp162-182). This is why I believe that Lowery is giving the reader a warring about how our world is changing. We have the power to stop it before it happens if we listen to warring signs and act accordingly. If we don’t listen to those signs our society will become a nightmarish environment, to live in. “ The Giver demonstrates how conflict can force us to examine our most important beliefs about what is right and true. Conflicts can change our worldly view of thing.” (Freidmane & Catadlo pp102-112)
It allows us to not only read what we want, but also believe and be as unique as we want. However, in the world that Lois Lowry has built for her audience in The Giver, there is anything but diversity, as “the society has elected to move toward sameness, climinating choices, pain, warfare, and starvation” (Hurst 75). This community is built solely on sameness: the idea that everyone should dress the same as everyone else in either their age group or in their profession, eat the same things, and do the same routine as everyone else. One example of sameness within the novel is that of the children’s clothing; everyone in the same year dresses exactly alike. For instance, “fours, fives, and sixes all wore jackets that fastened in the back” (Lowry 40), and sevens get front-buttoned jackets. Besides the few different careers that everyone is assigned, this is one of the few forms of same, but diverse. Another consistency in the community is the color of flesh. The Giver explains to Jonas that “flesh was many different colors. That was before we went to sameness” (Lowery 94).The Giver references sameness several other times throughout the novel, including when the people decided to make the “choice, the choice to go to Sameness…we relinquished color when we relinquished sunshine and did away with differences…” (Lowry 95). The idea of sameness is consistently brought to the fore front for the reader to question. If