The Giver Essay
In the book The Giver, Jonas, the main character, lives in a very communistic society. With the elders creating unrealistic rules, and breaking them themselves, taking away color, and there very own rule enforcement lady, that happens to be Jonas's mom, breaking rules too, the givers society is very hypocritical.
First, The elders. Obviously the elders know what the outside world is like, they’ve been in this community the longest after all. They keep secrets from the society which is breaking one of the stronger rules, no lying. To begin there is an elder named Larissa, she broke the rule of lying when talking to Jonas. Jonas was giving her a bath and he decided to ask where former member Roberto went after his release. Larissa did attend the ceremony so she knows exactly where Roberto went, but she chose to lie, to keep society from the truth. “‘Larissa where did Roberto go’ Jonas said ‘I don't know’ Larissa said ‘I don't know why they don't allow children’” (41). Clearly this shows Larissa did know where Roberto went, she was one of the elders and the elders know everything. Also they took away mountains and hid the fact of this occurrence from everyone and took a grasp on the climate.
…show more content…
“And hills too’ ‘he waved his hand and caused hills to disappear’” (106). With the disappearance of mountains and hills they could at least tell everyone, instead breaking one of there rules, lying, and completely hiding everything from everyone. Second, elders take away color and lie, pretending it never happened. Jonas and the giver discuss the appearance of color in Jonas's life, and how he's different from the rest of the community. But the community doesn't even know color exists. “Once, back in time of the memories, everything had a shape and size, the way things still do, but they had the quality of color” (119). Only the elders, Jonas, and the giver know what's up. Fiona had red hair and human scientists,who also knew what was going on, had hated that. They wanted everyone to have a characteristic of sameness, well not a characteristic, that's just what they call it. “We've never really mastered sameness, I suppose the genetic scientists are still hard at work. Hair like Fiona's must drive them crazy” (120). This implies that there are a committee of elders working on the “flaws” of the community. This example makes clear that they indeed are lying about everything, mainly about how they don't know about elsewhere. My final and most important reason involves Jonas's mother.
Jonas's mother worked in rule enforcement. “He glanced at his mom the adherence for rules” (16). So she knows all the rules, and the punishments that take place when you break the rules. As you can tell she seems like a goody two shoes, always following rules, and snitching if others go down the wrong path. Although that's what appears in your mind, it's not the case. First, she broke the rule of rudeness. “‘I hope i’m a birthmother’ lilly said ‘lilly!, don’t say that’” (27). This displays a very clear picture of jonas's mother's rudeness. But, oh wait, rudeness is forbidden, and it's clear that jonas's mother is being irresponsible, disrespectful, and worst of all a rule
breaker. The Giver Essay In the book The Giver, Jonas, the main character, lives in a very communistic society. With the elders creating unrealistic rules, and breaking them themselves, taking away color, and there very own rule enforcement lady, that happens to be Jonas's mom, breaking rules too, the givers society is very hypocritical. First, The elders. Obviously the elders know what the outside world is like, they’ve been in this community the longest after all. They keep secrets from the society which is breaking one of the stronger rules, no lying. To begin there is an elder named Larissa, she broke the rule of lying when talking to Jonas. Jonas was giving her a bath and he decided to ask where former member Roberto went after his release. Larissa did attend the ceremony so she knows exactly where Roberto went, but she chose to lie, to keep society from the truth. “‘Larissa where did Roberto go’ Jonas said ‘I don't know’ Larissa said ‘I don't know why they don't allow children’” (41). Clearly this shows Larissa did know where Roberto went, she was one of the elders and the elders know everything. Also they took away mountains and hid the fact of this occurrence from everyone and took a grasp on the climate. “And hills too’ ‘he waved his hand and caused hills to disappear’” (106). With the disappearance of mountains and hills they could at least tell everyone, instead breaking one of there rules, lying, and completely hiding everything from everyone. Second, elders take away color and lie, pretending it never happened. Jonas and the giver discuss the appearance of color in Jonas's life, and how he's different from the rest of the community. But the community doesn't even know color exists. “Once, back in the time of the memories, everything had a shape and size, the way things still do, but they had the quality of color” (119). Only the elders, Jonas, and the giver know what's up. Fiona had red hair and human scientists, who also knew what was going on, had hated that. They wanted everyone to have a characteristic of sameness, well not a characteristic, that's just what they call it. “We've never really mastered sameness, I suppose the genetic scientists are still hard at work. Hair like Fiona's must drive them crazy” (120). This implies that there is a committee of elders working on the “flaws” of the community. This example makes clear that they indeed are lying about everything, mainly about how they don't know about elsewhere. My final and most important reason involves Jonas's mother. Jonas's mother worked in rule enforcement. “He glanced at his mom the adherence for rules” (16). So she knows all the rules and the punishments that take place when you break the rules. As you can tell she seems like a goody two shoes, always following rules, and snitching if others go down the wrong path. Although that's what appears in your mind, it's not the case. First, she broke the rule of rudeness. “‘I hope I’m a birthmother’ Lilly said ‘lilly!, don’t say that’” (27). This displays a very clear picture of Jonas's mother's rudeness. But, oh wait, rudeness is forbidden, and it's clear that Jonas's mother is being irresponsible, disrespectful, and worst of all a rule breaker.
The perfect world, no war, no disagreements, no fighting, and no problems. But is it really “perfect”? The Giver a novel by Lois Lowry takes place in a clean utopia where we find our main protaganist Jonas. We follow Jonas through his life eventually leading him to realize his world isnt perfect. This shows that there is flaws in all worlds and that no world can be “perfect” Jonas’s world is limited.
First of all, I think The Giver is a dystopia because they don't have color. The article states, “The Giver told him that it would be a very long time before he had the colors to keep.” (Document E) This proves that they have no color, I think that by taking away color there would be no happiness or imagination. If jonas’s community had color there would be more happiness and personal opinions about things like, “ what color do you like”.Without color you would be taking away the freedom to have an opinion towards other people, but in jonas’s community they limit their freedom to do lots of things and the people in the community don’t notice it. Another Example is stated in the text it says, “But
The Community keeps the memories away from the people, which means that they ignore their past, and cannot gain wisdom or bliss. For example, when the Giver was explaining what memories are to Jonas, he says, “There’s much more… I re-experience them again and again. It is how wisdom comes. And how we shape our future,”(Lowry 78). The Giver describes how wisdom comes in this quote.
Imagine that everything you knew about where you resided turned out to be a big lie and that you were the only person that knew about it. Jonas the main character from The Giver by Lois Lowry, is a kid in a perfect community or so he thinks. Jonas receives the job of The Receiver of Memories. He receives many memories to ascertain that his "perfect" community is a fraud. He then plans an escape plan and succeeds. The novel The Giver by Lois Lowry shows its readers the basic truth that in life choices are a huge part in our lives and that sometimes it’s good to make our own choices but sometimes it's isn't. People have strong desires and with the ability for us to choose the scenario sometimes gets worse, and as people we also
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.
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.
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.
A dystopian society is what all nations are hopeful to find. In the film, The Giver by Lois Lowry, it seems to be what was achieved. This film brings heaps of critical thought with symbolism and imagery thrown at the audience like there’s no tomorrow. Although the society looks perfect, it is actually quite pessimistic and scornful. Right off the bat, the main character, Jonas captures the audience’s interest with his wit and charm. The audience knows right away that something is different about him. In the film adaptation of The Giver by Lois Lowry directed by Phillip Noyce, the symbolism and imagery including the red apple, color and the triangle proves to be some of the most important elements to the story.
For instance, the narrator says when talking about Jonas, “He had been trained since earliest childhood, since his earliest learning of language, never to lie,” (page one hundred eighty-two on the digital version). This is example of conformity is shown by how obedient the citizens in The Giver are to this rule. This blind obedience covers up the possibility to be an individual by eliminating the freedom to say whatever one would like and letting it represent themselves, whether it be negative or positive. Another thing noticed is in chapter one when the narrator mentions the telling of feelings, which is when every family member has to explain how they It is at this time when everyone is behaving the same way that there is no room for differences in behavior (individuality). It is possible for a person to show who they are without telling their feelings, but when they do this, they become like everyone else and lose their uniquity. In conclusion, the ability to express one’s self is removed when rules involving behavior are put in
Evelyn Sanchez (esanchez47@student.cccd.edu) Professor Leighton English 143, Final Essay 21 May 21, 2014 What the heck happened to Jonas? Topic #2. 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.
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.
Jonas has always been an inquisitive and curious person, even more so when he obtains the role of Receiver of Memory. One example of this important trait occurs after the Ceremony of Twelve. Jonas was still confused about his role, but he was anxious to learn about the incident involving the previous girl who was supposed to take the position of the
The short story Harrison Bergeron helps support the idea that all Utopias are going to fail. In Harrison Bergeron characters like him find flaws in their “perfect” community and do something about it. In the Giver, Jonas is the character that rebels against the community because he is able to see past the lies set up by the elders and see the bad parts of it. Another reason it failed was because of the pain from the handicaps. Jonas’s community doesn’t experience any pain,except for Jonas and the Giver, Jonas makes a stand by escaping and leaving the memories of pain for the rest of the community.
In the book, “The Giver” ( made by Lois Lowry), tells of a boy named Jonas, his sister, Lily, his mother, his father and his friends living in a utopian society. Jonas’s mother and Lily usually have arguments wither on agreeing and/or disagreeing with each others thoughts, opinions and/or actions, such as “the birth-mother argument” towards Lily and Lily's mother. Lily thinks that birth-mothers are very interesting towards her actions and opinions while the mother thinks the opposite. The mother thinks that the assignment, birth-mother, has no honor. Lily’s perspective is that she loves the idea of not doing anywork besides birthing and she can be at most lazy, mostly because a 10 year old named Natasha, who does most of her volunteer hours