Emma Ashley Ms. Treacy English 8, Section 3 17 October 2023 The Hazards to Perfection Hannah Withall Smith once said, “There is no happiness in the world equal to the happiness of being good.” This quote explains how one cannot be truly happy while living in a state of uniformity. The Giver, written by Lois Lowry, portrays a novel that is seemingly a utopia, when in reality it is a corrupt dystopia. Throughout the book, civilians are forced to follow the strict and harsh rules in order to maintain an indistinguishable society. The Giver demonstrates a society that diminishes the individuality of oneself and makes them into someone they aren't. The Giver depicts the dangers of a perfectly equal world through everyone being the same, the government being an autocracy, …show more content…
This is shown when The Giver, discussing the community, says, “They don’t want change. Life here is so orderly, so predictable - so painless, it's what they’ve chosen. Lowry 103. This quote explains how the community is not aware of how treacherous it is for everyone to be identical. Furthermore, in Document D by Chris Madden, it addresses how everyone continuously follows in the footsteps of everyone else. Stated differently, when one person follows another, other people follow. As a result, when people follow each other and try to become an impersonator, it eliminates one's distinction from others. In addition, the dangers of seeking a perfectly equal world are also shown through the government being an autocracy. This is illustrated through The Giver saying, “Our people made that choice to go to Sameness. Before my time, before the previous time, back and back and back. We relinquished color when we relinquished sunshine and did away with the difference. We gained control of many things, but we had to let go of others.” (Lowry 95). This quote demonstrates how the government made that decision without realizing the impact it had on the
In “The Giver”, written by Lois Lowry, one of the major theme’s is “sameness”, which effects very deeply the life of citizens in the community based on perfection.Sameness in somewhere just as this community, can either cause disadvantages or advantages at the same time, also including the loss of diversity.
The Giver by Lois Lowry is about a community where its goal is to make their citizens the same. As a result, the community controls/limits what their citizens have and do. But, the people of the world we live in today have the power to choose and value our differences. Their world greatly differs from ours in several ways.
After reading The Giver, it can be understood that our world and their community has many differences, but there are also some similarities.
Sameness within The Giver Imagine living within a world where one can't choose their job, where at a young age one is assigned by a group of elders. Imagine a place in which one cannot choose that special person to be their wife or husband, a place where nobody is special. Visualize a world where one cannot have their own children, where somebody has to take care of children that is biologically not their own. In The Giver by Lois Lowry, this place exists every single day.
In Lois Lowry’s The Giver, there is great emphasis put on the concerns about society and humankind. Some of the main themes found throughout the book, as well as other novels by Lowry, all relate back to these concerns. She displays the importance of human emotion and individuality along side the fact that utopias are non existent. In the so called Utopia where the main character Jonas resides, sameness takes precedence over uniqueness.
(This is just my body paragraph) The system that the society prides itself most on is the system of Sameness. Sameness was originally intended to bring about order by eliminating differences between citizens of the society. In the beginning of The Giver, Jonas notes that after Asher shows up tardy to a class, he “...remained standing to make his public apology, as was required” (Lowry 3). The fact that a public apology was required shows that citizens take Sameness very seriously.
The theme the author seems to be attempting to convey through the story is that "Individuals should be cherished". The book shows that while unification can result in a peaceful and an altogether more understanding community, it can also restrict individuality. Individuality and order cannot be separated and are deeply tied together. Without unique attributes that make each person diverse from anyone else, a plain and almost boring society is formed. With everyone following regulations and laws, people have the same opinions and thoughts as their neighbors. This would result in a setting like that of The Giver's. With no different thoughts, citizens of such a population would eventually grow blind to events like Release. Alternately, having
Football coach Lou Holtz, a previous Hall of Fame football player, once said, “I follow three rules: Do the right thing, do the best you can, and always show people you care.” This is reflected in Lois Lowry’s novel The Giver. In the novel, there a utopian society where the government has enforced ‘Sameness’ on everyone so no one is different from others.
The message of how differences in an individual has the power to go against a whole civilization of similarity is cleverly portrayed by Lowry using a range of techniques. By going against the grain of society in the novel, Jonas was able to ultimately save his community and restore memories of the past life, one with emotions, pain and most importantly difference. “The biggest challenge in life is to be yourself in a world that is trying to make you like everyone else”. The Giver is a fictional novel by Louis Lowry that revolves around a boy named Jonas growing up in a utopian world, a world without pain, suffering or violence. The author uses various techniques to convey to the audience how differences in an individual has the power to rebel or go against a whole civilisation of similarity.
The setting of The Giver takes place in a fictional community known as the “Sameness”. Life here is supposed to be "perfect" because there is no pain or suffering. They don’t have to take
The Giver is a dystopian-fiction book by Lois Lowry, that seems that it is a utopian society, it is actually dystopian, Jonas realizes that the Elders has taken away everyone’s freedoms and individual-ities, for the so-called common good of the community it becomes more and more evident that the community is a bad place in which to live. When Jonas realize how important they are, he could not take the fact that the people in the community are
This is where sameness comes in sameness is where everything is the same nobody is different. One reason how this is so bad is because you literally don't get to anything new. The second reason is because no one has their differences every one is the same has the same clothes, number of children and or
This theme is connected to all the characters of the novel and runs throughout the entire work. The Giver states “the choice to sameness...gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others” (Lowry 95). In the novel the community attempted to protect the citizens from the pain of wrong choices. Therefore, they take all choice away from citizens.
Imagine a community that guarantees you a secure future in a society where everything is the same. You happen to receive a once in a lifetime opportunity to become a resident, would you take the offer? The Giver, by Lois Lowry, is a fictional novel about a boy named Jonas who struggles to live in a community with Sameness. Sameness is where all of the aspects of a society are the same. Residents of the community never experience pain due to the presence of Sameness and everyone abides by the same rules. Sameness in society is an advantage because Sameness prohibits abuse between citizens and directs people to success.
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.