The Giver Essay Finallllllllllllllllll
English 93 9MWF
May 15th 2013
Sameness does not mean perfectness
The Giver, by Lois Lowry, is told from the perspective of a twelve-year-old boy named Jonas growing up in a Utopian society. Jonas lives in a seemingly perfect community in which there is little pain and little crime. People are polite. Everyone belongs to a supportive family. But this harmony comes at a price. There is also no choice, and real emotions are nonexistent. Life is dictated by strict rules. This story is set in a perfect world, but it is only perfect for the inhabitants because they are subdued to the point where they do not question the decisions which are taken for them by their elders. Children live in family units but not with their natural parents. At the age of twelve they are assigned to learn their adult duties. The only object in life is to conform but in return for this the people never experience hunger or pain. Although life in The Giver seems so perfect from sameness, there always exist two sides. Sameness obviously has many advantages, yet also several disadvantages.
In the society where everyone is the same, prejudice and discrimination does not exist. Everything is the same. There is no pain. All children dress alike. They eat same meals as other families. They have the same length hair. They all ride bikes, ages nine and up. Basically they are just the same. Children will not get in trouble for wearing something wrong or be bullied for what they are wearing. Most importantly they cannot be judged by how they look. Being bullied is one of the main causes of suicide in children now a day. So that living in an alike society will avoid that situation. If there wouldn’t be any people with differences, they wouldn’t fight about their dissimilarities either. For instance, people who live in the countryside have a very dissimilar personality than people that grew up in a big city. If everybody would be identical, there would not be variance in finances. Nobody would be forced to
May 15th 2013
Sameness does not mean perfectness
The Giver, by Lois Lowry, is told from the perspective of a twelve-year-old boy named Jonas growing up in a Utopian society. Jonas lives in a seemingly perfect community in which there is little pain and little crime. People are polite. Everyone belongs to a supportive family. But this harmony comes at a price. There is also no choice, and real emotions are nonexistent. Life is dictated by strict rules. This story is set in a perfect world, but it is only perfect for the inhabitants because they are subdued to the point where they do not question the decisions which are taken for them by their elders. Children live in family units but not with their natural parents. At the age of twelve they are assigned to learn their adult duties. The only object in life is to conform but in return for this the people never experience hunger or pain. Although life in The Giver seems so perfect from sameness, there always exist two sides. Sameness obviously has many advantages, yet also several disadvantages.
In the society where everyone is the same, prejudice and discrimination does not exist. Everything is the same. There is no pain. All children dress alike. They eat same meals as other families. They have the same length hair. They all ride bikes, ages nine and up. Basically they are just the same. Children will not get in trouble for wearing something wrong or be bullied for what they are wearing. Most importantly they cannot be judged by how they look. Being bullied is one of the main causes of suicide in children now a day. So that living in an alike society will avoid that situation. If there wouldn’t be any people with differences, they wouldn’t fight about their dissimilarities either. For instance, people who live in the countryside have a very dissimilar personality than people that grew up in a big city. If everybody would be identical, there would not be variance in finances. Nobody would be forced to