Lord, Elyse. "Overview of The Giver." Novels for Students. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Literature Resource Center. Web. 27 Mar. 2016. Elyse Lord is one of the many critics who describe “The Giver” as terrifying but offering “hope and a constructive view” of the Utopian world in the book. She explains that other critics praise the book with many awards such as the Newberry Medal. Lord goes on to reason that the story is favored by different readers for its complexity, symbolism, metaphors, ambiguous ending, and can be compared similarly to classic science fiction like “Brave New World” and “Fahrenheit 451.” Contradicting this statement, Lord says that ‘librarians’, ‘educators’, and ‘students’ debate “The Giver” to be censored from public schools around the world because of its graphic scenes and ideas of infanticide and euthanasia. This includes the time Jonas witnessed his father murder a baby and throw it down a trash chute in cold blood. This is ironical compared to the language, emotion, and behaviors being censored in Jonas’s ‘Utopian’ society. Lord argues this through Anna Cerbasi of Port Saint Lucie, Florida, who asked the school board to remove a book that was about a family murdering their child for crying at night and called the book inappropriate for the sixth grade. Lord raises the question of who is to “decide which books are appropriate for which children,” and argues that it cannot be answered with not one but the many books integrated in school curricula that compose
For the first time, he heard something that he knew to be music. He heard people singing. Looking at the house with the colorful lights and people singing on the inside Jonas approached. He politely knocked on the door and a very familiar man answered the door. The man in the doorway was The Giver. Jonas was happy to see him again.
The chapters 1-5 in “The Giver” takes us through the details of the “utopian” society in which Jonas lives. We find elaborate details of what this society believed in, and how was their day to day life. The Committee of Elders keeps the community captivated and controls meticulously to the minor to microscopic details of the society. Chapters 1-5 of “The Giver” keeps me very intrigued and bewildered, because it made me wonder, who would ever make the animals of the earth as mystical creatures. Why do they make animals like the hippo and elephant imaginary to them? Do they feel that if the animals are not regarded mystical they can cause ominous results to their society? I also found it strange how Jonas is fascinated by the pale eye color when
Jonas is an eleven year old boy who lives in a community where everything is the same. Jonas has a flashback seeing a jet fly over the community, and everyone was frightened. The speaker comes on and tells everyone that a pilot in training was lost, and was to be released. Jonas says that being released was an “Overwhelming statement of failure.” Jonas' family has to tell their feelings every evening. His sister Lily talks about a visiting group of sevens’ who went to the school who had not obeyed the rules. She implied that they behaved like animals. Jonas’ father, who is a nurturer, tells them about a baby boy who doesn't seem to be growing and developing, as he should. He then states that the baby may be released. Lily wants to
Sara Smolinsky, protagonist in the novel Breaad Givers, is one of the most successful characters in the book. Although her father, Reb, is financially dependent on his four daughters, Sara is determined to become an otherwise independent woman, contrasting with her sisters, who follow in their father’s wishes of becoming a wife and/or mother. Analysis of the book reveals that, despite Reb Smolinsky’s oppressiveness and dependence on the rest of his family, Sara’s success can be attributed to her morals of independence, extreme determination, and her impoverished youth. Sara shows her morals of independence and determination while working towards he college degree, and her troubled childhood is explained in the beginnings of the novel. While Sara’s circumstances are extremely difficult, she proves that anything is possible if one is willing to work for it.
In our world, people use different languages to communicate with each other and to interact with one another to get to know each other or to just talk. Meanwhile in the giver there is a language known as the language of Utopia. In the language of utopia they use words like nurturer elder or release. These words have meanings in our world to that are very similar, and consist of the same things we do in our daily life. These are the meanings of them.
Some things that Jonas’s community lost when they went to the “sameness” is, snow, sun, sky.
“Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of progress”- John F. Kennedy. Pacific Trails planning committee is debating whether to create a utopian society based on conformity or individuality and they want to be sure to decide the right choice for an ideal community. Individuality is the better choice because there’s a greater life experience and there are more contributions to society.
A really fascinating scene in the book so far which I’m sure many people would find interesting is the game of catch that Jonas and his friend Asher were playing with an apple. Jonas found the game to be boring, catch, throw, catch, throw. It is an effortless game. But Jonas noticed something special about that apple. He followed the path of the apple a lot of times and noticed that the apple changed, although just for a moment. It happened four times so Jonas decided to investigate the case of “The changing Apple: which was incredible. It changed in mid-air but when landed in his hand, was just a normal apple. It continuously happened which made Jonas more into it.
The Giver by Lois Lowry is an outstanding book that I personally enjoyed a lot. It amazes me the difference between our society and Jonas’s .Jonas lives in a society that if any of us were there we would apply for release!
Jonas and his family live in a community called “Sameness”, everyone is assigned a role in the community when they turn 12. Jonas dad is a nutritionist, a person who is responsible for babies.when a baby named Gabe got sick they adopted him into the family unit. They treated him like he was a part of their family unit. When Jonas finally turned 12, he was chosen to be the new receiver of memory. he was trained by the Giver.
Jonas thinks that kids in the ceremony of 12 shoudn't take the pills. When jonas grow up he began to change in many ways he had to take he pills that everyone else had to take . jonas liked the way he felt before he had started taking them pills and jonas was wow by the sitution.
In the novel “The Giver” as written by Lois Lowry, clearly exemplifies that a possible theme for interpretation can be your feelings and thoughts are what make you who you are and without them we are nothing but a body.
As the sled slowed Jonas had checked his surroundings and the first thing he glimpsed was a house with a smoky chimney, indicating someone was in fact in there. “Look Gabe we did it,” Jonas said still observing the small house.
Jonas feels uneasy, but he knows that "frightened" is not the correct word. He has been truly frightened only once before, when a plane flew off course over the community a year ago. During the incident, an announcement over the speakers ordered everyone inside, and Jonas had been afraid as he saw the silent, waiting community. However, the speakers soon explained that a Pilot-in-Training had made a navigational mistake and that the pilot would be released from the community for his error, which is the worst possible fate for members of the community. Upon recalling this event, Jonas confirms that his current feelings do not represent fear. He remembers that his teachers have taught him to be careful with his terminology, unlike his friend Asher, who often uses the wrong word, and he decides that rather than feeling frightened, he feels apprehensive about upcoming events this December.
The antagonist in the novel The Giver is the Committee of Elders, which is the government of Jonas’s community. In dystopian novels, the antagonists are usually the leaders of the government oppressing the protagonist, such as President Snow in The Hunger Games. This is the same in The Giver, as the Committee of Elders leads the government and oppresses the citizens of their community to “sameness.” This is the opposition to Jonas’s goal in the book, which is to give the citizens of the community color and love, and get away from “sameness.” Therefore, the Committee of Elders is the antagonist in the novel The Giver.