Contradiction In The Giver By Lois Lowry

If every society on Earth were perfect, the world would be a contradiction in many ways. In the book The Giver, by Lois Lowry, the main character Jonas lives in a community where all actions, words, and activities, are monitored by a government. When you turn 12 years of age, you are given an assignment that you must complete for the remainder of your life. When Jonas and his friends are getting ready to be given their jobs, Jonas gets a unique and honorable job known as the Receiver of Memory. With this position, he discovers many vile secrets that the government hides and he plots ways to tear it down. He goes on an arduous journey to not save only himself, but the entire community from this wicked scheme. In The Giver Jonas’s world is a

For instance, Lowry says “The Giver grasped his shoulders firmly. Jonas fell silent and stared at him. ‘Listen to me Jonas. They can’t help it. They know nothing” (Lowry 191). Here, the author is saying, everyone with jobs don’t have any memories and they don’t know what they are doing. This shows that they took away everyone’s memories so they could have population control, everything goes their way, and no revolts. To add, Jonas is talking about how “ ‘My Instructors in science and technology have taught us about how the brain works,’ Jonas told him eagerly. ‘It’s full of electrical impulses. It’s like a computer. If you stimulate one part of the brain with an electrode, it-’ He stopped talking. He could see an odd look on The Giver’s face. ‘They know nothing,’ The Giver said bitterly” (Lowry 132). That is to say, Jonas is talking about his teachers and how they taught him how the brain works while The Giver is talking about how they aren’t educated. Again, this means they brainwashed the professors at Jonas’s school so the information the kids learn will be useless in overthrowing the government or the elders. In essence, the elders in Jonas’s world contain thoughts from citizens making a very robotic

More specifically, Jonas was with The Giver when he remembered, Once, when he had been a Four, he had said, just prior to the midday meal at school, ‘I’m starving.’ Immediately he had been taken aside for a brief private lesson in language precision. He was not starving, it was pointed out. He was hungry. No one in the community would ever be starving” (Lowry 89). Here, the author is saying, there is an unlimited supply of food so no one will ever have to starve. However, to make sure that no one starves, they have to put down children that haven’t even been able to see the world so the population doesn’t get out of hand. Solving the problem of hunger by lethally injecting humans is not a good solution. Similarly, nothing goes wrong because “We don’t dare to let people make choices of their own,’ ‘Not safe?’ The Giver suggested. ‘Definitely not safe,’ Jonas said with certainty. ‘What if they were allowed to choose their own mate? And chose wrong? ‘Or what if,’ he went on, almost laughing at the absurdity, ‘they chose their own jobs?’ “ (Lowry 124). In other words, no bad decisions are ever created in Jonas’s community. Nevertheless, since no one is allowed to make any decisions, all feelings are sucked out of people’s lives. Not being able to choose your partner leads to no real love and not choosing your job could