The Assumptions of Power, Powerlessness, and Existentialism in Louis Lowry’s The Giver
In Lois Lowry’s book The Giver, there is a pivotal scene where Jonas, the plot’s main character, was bound to being the new receiver of his community. The community is a place where there is no war, no fear, or pain. The community could not make choices and the members of the community did not have any feelings. As the plot progresses, the chief elder provided the children with their perspective roles in the community in the Ceremony of Twelve. In the description of the scene, the chief elder skipped over Jonas when giving the roles of the community. Following a series of indirect emotional pleas from Jonas and the community, the Chief Elder welcomed Jonas
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. .” (2004) In Lois Lowry’s The Giver, roles in the community fills the text, and the transfer of power becomes obvious in these essential scenes of disapproving these roles. In this paper, I will discuss and question of how does reading against the text compare to ideologies of surfacing political assumptions of power and powerlessness during this era? Specifically how the textuality of transfer, recovery, and declaration of power evolves as an existentialist, reiteration of identity in The …show more content…
Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and key figure in the philosophy of existentialism. This philosophy deals with the idea of “the existence of the individual, who, being free and responsible, is held to be what he makes himself by the self-development of his essence through acts of the will” (OED). In The Giver, themes of existentialism deals with the importance of the individual, in which questions such as “What does it mean to be existing as a human being?” are asked.
In the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry, the receivers are the only people who have feelings and memories. The elders are the people who choose what the best is for their people in the community and sometimes they go to the receiver for help on making the right decisions. The people from the community do not see color, or have freedom on making a decision for them. There is no love, feelings, and grandparents. Jonas is assigned to be the next receiver of the community; He was trained by the giver, who transfers memories of the pain and pleasures of life, who also shows him the truth and reality that is hidden to the community. Jonas’s community does not represent the ideal of society because there are no choices or distinctions between men
Existentialism, a philosophical ideology conceptualized by Jean-Paul Sarte, encapsulates most thought processes where “the individual is obliged to make a choice as though he were choosing for all mankind” (Arnold, “Jean-Paul Sarte: Overview). Put simply, Sarte’s concept of existentialism is the thought process by which humans find themselves existing, and the analysis of their existence itself (Tulloch, Sartrian Existentialism). This analysis of existence found itself in many writings during the twentieth century, and acts a driving force in both Bishop’s “In the Waiting Room” and Lispector’s “The Daydreams of a Drunk Woman”.
To begin, the elders set apart Jonas and give him the prestigious job of “Receiver of Memory.”
In the “The Critical Overview of The Giver”, the author and analyzes the skill with which Lowry slowly reveals the unpleasant societal to norms upon which the initially appealing community is based on (Critical). She then associates another authors position Campbell by showing how she depicts the society taking advantage of the space allowed for an extended review to delineate what she sees as the exceptional advance in narrative skill shown in the
Through our society we are all raised up to be independent and unique individuals such as being ourselves and expressing who each of us are to the world. However, in the book The Giver by Lois Lowry, everyone is raised to count on one another and everyone must look and act the same. Our society differs from Jonas’s in many ways, such as the family units, birthdays, and the way we each learn about our past.
To most kids in our society, the changes in Jonas’s world would be difficult to accept because we in America value our freedom to choose and to voice our desires. Did the creator’s of Jonas’s community truly improve society as we know it today?
Conflict is a struggle between two opposing forces. In literature, there are three types of conflict: internal, external, and interpersonal. Throughout the novel, The Giver by Lois Lowry, all three types of conflict are shown. The Giver tells the story of Jonas, a twelve-year-old boy who is selected to become Receiver or Memories. Once Jonas has knowledge of the past, he realizes that the government controls every aspect of his and his family’s lives. With the help of an elder, he attempts to escape the restrictive life he had been forced to live. Readers are left rooting for Jonas despite his struggles, as he is a strong character to which many young people relate. Three examples of conflict in
The novel, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, is an everlasting story that shows the importance of individuality. This novel is about a young boy named Jonas who was elected as the Receiver of Memories, a person who is given the memories from the world that existed before their current society, Sameness. In this society there is no individualism. People can not choose who to marry, or what they want to do for a living. Over time Jonas becomes more and more wise, and realizes that the supposedly perfect community actually has some very dark and negative aspects. The author, Lois Lowry is a 76-year-old writer who focuses her writing on helping struggling teenagers become individuals. Lowry had a very tragic childhood. After both of her parents were
In today’s society there are many authors who write dystopian novels. They write these novels to give knowledge and to tell how our world is very different from dystopian life. Lois Lowry shows readers how people can suffer in dystopian society. In The Giver, Jonas’ community appears to be a utopia, but in reality it is a dystopia because everyone is under the illusion that there is freedom, dehumanization, and their strict regulations.
“Life here is so orderly, so predictable-so painless. It's what they've chosen” (Lowry 103). Imagine a world with no control over who you marry, what your job is, what you wear, or what you get to eat for every meal. This is what it’s like in The Giver by Lois Lowry. The people live in a community that is severely more controlled than ours. We have the freedom to have a pet, have as many kids as you want, and say what you want. The people in The Giver do not have those freedoms. The people in the community don’t even know what love is. In our world love is each individual’s choice, but not in The Giver. In other words, they don’t get to experience the precious parts of life, such has having a wedding and giving birth to your child. No society is perfect, but citizens of every community have an
Imagine having everything you wished for. You would live in a perfect world. But every world has imperfections and you come across to realizing...a perfect world doesn’t exist. Within time, you come from an illusion to reality. You choose your journey and it starts here. The community is a separate environment from the world and has many rules to live by. The rules can vary to be severe consequences. It includes sameness, no memories, and family unit regulations. The kids end their childhood at the age of 12 by receiving their life assignment. The main character, Jonas is chosen to be the receiver of memory. He is reliable to hold everyone's feelings, hopes, and devotions. In The Giver the author Lois Lowry uses the theme of change to reveal that growing up in “the community” is a non-stressful and organized environment but Jonas finds the real world a whole different place when he receives memories about strong feelings and hardships, intellects the word “love”, and how important it is to be an individual.
Lois Lowry’s The Giver is set in a futuristic, dichotomous society, one that is both utopian and dystopian. In response to the overwhelming destruction and chaos in the world, the Elders have attempted to create and maintain a peaceful and orderly utopia, but this security comes at a price. The citizens of the community have sacrificed their individuality and freedom. Although most adult members have some knowledge of the hypocrisies involved, they choose to perpetuate the deception, allowing the community, as a whole, to continue on blissful ignorance. When young Jonas is confronted with all the truths of the present and all the memories of the past, he must choose for himself
The result is, as praised by Jonas’ family unit, that the decisions the Elders make are never incorrect or unsuitable. They seem omniscient, and this strengthens their claim to power, their right to make decisions for the whole community as they are excellent at it. As has been shown above, the novel contains various forms of oppression. In order for “people” to express their individuality and humanity, freedom of choice is essential. Dehumanization is observed in The Giver’s society, and life within the communities becomes deformed, manipulated, and far from being a utopia. Infact, due to all the dehumanization, fear, surveillance and inequality shown in this society, it now strongly resembles dystopian one.
Individuality is one of the key components of reaching the utopian standard. However, in The Giver, the community rejects the idea of individuality and instead focuses on developing Sameness, therefore initiating a form of control by allowing them to not express their own personality to shine, and alternately forcing them to contort into these soft putty-shaped beings with zero individuality at all. Conversations between Jonas and The Giver that occur throughout the novel informs the audience that the community lacks a sense of uniqueness and results in an absence of options to choose from.
Over the years immigration has continued to be a discussion of intense national debate. The effect of immigration have been looked at as positive and negative. The economy and government has been affected in a multitude of ways. The immigrants are offered sources for work and also economic support for them and their families yet many American citizens are without jobs and struggle to keep a household. Also many Americans do feel as if they are being pushed to the side when it comes to availability in work sources and the taxes people pay are going to the non natives who don’t work but only live off of others benefits. Contrary to that, the number of immigrant men who have a job seems to be higher than native-born men.