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The Giver Research Paper

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The Giver Research Paper
Jonas and His Risks or Jonas, the Risker

“No one in the community was starving, had ever been starving, would ever be starving.” (Lowry 89). The Community in The Giver is called a utopian society, what is a utopian society? Webster Dictionary says, “an imaginary place in which the government, laws, and social condition are perfect...” Even though they may be “perfect”, utopian societies never really work out, and usually people have to take risks in order to change the society. In the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry, Jonas takes risks by, helping family members, doing what he thinks is right, and helping friends see the truth.
Jonas took another risk by helping a family member; that family member was a child named Gabriel. Gabriel was living
…show more content…
For example, Asher was always Jonas’s best friend, and Jonas wanted to help him see the truth that the Elder’s were hiding from the Community, “He put his hands on Asher’s shoulders, and concentrated on the red of the petals, trying to hold is as long as he could, and trying at the same time to transmit the awareness of red to his friend” (Lowry 125). The Committee of Elders removed the color from the world to increase sameness, but as the Receiver, Jonas could see color. It was a big risk to try to get Asher to see colors; only Receivers and Givers are supposed to see color. Since the Committee of Elders removed color, Jonas is not supposed to discuss it with other people and he could get in vast trouble for mentioning it around non-Giver/Receiver people.
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

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