Preview

The Giver

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
923 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Giver
THE GIVER

Compare / Contrast Essay

In The Giver I believe that in Jonas’ community they live in a dystopia. The book gives me many reasons to believe so. The setting for Jonas’ community is in the future where numerous technological advances have been made. In the beginning of the book it is December, the month where the Ceremonies 1 through 12 happens. In this community during the Ceremonies your name, your job, and your child are “assigned” for you unlike in the real world. In Jonas’ community you can’t even choose your own spouse; you have to apply for one then the Committee of Elders see if you’re fit to have one. Even worse, when they do this they say it is cause they now what’s best for you as an excuse. Now, they usually choose someone that is right for you but they base it on stuff like how smart you are or how patient and then they choose somebody who balances out with you. They do it that way because the community doesn’t have any emotions since they are drugged. Now this takes me to another reason why Jonas’ community is a dystopia. All of the people are drugged as soon as they start having “Stirrings”, or when they start to mature and experience other feelings. Jonas’ community does this to make sure that nobody stands out. When the communities’ emotions are oppressed it makes sure that the Committee of Elders can control them more easily. Jonas’ community is oppressed by a totalitarian government, also known as the Committee of Elders. Throughout the book it is always talking about how they choose everything and that they make the decisions for the community with out telling the community anything, and the times they do they sometimes lie. They don’t allow any kind of difference in the community and they are the ones who invented the drug that inhibits emotions. They also make sure that they oppress the community by taking away all memories and giving them to the Giver to make sure that the community doesn’t

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Jonas is the main character in The Giver by Lois Lowry. In Jonas’s community it’s natural to be doing everything the loudspeaker says, it is the way to surrvive. Only Jonas and the Giver can see in color. Everyone in Jonas’s community thinks it is natrual that the leaders can listen to every conversation. All adults have to apply for a spouse and children. Which means you get assigned to a family unit. Not very many people are even aware there is much life outside of the community because it is so closed. But, most of all no one even knows that when someone is to be released it means you are killed with euthanasia, except for Jonas and the Giver. No one even knows of the concept of death.…

    • 1062 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One day while the Giver was giving jonas his favorite memory and was perceiving words from it he, ‘“couldn’t quite get the word for the whole feeling of it, the feeling that was so strong in the room.’ “love,” the Giver told him” (157 Lowry). Jonas had the memory of the feeling and finally realized that he had that feeling for a lot of people in the community that were important to him. For example, he realized that he had the feeling of love towards his Father, his Mother, Lily, Gabe, Fiona, the Giver, and in the beginning of the story Asher. He realized that from just one memory.…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    There is a huge lack of knowledge in Jonas’ community. For instance there is a limited education. Families can only have two books in the community and they are a rule book and an instruction manual in case of emergency. And in the book Jonas’ only goes to school a couple hours a day, so school…

    • 285 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In conclusion, Jonas’ society was striving for a utopian society, but after taking away color, making all the weather the same, and revoking memories all of this turned into a dystopian society so when Jonas finally decides he wants to escape to make it all equal again. While in modern day society everything’s already the same our colors, we all have our own memories, and have bipolar weather, but that’s what makes our society unique. It’s all…

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The residents in Jonas’ community living in an oppressive and deprived world are treated less than a human being throughout the book. As Jonas gains more knowledge, Jonas and The Giver discuss the big flaws of the community and during the first couple months of training, he is very uncomfortable talking about the flaws of the “perfect” community that he believed in and breaking the rules that he had followed for twelve years of his life. For example, while having a discussion with The Giver during his training session, “[Jonas] glanced quickly at the wall speaker, terrified that the Committee might be listening as they could at any time” (Lowry, 132). Every house has a speaker and the speaker is used to make announcements and enforce rules; the community members are used to their every move being watched and scrutinized by the speaker. While Jonas never addresses the role of the speaker, he shows discomfort with speaking about things that he does not want The Elders to know about during…

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    First, Jonas learns the power of pain when the Giver gives him the memory of the broken leg. For example, after Jonas receives the memory of the sledding incident, he realizes, “They have never known pain” (Lowry 139). His whole family is happy all the time because they have never felt true pain. The realization that only he and the Giver know the power of pain makes him feel lonely; and Jonas wishes that others could undergo a minimal amount of pain and everyone could share so the burden would be less on him and the Giver. But the Elders made the community this way so that all people except Jonas and the Giver would never experience pain, making Jonas feel more isolated than ever.…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Giver Research Paper

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages

    One more risk Jonas took was, doing what he thinks is right. For example, one morning Jonas just decided to stop taking his pill, “The next morning, for the first time, Jonas did not take his pill. Something within him, something that had grown there through the memories, told him to throw the pill away”(Lowry 162). The Committee of Elders assigned husbands and wives, the pill stopped stirrings, which stopped the people from wanting to choose their own mates. When he stopped taking his pill, Jonas was breaking an adult requirement in the Community, and his stirrings…

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    After sharing, Jonas's parents ask to speak with Jonas alone. Jonas's father tries to calm his concerns by telling him that people are rarely disappointed in their Assignments, because the Committee of Elders monitors Elevens' interest so as to place them where they would best be able to do good work for the community. Jonas remembers the Committee monitoring his group of Elevens, but he is uncertain what kind of job he will be given. Most children are given jobs they show interest in, and so suspect their Assignments ahead of time. But Jonas has been floating from one interest to another. That the Committee takes personal interests into consideration when assigning jobs suggests that they want what's best for their citizens. The Committee and the citizens agree that the Committee will know what's best for the…

    • 370 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The people in the society do not have emotional moments that they could share or talk about, they don't have ideas, they do not know how to express themselves. People live killing eachother, they dont feel sad, even if they are killing their friends. They speed as they drive, killing the ones that get in their way. Clarisse expressed how she felt towards this events that are happening in the city, she said, ”I’m afraid of children my own age. They kill each other...six of my friends have been shot in the last year alone. Ten of them died in car wrecks.” (30) in this dystopian society sixteen yearold teen are killing each other. This teenagers do not feel remorse, sadness, they do not feel scared of killing each other because their their emotions have been taken away. As the story progressed, mildred gives montag the news that clarisse has been run over. They have no stop in what they do to others. While this part of society is harming each other, the other part live inside their houses ignoring the problems that are surrounding them.…

    • 1113 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why do you think that pain has been taken away from the community? Why do you think that Jonas needs to experience pain as The Receiver? Many years ago, the community has decided not to share all the painful memories of the past; so, they shared all the memories and responsibilities to Receiver who is honored but also isolated from the rest of the society.…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Giver Identity Essay

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages

    One of the first events that make us realize that this civilization is deprived of knowledge is when Jonas sees colors. When Jonas…

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Jonas In The Giver

    • 1162 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Jonas is given the memory of love, family, and warmth by the Giver. He hasn’t experienced anything like it before, it was different. “‘I liked the feeling of love,' Jonas confessed. He glanced nervously at the speaker on the wall, reassuring himself that no one was listening. 'I wish we still had that,' he whispered. 'Of course,' he added quickly, 'I do understand that it wouldn't work very well. And that it's much better to be organized the way we are now. I can see that it was a dangerous way to live.’ ...'Still,' he said slowly, almost to himself, 'I did like the light they made. And the warmth.’” (p.158). This quote shows that Jonas has a stronger mind due to the memory of warmth and love. It shows this because when Jonas admits he likes the idea of love, you can tell that his mind is racing. Although all of this it shows he hasn’t reached his full self run life. This is shown when he says that it wouldn’t work and he added it very quickly to show he was flustered and didn’t want to say anything he might regret. At dinner the night prior, Jonas’s father brought up that he had to release one of two newborn twins the next morning. The Giver tells Jonas that he can access it just by asking. So, Jonas finds out that when someone is released they are killed by his own father and thrown down a garbage chute. “Jonas felt a ripping sensation inside himself,…

    • 1162 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Giver

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Normally, Jonas doesn’t contribute much during the morning ritual when the family speaks of their dreams. But this time it was a different story. He had dreamt very vividly the night before. Lily had a frightening dream about her breaking the rules because of riding her mother’s bicycle and she was caught. While his mothers dream was a worrying scene where she had been chastised for a rule violation she didn’t understand. Father claimed he had no dreams. Once it got to Jonas’ turn to speak he said, “ I think I was in the bathing room at the House of the Old.” Yet he was there the day of the dream. But the event that occurred at the House of the Old was not quite the same.…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    They are used to being under control by the Committee of Elders that they are completely dependant on them and their decisions. They are all fit to think that the Elders know what is best for their future. We know that in the beginning, Jonas had trust in the Elders and believed that they rarely ever make mistakes. It is safe to assume that the citizens in the community feel the same way about the Elders. When Jonas is first introduced to having choices when he expands his ability to see beyond, he makes a commotion about it. However, he quickly changes his mind about having the option of choice, since he thought itwould be too dangerous. This shows that he isn’t ready to adapt to a risky way of living, which was ultimately freedom. He was used to being protected. Therefore, if Jonas was not ready to change his way of life with the memories, then the community would not be able to change theirs either without and with them. When the people decided to go to Sameness, not only did they eliminate choice, but they also eliminated any factor that could lead to it. In my opinion, due to the way that the community is lead, it would be completely unnecessary for them to have…

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In many dystopian literatures, the characters show some type of emotion to their peers, weather it is questioning them or it is having some sort paranoia about them. In The Giver by Lois Lowry, Jonas, the receiver of memory chooses to return all the memories back to his communities so that they could have a life with emotions, color, and diversity. In The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street by Rod Serling, members of the street were being very paranoid because some aliens came to their community to raid them. They had played with the neighbors, which lead to false accusations on each other. Jonas and the residents of the community show paranoia because they were second guessing their peers, they were hoping that no false accusations happen on them, and also because they want to protect themselves and their loved ones so that nothing bad happens to them.…

    • 1151 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays